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Riga, Latvia
Proposal for OOoCon


Section 1 – Mandatory Information

Proposed Date(s)

November 12-13

Location (country, city)

Latvia, Riga

Latvia lies between Estonia to the north, Russia and Belarus to the east, the Baltic Sea to the west and Lithuania to the south. It is the ʻcentralʼ Baltic country in both size, business activity, communications and geographical location.

Riga is emerging as a top congress and conference city in Europe thanks to its strategic location, its rich and exiting culture, its unspoiled nature and its easy access by air from around Europe and around the globe.

Latvia has a long history of technological innovation with highlights including the Minox spy camera and one of Europe's largest pre-war telephone networks. Today, Latvia continues this tradition with original scientific research and by hosting a number of companies that use open source software in embedded and professional solutions. Latvia has an astonishing transition, going from s Soviet republic to a member of the EU and the NATO alliance.

Special visa or entry requirements (e.g. vaccinations)

Visa depend on where you come from. Nationals of:

Andorra
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cyprus
the Czech Republic
Denmark
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macao
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Monaco
New Zealand
the Netherlands
Nicaragua
Norway
Panama
Paraguay
Poland
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
the United Kingdom
the United States of America
Uruguay
Vatican City
Venezuela

do not require a visa to enter Latvia.

Nationals of all other countries need a visa.

No vaccinations are needed

Conference venue(s) (e.g. university campus, municipal buildings)

The Reval Hotel Latvia offers the largest conference and events centre in both Latvia and the Baltic States, and is one of the largest conference facilities in Northern Europe. The hotel has hosted numerous Open Source events including Sun Microsystems conferences, Java events.

Conference facilities (e.g. WiFi, video streaming/recording)

Conference center highlights:

Accommodation (especially any low cost hostels etc)

Riga offers accommodation for every taste and budget. Most hotels have been built or fully renovated during the last 3-5 years and are conveniently located within walking distance to the Old Town, conference venues, and tourist attractions. Please refer to these sites for more information:

http://hostelworld.com
http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/latvia/riga/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g274967-Riga-Hotels.html
http://www.booking.com/city/lv/riga.en.html

External transport links (nearest airport(s))

Internal transport links (within city)

Riga is very compact city with key destinations and attractions within walking distance.

It features an extensive network of inexpensive bus, tram and train lines plus taxi service.

Team Lead (main contact person)

Mr. Evijs Taube, Sun Microsystems

Team Members

Ms. Madara Greiziņa-Kuzmina, Open Technology Association of Latvia (LATA)

Ms. Santa Rutka, IBM Latvija

Mr. Michael Dexter, Linux Fund

Ms. Inga Mičule

Mr. Juris Pētersons, Jazz Communications

Ms. Linda Vītola, Jazz Communications

Local events that are taking place in parallel (or immediately before/after)

No known conflicts

Section 2 – Proposal

In 400 words or less, answer this question:

Why should the Community award OOoCon 2009/2010 to your team?

The opportunity to organize OOoCon2009 in Riga is an opportunity to broaden ODF and OpenOffice.org popularity and recognition in Latvia, Eastern Europe and around the globe.

This year offers a special opportunity to promote open source in Latvia and the region as we face our most difficult economic crisis since regaining our independence. Our public and private sector institutions face unprecedented budgetary challenges and would benefit greatly from adopting open source software, especially under the free-download/enterprise support model offered by Sun.

As a venue, Riga offers and unparalleled combination: truly original and preserved architecture and a wealth of experiences within walking distance. Riga's Old town and beautiful city centre is compact, romantic and full of fun opportunities.

Riga benefits:

Our Riga OOoCon 2009 team have already laid the groundwork for this event: the LATA conference 2008 was a major success with nearly 300 attendees and 16 speakers from around the world. We also organized Software Freedom Day 2008 in partnership with the Sun/MySQL team during their world wide developers conference in Riga, during which the team was able to benefit from Riga's wide selection of culinary options, entertainment and health services.

Let OOoCon 2009 in Riga serve as a strong base for the future growth of OO.o and FOSS recognition and adoption in Latvia, Baltics and all of Eastern Europe!

Attachments

A copy of the proposal in ODF

A copy of the proposal in PDF