ApacheCon Europe 2012 is taking place in the conference center at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena. This is a slight change to many recent ApacheCons, as well as to ApacheCon North America 2013, in that the conference venue is not attached to a hotel. Instead, with help from the kind sponsorship of SAP, we have a large conference venue all to ourselves! This page provides you with some more information on the venue, what to expect, and how to get yourself there.
- Transport between Frankfurt Airport/Stuttgart Airport and the Venue
- More about the Venue
- Information on Sinsheim
- Information on Heidelberg
- Map of the area
- Accommodation
About the Venue
The venue for ApacheCon Europe 2012 is a change from past events (and from ApacheCon North America 2013), in that it's not taking place in a hotel. Instead, thanks to the kind sponsorship of SAP, we'll be in the lovely setting of the in the conference center at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena. We have the whole venue to ourselves, and a lot more flexibility (not to mention lower ticket prices!)
The conference venue is spread over several floors of the "Business Club". We have space for a number of different tracks, each of between 50 and 200 people, allowing us to match different tracks with rooms of the appropriate size for them. In addition, we also have the ability to link everything together for large keynote sessions across all of our attendees. Across the spaces on the different floors, we'll have space for breakout sessions, coding sprints and hackathons, project discussions, meetups and more. We're looking forward to seeing the great things our community can do with this wonderful space!
We aim to have more details on the conference venue setup, along with a wide range of photos, available at the end of September. In the mean time, you can get a lot of the information from the venue website if you understand German.
Because the conference isn't based in a hotel, a common question is about where to stay while attending. There are a small number of hotels very close by to the venue, for those who prefer not to travel far. All available information about them is listed on the accommodation page. Alternately, there are several large towns and cities a short trip away by train or car, which offer a wide range of accommodation options to suit every budget. Please see the accommodation page for more information on these possibilities.
If you're wondering about the best way to get to the venue, please take a look at our transport page, which includes information on getting to Sinsheim from Frankfurt and Stuttgart Airports, as well as driving directions and other transport information.
Sinsheim
Sinsheim is a medium sized town in the Rhein-Neckar area of Germany, with a population of about 35,000 people. It is probably best known for its football team (whose stadium we're using for the conference), and it's Technical Museum, which is a short walk from the venue.
The town has a surprisingly large number of restaurants, bars and cafes. None big enough for the whole conference, but plenty enough with space for a project to retire to of an evening! For those of you who speak German, there's a lot of information on the town's tourist information site. For those who don't, our community has been putting together a wiki page on Sinsheim, which will hopefully prove useful, and everyone can contribute to! If you're wondering about where your favourite projects will be heading to after hours, please take a look at our Evening Meetups page
Map of Sinsheim and the area around the venue
Click here for a larger version of the map
Click here to view it as a standalone map.
Other Attractions Close By
Also, see any specific cities listed under “Venue and Area” at the head of the page.
Peter Junge says: Not too far away from Sinsheim is Hornberg Castle which belonged to Götz von Berlichingen. Thanks, Peter!
If you have knowledge of the area and would like to contribute tips or reviews please let us know.