Orvieto, Italy
Proposal for OOoCon

Section 1 – Mandatory Information

Proposed Date(s)

NOVEMBER 3-4-5, 2009

Location (country, city)

ORVIETO (ITALY)

The city of Orvieto, with its 21,000 inhabitants, is one of the most charming cities of art in Italy. Located in Umbria, it's 100 km far from Rome and 140 km from Florence and easy to reach by plane, train and car. It is a center for courses leading to university degrees (Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering), post-graduate courses (Architecture, Health Psychology, Archeology), as well as specialization courses of prestigious Italian universities.

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

EU citizens do NOT normally require a visa to enter Italy. Also many Western Countries do not require a visa to enter Italy these include: USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa and others. A full explanation of this given on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website.

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

Two structures are at disposal for the organization: The Palazzo del Popolo Conference Centre and the Palazzo dei Sette. They are both located in the heart of the city, within walking distance from the main hotels. They are all equipped with wireless-lan (for each participant), amplification systems, audiovisual systems for projection and recording, teleconferencing systems. Every speech will be recorded in audio and video and a videostreaming service for the OOoCon will be setup. Several rooms will be available for public and private group meetings. Structures are close together and located in the city center. Everything is within walking distance therefore people can walk around and enjoy several pubs, restaurants and shops available.

Palazzo del Popolo (Centro Congressi)

• “Sala dei 400”
  • seats 350 people
  • size 30 x 13 mt
  • loc. First floor
• “Sala Etrusca”
  • 120 people in plenary seating, it can be divided into 2 or 3 smaller independent hall for group of 15/50 participants
  • size 15 x 10 mt
  • loc. underground floor
• “Sala Expo” - Meeting area
  • seats 200 people
  • size 22 x 10 mt
  • loc. ground floor
  • uses:
    • wireless connection area
    • refreshment area
    • coffee - wine bar
    • sponsors area
    • use of workstations (with GNU/Linux and OpenOffice.Org) for free
• Sala relatori – Spokesperson hall
  • up to 12 people reunions or 25 people meetings
• Sala stampa – Press hall
  • up to 20 people meetings

Palazzo dei sette

• Atrio 1 – Atrium 1
  • size 9 x 6 mt
  • use for sponsors area
  • loc. ground floor
• Atrio 2 – Atrium 2
  • size 12 x 9 mt
  • use for sponsors area
  • loc. ground floor
• “Sala del Governatore”

• • loc. First floor
• “Sala delle Capriate”

• • loc. Second floor
• “Salone del 2° piano”

The Centro Studi “Città di Orvieto”

• Classrooms with seats up to 100 people
• loc. Ground floor

Conference fee

Both the structure (Palazzo del Popolo – 1700 Euro / day, Palazzo dei Sette – 1500 Euro / day) will be placed at the Conference disposal by the Comune of Orvieto (City Hall) for free.

The participation will be free (as in freedom) and free (as in beer).

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

All conference rooms are equipped with free WiFi for each participant, amplification systems, audiovisual systems for projection and recording, teleconferencing systems. A professional team will take in charge video recording and video streaming of all speaker presentations.

Accommodation (especially any low cost hostels etc)

Hotel and B&B accommodation: the offer is particularly rich and range from 25 to 70 euros (special prices for the participants). Special conditions and discounts, for all the participants are available for various types of services. All accommodations are at the walking distance from conference location.

External transport links (nearest airport(s))

By air

Roma Fiumicino and Roma Ciampino the two main airport. Low cost flights are also available from the main airlines.

International Airport Leonardo da Vinci (Rome Fiumicino) is about 130 km far from Orvieto.

From Fiumicino Airport, Trains “Leonardo Express” run every day, every 30 minutes from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and take you directly to the Roma Termini Train Station in 31 minutes.

Ciampino Airport is about 150 km from Orvieto. From the airport buses take you directly to the Roma Ciampino train station. From here take a train to Roma Termini.

Orvieto is very easy to reach by train from Rome because is directly connected.

For more information, please visit the websites:

http://www.adr.it

http://www.trenitalia.com

To facilitate SUN's OpenOffice.org developers and other groups:

Bus transfers from meeting points (i.e. Fiumicino airport and Ciampino airport) to Orvieto will be organized.

Flight rates (in Euros)

CITY	COST
London – Rome - London	From 126
Paris – Rome - Paris	From 116
Hamburg – Rome - Hamburg	From 164
Beijing – Rome - Beijing	From 899
Sydney – Rome - Sydney	From 1075,54
New York – Rome – New York	From 703,25
Dublin – Rome - Dublin	From 153
San Francisco – Rome – San Francisco	From 1602,30
Cape Town – Rome – Cape Town	From 648,64
Tokyo – Rome – Tokyo	From 1010,16

By Train:

From Roma Termini Station (direction Florence) a train each hour .

Trip duration: around 1 hour

From Florence (direction Rome) a train each hour.

Trip duration: around 1 hour and half, two hours.

For more information and for the train schedules please visit the website http://www.trenitalia.com

By car:

Orvieto is located quite at the same distance from Florence and Rome on the the A1 Highway. From South, take the A1 highway Florence direction and from North, take the A1 Highway Rome Direction. Orvieto exit is about 4 km from the city centre.

Internal transport links (within city)

No Reply

Team Lead (main contact person)

• Davide Dozza, Andrea Pescetti (Associazione PLIO)
• Diego Frascati (OrvietoLUG)

Team Members

• Marco Ciammella, Carlo Villani, Vittorio Gaddi – OrvietoLUG
• Flavio Aime, Paolo Mantovani, Roberto Galoppini, Italo Vignoli, Francesca Beatrice Cice, Maurizio Berti, Daniela Volta, Andrea Sanavia - (IT native-lang project and Associazione PLIO)
• Carlo Tonelli - Municipality of Orvieto
• Paolo Scattoni - University Roma La Sapienza

Event organization team

• Associazione PLIO - Progetto Linguistico Italiano OpenOffice.org (it native-lang project)
• Associazione OrvietoLUG – Orvieto Linux User Group
• Municipality of Orvieto – Assessorato all'informatizzazione
• Fondazione per il Centro Studi “Città di Orvieto”
• Consorzio SIR Umbria – Servizio informativo regionale
• CCOS Umbria - Centro di Competenza Regionale sul l'Open Source

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

SMAU International Exhibition of Information & communication technology October 15-18
Linux Day national event, last saturday of October.

Section 2 – Proposal

In 400 words or less, answer this question:

The city of Orvieto, with its 21,000 inhabitants, is one of the most charming cities of art in Italy. Located in Umbria, it's 100 km far from Rome and 140 km from Florence and easy to reach by plane, train and car. It is a center for courses leading to university degrees (Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering), post-graduate courses (Architecture, Health Psychology, Archeology), as well as specialization courses of prestigious Italian universities.

The plateau with its tufa cliff walls defines the area of the historical center of Orvieto – a stupendous palimpsest of Etruscan, Medieval and Renaissance structures. The city is known for its efficient congress facilities and a qualified service network for hospitality. Restaurants, wine and champagne bars and pubs offer a variety of the fine wines and foods for which Orvieto is famous. These features together with the intact environment, pleasant climate and a system of alternative mobility make the city ideal for meetings, seminars and study days of all kinds.

Not by chance Orvieto, world capital of good living (“Cittaslow”), has hosted important national and international appointments: Slow Food World Congress, Hydrogencities foundation (with J. Rifkin) and it is site of prestigious cultural events during the year which include Umbria Jazz Winter, Barzini Award for the special correspondent (in collaboration with the Corriere della Sera), the International Award for Human Rights, outstanding Art exhibits, Conventions and post-graduate studies of American universities.

The political-administrative context is particularly favorable for open source culture. Umbria – the region in which Orvieto is located – was one of the first Italian regions to approve a law on “informatics pluralism” and to have instituted (L.R. n. 11 of 2006) a Center of Competence on Open Source that works to favor the introduction of open source software in the Public Administration and in the schools.

The Municipal Administration totally supports the candidature of Orvieto as an OOoCon2009 center, already translated into precise commitments for logistic and organizational collaboration.

We would like to introduce some improvements with the OooCon2009:

• an Italian session with simultaneous translation will be kept in parallel to the traditional ones in order to attract more developers and companies from the country to join OOo community and exploit main speakers presence
• a special session marteking to developers will be arranged
• community events will receive a special attention

Attachments

A copy of the proposal in ODT