[ALU-discuss] ALU and the next ILC

[Daniel Herring]

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009, Stelian Ionescu wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-10-28 at 07:43 +0100, Ernst van Waning wrote:
>>
>> The series of International Lisp Conferences, organized by ALU since
>> 2002, have been very successful.  We have visited the US west coast
>> (ILC02, ILC05), the US east coast (ILC03, ILC09) and England (ILC07).
>>
>> Before making definite steps in organizing the next ILC, we would like
>> to know your ideas of where we might best organize it.  Please join us
>> at ALU-discuss at alu.org and ALU-announce at alu.org and help us choose the
>> next site.
>
> Jeremy Jones asked this same question at this year's ECLM in Hamburg and
> consensus was in favour of Tokyo. From Europe, an airflight to the US or
> Japan costs pretty much the same and I'd rather go to Tokyo.


Trying to stir up more discussion...

I have heard some post-ELCM conversations regarding the next ILC location. 
My impression is that Japanese lispers are a bit hesitant to host the 
conference.  While they don't mind the idea, nobody has stepped forward to 
be an organizer.  When asked, Kuroda scoped out a couple potential sites 
(e.g. Kyoto), but he would need other locals to take major roles.  Most 
interest has been from foreigners (folks in Europe or the US) who cannot 
do the actual coordination work.

An ILC in Japan would present some unique challenges.  Apparently, there 
are up to 50 locals who might attend a conference.  However, most would 
only attend if the speeches were translated live; their presentations 
would have the opposite problem.  Both papers and the website would also 
need translation.  To avoid rush-hour crowds, it is important to have the 
conference facility located near the hotels.


As ILC09 emphasized, a large local lisp community is beneficial to any ILC 
location.  Hence "traditional sites" are perennial favorites.  One person 
expressed the sentiment that, with annual ELCMs keeping Europe busy, it 
might not be a bad idea to host ILCs near the other large lisp populations 
(North America).  Major cities in Canada may be close enough to qualify. 
There was also some speculation about trying to colocate ILC with another 
conference.


So far, ILCs have centered around Common Lisp communities.  Are there any 
Clojure/Dylan/Scheme/... people who would like an ILC in their area?


To modify Ernst's original question, is anyone interested in organizing 
the next ILC in their area?

Later,
Daniel