Save the dates - Fixfest 2019 in Berlin

When is anyone thinking about booking for this? Or have you already? And are you thinking of staying in an apartment?

Just wanted to flag Janet’s poll for UK-based people interested in going (to get a sense of numbers and who would be interested in a travel subsidy):

Please do complete the poll :slight_smile:

I believe the event tickets will be released some time in July. I imagine many people will book transport/accommodation at that point

As an initial suggestion for where to stay …

This place offers dormitory rooms at reasonable prices not too far away from TUB
https://www.smart-stay.de/en
It works out at ~€22,46 per person per night for a dormitory of 6 people.

BTW there is a youth hostel not far away but the reviews are variable to say the least.

Of course, it would be nicer to stay with people: do we have any contacts with spare floor space?

Good news! My colleague @Nebojsa_Adzic will go to this event !

@Janet, we will need some help ($) to organize the trip.
You mentioned possible Restart subsidies and help for fundraising, we’d love to know more.

BTW, Neb will stay in Berlin a few more days for vacation. Maybe it’s good to know, if it can affect the flight ticket price.

2 Likes

Can we have a quick poll as to who’s going to be going from the UK by train?
I’m thinking about asking Eurostar and/or DB about group discounts.

  • I’m thinking of going from the UK by train.
  • Not.

0 voters

BTW it’s about 10 hours total from London St. Pancras station to Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

The Restart team will be mostly travelling by train. That would be really helpful, it’s the next thing on our Fixfest logistics list. DB has a customer service number in the UK, and I know they have group discounts for trips originating in Germany.

1 Like

… thinking about it, I might make a week or 2 of it & stay a week in Berlin and/or stay over in Köln… I’ll be running short of Echte Kölnwasser by then :grinning::

:tada: Registration for Fixfest is now open!

Tickets are free, so please do register for tickets now and :arrow_right_hook: forward the confirmation email to fixfest@therestartproject.org.

Once you’ve done that, we’ll get in touch about travel - we have limited funding to bring participants from outside the UK and outside Europe. Those who have already been in touch (on this thread and elsewhere) will get priority.

It’s worth noting that the main eligibility criterion for travel subsidies is having all your Fixometer data up to date .

In terms of running your own session, the programme has been largely finalised but there’s a significant portion set aside for ‘unconference’ style sessions:

An important part of Fixfest will be the unconference sessions we will hold during the whole of Saturday and on Sunday morning. Here you can spontaneously discuss topics, present your projects and discuss issues that had to be cut short in other formats.

1 Like

:rotating_light: Just sharing that registration is filling up — at ~120 participants from 14 countries and five continents. We are now booking travel for our registered delegates, this needs to be complete on Monday/Tuesday so we can block-book accommodation. If we’ve emailed you about travel — i.e. a free trip to Berlin — please respond ASAP.

@Janet what’s happening wrt Restart’s travel & accommodation?
I’ll need to book my (eccentric) travel ASAP to avoid fare hikes.

Another quick announcement…

:mega: pre-Fixfest meetup

We’re organising a pre-Fixfest online meetup here on the forum as a chance to get to know others from the network who are going.

The first step is to set a date and time. If you’re interested, please vote on the poll here:

Just to say that all our travel has been arranged — if you asked for support for travel and have not received travel confirmation, please get in touch ASAP. (@Dave we’ve been in touch separately about your train journey.)

We’ve made a group reservation for everyone in our supported delegation here Hotel Kudamm (precise location :world_map: ). We will be in touch closer to the date about room allocations.

If you are self-paying we would encourage you to book at our hotel, but here’s another good alternative.

We’ll share more on public transport in Berlin and transfers from the airport for those who are flying, but please feel free to start exploring this on your own. We’ve found in past that Berlin is an extremely traveller-friendly city.

Please be patient with us, as we are a very small team doing our best to sort out trains, flights, hotels and visas for the group. :pray:

2 Likes

Fixfest FAQ :point_left:

Turns out, it’s all there. Highly recommend you read. (Our hotel is meters away from the venue, so virtually the same directions apply.)

From the train station Zoologischer Garten, you can easily walk to the venue.

From Berlin main station (Hauptbahnhof)
Take every S-Bahn direction Spandau, Westkreuz or Potsdam (3, 5, 7 or 9) to the train station Zoologischer Garten. The ride takes 6 minutes.

From airport Tegel
Take the bus X9 for 24 minutes until “S+U Zoologischer Garten”.

From airport Schönefeld
Take S-Bahn S9 to “Zoologischer Garten”. The ride takes approximately 50 minutes.

Food, drink and socialising

We’ll look into food and drink but if anyone would like to present some ideas for Friday and Saturday night eating or drinking, please do :wink:

Also ideas about social activities potentially for those sticking around on Sunday afternoon also welcome.

UPDATE We’ve started a new thread about fun stuff

2 Likes

I’ve had to cancel my ticket for this as I can’t make it any more. I hope you all have a great time and report back please x

2 Likes

Fixfest train UK train travellers, because we all have tight connections, here is the “interchange” exit in Brussels, from the Eurostar (c/o Seat 61)
Belgium-midi-sud

Down the escalator, walk a couple of meters on this escalator to an ICE Cologne platform

Once you arrive in Cologne (@ugo is currently on a broken down train somewhere in Germany before Cologne!)…

High-speed and long distance trains such as IC, ICE, EC use platforms 1-9. The ICE trains to Brussels & the Thalys trains to Brussels & Paris use platforms 5-9. The Nightjet sleeper to Munich, Innsbruck & Vienna usually goes from platform 7, but always check the departure screens.

Tip: Sometimes two trains use the same platform, one at sectors A-C and another at sectors D-G. Read the departure boards and look at both ends of the platform, so you don’t get caught out!

UPDATE @ugo’s advice about dealing with missing the Cologne-Berlin connection:

In case this happens to anyone else, here is what I’d do:

  • if you have time go to information centre, they’ll stamp your ticket and suggest an alternative train
  • you can try to get your reservation updated (was too late in my case)
  • when boarding train you don’t have a reservation for, try to go for the “last minute” car, in my case 34,where they have seats that “might” be reserved or not.
    Fingers crossed, you won’t have to deal with it

@neil @Monique @james and I travel tomorrow. @frances @Marie_Lefebvre @Chloe you will be travelling at the same time Thursday… perhaps this will be useful to @Dave @Tim as well?

3 Likes

Join the Restarters@Fixfest WhatsApp group :speech_balloon:

We’ve set up a WhatsApp group to co-ordinate our movements (e.g. for the climate march on Friday) and share info. If you’d like to join this group, click here to join or send me a message (@james) with your WhatsApp number.

:no_bell: Remember, you can mute group notifications if they get too much.

Courage les amis. Votre mission est salvatrice. Foncez…

2 Likes

Unconference sessions - schedule :clock3:

The Fixfest organsiers have shared the schedule for the unconference sessions. There will be two types of session: 30 minute talks (Sat & Sun) and 10 minute ‘lightning’ talks (Sat).

The full schedule is here:
Unconference sessions.pdf (59.3 KB)


Cc: @Fernando_GA, @Kaja_Juul_Skarbo, @Nebojsa_Adzic, @Purna

1 Like

Awesome thanks! Are we supposed to register in advance or we can just do it in person?

I believe the schedule will be pinned to a wall from Saturday morning. You’ll be able to reserve a slot by writing your name next to the time you want