How much it would cost to go to PyCon

05 Feb 2005

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I noticed the early-bird period for PyCon pass, and wondered whether $75 would change the chances of my being able to attend. So I figured out how much it would cost...

International travel flights are always a killer, I suppose. Especially when you live in one of the farthest-away-from-the-developed-world countries. To the point where it often outweighs hotel bills to stay extra long for weird air flight bonuses.

23rd-25th March would optimally have me arrive sometime in the afternoon on the 22nd in DC, and leaving sometime after 10am on the 26th. That would cost R12000 ($1950 or so).

Accomodation is from $22 (hostel) to about $100 (single room at a hotel) a night. Four nights - $88 (R545) to $400 (R2480).

Travel on the metro, $32.50 (R200).

Conference fee: $250 (R1550).

So, excluding dinners and so forth, R14295 ($2300) to R16230 ($2620) for going just for the conference. If I try go for the sprints, it's R14800 ($2387) to R18090 ($2920). Definitely worth it to stay for the extra days if you're staying in the hostel...

$75 in $2387 is hardly worth worrying about. Even less so in $2920...

It's ridiculous for a South African to go to one of these conferences - well, at least a South African that earns what I do. Not the conference's fault at all - just the relative earning power and airfares. That's more than half a year's scrounging! I'm sure it's worth it, though. Makes me wonder at how much BSDi was going to end up paying to bring me over for FreeBSDCon.

Oh yes, I suppose there's the fact I have this "Entry denied" from the US consulate in Cape Town when I was going to talk at FreeBSDCon (4 years ago, was it?). I doubt they'll just gloss over that...

4 Responses

  1. Colin Pretorius — February 05, 2005 at 06:56 PM.

    What prompted the 'entry denied'? ;-)

  2. Neil Blakey-Milner — February 05, 2005 at 07:09 PM.

    I was between jobs, in the IT industry, being flown to the country by a US company to "attend a conference", with no physical assets in the country, and "not married". I'm just guessing, but they probably imagined I'd want to stay on there. Or they thought I was a terrorist. Must be the beard. Or a drug dealer. Shaving is just too much a pain, and my pale skin and dark rings under my eyes from staying up all night staring at computer screens...

  3. Jacques — February 05, 2005 at 08:31 PM.

    Sounds like fun. Reminds me when I doing pricing to attempt to get round to going on the PHP Cruise. Way way too expensive for my budget. How about organising some sort of BSD/PHP/Python type conference down in Cape Town?

  4. Johann — February 10, 2005 at 02:34 PM.

    This is a problem that is certainly not unique to open source developers - ask anyone in academia in South Africa. In fact, it's one of the major reasons why - despite this nifty new-fangled Internet thingy - doing research in SA still often fiels like working in a void.

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