DebConf costs and locations, was: Re: Q to all candidates: future of Debian finances

Hi Nilesh,

> I remember hearing a pointer from a few folks that one of the reasons for
> higher cost of debconf 23 and 24 was it due to being in Asia while most of
> the DDs live in Europe.
> As a result, the travel costs bumped up the overall conference expense.

That is true, but the biggest groups we typically fly is Indian DDs. So 
- by logic - it should have been the cheapest DebConf, it was the most 
expensive one.
But then it was the first in a five star hotel. And we still had to pay 
a venue for lecture halls.

The biggest cost factor for DebConfs is whether we can get a good venue 
(lecture halls, hackspace, accommodation) for free, strongly discounted 
or pay some common market prices.

E.g. the team at DebConf22 got us the ITZ Prizen very cheap, they 
essentially sponsored as Platinum sponsors. The total additional income 
there still was ~200k USD due to a very active fundraising team. That 
DebConf made a small net profit like so many before it.

The ones following were all net loss, mostly due to much higher expenses.

> This year DC is happening in France, but based on the IRC discussions
> it still seems that the budget is a bit tight - so what would be an ideal
> geographic location just in terms of costs involved?

The Brest venue / accommodation are very expensive, so is the food. 
These are the cost drivers this year. The travel cost ("travel 
bursaries") budgeted is similar to the previous years at this point in 
time. This was important to the current DPL and the teams involved from 
DebConf. The income total (comparable to the below figures) currently 
stands at
DC25 ~133k USD.

We are - of course - trying our best to raise more funds.

> Also, was there a reduction in sponsorship costs in DC23,24 as compared to
> the Debconfs before 2022? Is there a reason?

I guess you mean sponsorship income?

DC22 ~210k USD

DC23 ~175k USD

DC24 ~194k USD

There's additional income from professional and corporate registrations, 
self-payers and sometimes local income which cannot be freely used (e.g. 
government sponsorships bound to certain expense items). So the numbers 
above are rough direct sponsor income or in-kind for venues only and 
thus somewhat comparable.
The DebConf finances are public, people can read the ledgers in the team 
repos. Understanding them ... is a different thing. But the DebConf 
treasurer for each year is surely willing to answer questions from any 
project member.

Kind regards,

Daniel