YAPC is an acronym for Yet Another Perl Conference, a yearly Perl conference held by Perl programmers for the Perl community

Chicago. Didn’t you realize that you went to yapcchicago.org?

June 26^th through 28^th. There are also three open classes that will be occurring on June 29^th and 30^th

Registration for YAPC is $100 US, but through April 30^th the registration cost is only $85 US. The open classes following YAPC are $200 US each.

While we probably won’t have a cruise for this year’s YAPC, we are planning on having some sort of banquet and charity auction on the night of Tuesday June 27^th. Try to keep that evening free!

The conference keynote addresses begin at 9:00 a.m. CST on Monday, June 26th. For those who arrive early, there will be a session on “Conferences for Beginners” starting at 8:30 a.m. This session is a great way for you to learn how to get the most from your conference experience, so don’t miss it.

The conference is officially over at 4:20 p.m. on Wednesday, June 28th. Immediately following the conference, there will be a town-hall meeting for members of the Perl community to discuss the future of Perl. The town hall will probably last until around 5:00 p.m. Also, don’t forget the bonus classes that will be held on June 29th and 30th.

There will be conference-related activities going on Monday, June 26th through Wednesday, June 28th from 8:30 a.m. CST to 5:00 p.m. CST each of those days. Additionally, there will be a conference banquet and auction on the evening of Tuesday, June 27th.

There are many ways to sponsor YAPC. This includes cash donations, donation of goods for auction, publicity and advertisement, and equipment loans. If you want to help YAPC by become a sponsor email josh at yapcchicago.org for more information or call 501-908-0007.

You get the piece of mind of knowing that you have given back to the open source community. You also get your name plastered across just about everything YAPC, including the conference website and the printed conference program. You also get your name dropped a few times during the conference and have the freedom to put promotional items in conference attendees swag bags. As an added bonus, if you are looking for some Perl hackers to join your company, sponsors are invited to participate in a job fair to be held during the conference.

The conference can run close to $20,000 US to produce. A large portion of that is covered by attendee dues, but not all of it. We rely on sponsors to fill the gap and keep YAPC affordable and accessible to all of the Perl community. Plus, all of the additional funds go to the Perl Foundation who use the money to further the development of the Perl language.

Please do. All that you have to do is come up with some topic relevant to Perl hackers. It doesn’t have to be about Perl, but it at least has to be something that most of the Perl hackers at the conference would like to hear about. Guess this rules Java and VB out… well, maybe not. Just send a short abstract of what you would like to present to papers at yapcchicago.org by April 10th so that we can review your proposal and let you know wether or not you are accepted.

Paid registration is complete voluntary for the conference if you are a speaker. Registration is only $100 (or $85), but hey, we understand. If it wasn’t for the speakers, we wouldn’t have much of a conference and $100 could buy a lot of beer.

Well, I’d hope that you start preparing your presentation. But, if you’re talking about the registration fee, don’t sweat it. Just send a note to josh at yapcchicago.org and let me know. I’ll be sure that a refund is issued to you.

There are quite a few airports around the Chicago area; however, there are two major airports that you will probably be interested in considering flying into: O’Hare and Midway.

O’Hare (ORD) is the larger airport located on the north-west side of town. It is about twenty miles from IIT by car. Optionally, the Blue ‘L’ line starts at O’Hare. You can take it to the Jackson stop, transfer to the Red ‘L’ line, and go south to IIT at Sox-35th.

Midway (MDW) is a smaller airport located south-west of the city center. It is about nine miles from IIT by car. Optionally, the Orange ‘L’ line starts at Midway. You can take it to the Roosevelt stop, transfer to the Green ‘L’ line, and go south to the 35h-Bronzeville-IIT stop.

If you are on a comparison shopping site for flights, you can search on ORD or MDW separately. Often, you can just use the airport code CHI to search both airports for flights.

American Airlines has agreed to providing discount fares to YAPC. Using the discount code A2566AN you’ll be able to receive 5% off of American Airlines tickets for travel to and from Chicago between June 24th 2006 and July 5th 2006. The discount applies to most all tickets… details can be found below. Even if the discount doesn’t apply to your ticket, if you do fly with American to get to YAPC, please use the discount code. The Perl Foundation will get credit for every ticket sold under that code.

You can always drive. You can also take a bus or train. Megabus.com and Greyhound are two bus lines that serve Chicago. If you want to get here by train, Amtrak is another option.

Yes, there are two dorms that we have rooms reserved in. The first is SSV. It is a more modern dorm with wireless throughout and nicer rooms, etc. The fallback is MSV, a slightly older dorm, but still better than the street :)

Uh, not really. There are some really great hotels near the ‘L’ though, and since two trains stop at IIT (Green and Red lines), you should be able to stay in a downtown hotel and make it to the conference in 15-20 minutes.

We encourage you to use the IIT discount at Club Quarters in Chicago. There are two Club Quarters locations in town. The one that we recommend is the Wacker and Michigan location. The hotel is a few blocks north of the Green ‘L’ line, which will take you to IIT. To book at Club Quarters, visit the hotel website and login with the password ‘illinois institute of technology’. Alternately, you can call 212-575-0006 or in Europe 44 (0) 20-7666-1616.

Yes there is, and it’s a pretty nice one.

Yes, there is a kiosk in the conference center and a full cafeteria just across campus. If you are planning on eating in the cafeteria, you might want to pre-pay for a meal card when registering.

There are some fast-food restaurants just South and South-East of the campus and quite a few Italian places just to the North-West. Also, Chinatown is one ‘L’ stop away and downtown Chicago is only three stops down.