My Debconf23 Experience by Ravi Dwivedi

October 8, 2023 | Reading Time: 15 min

Note:This post first appeared on the author's blog post.

Introduction

DebConf23, the 24th annual Debian Conference, was held in India in the city of Kochi, Kerala from the 3rd to the 17th of September, 2023. Ever since I got to know about it (which was more than an year ago), I was excited to attend DebConf in my home country. This was my second DebConf, as I attended one last year in Kosovo. I was very happy that I didn’t need to apply for a visa to attend. I got full bursary to attend the event (thanks a lot to Debian for that!) which is always helpful in covering the expenses, especially if the venue is a five star hotel :)

Learning from organizing an international DebConf23 in India by Pirate Praveen

September 22, 2023 | Reading Time: 2 min

Some things we learned while organizing DebConf 23 at Kochi, sharing this in case some one organizing an international conference in future may find this useful.

• Visa type: Conference visa is strongly recommended, if someone is already in India for tourism they have to intimate FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) before the conference.

  • e-visa can happen in 1-2 days but people applying at missions may need upto a week or longer to get the visa.
  • People coming on conference visa can combine tourism (but not the reverse).
  • For conference visa application, people will need these documents.
  1. Invitation from organizer (mandatory),
  2. Political Clearance from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) (mandatory) and
  3. Security clearance from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) (If required, see “Security clearance from MHA” section below).

• Political clearance from MEA: Close registrations for foreigners at least a month before the conference (the earlier the better) as you will need to share the full participants list including passport details with MEA for political clearance (this can take upto 2-3 weeks).