One of the largest Linux conferences in the southern hemisphere, LCA2011, is to go ahead next week in Brisbane after the worst floods to hit Queensland in over 20 years shed some dubious light on whether the event could continue.

Many of the facilities and utilities in and around Brisbane and greater Queensland were out of service last week as torrential rain caused rivers to swell past their banks, flooding streets, thousands of homes and businesses and the Central Business District where the conference is to be held.

Although hopes were high that LCA2011 would indeed go ahead, the final word could not be said until the organizing committee had met with the Brisbane council and mayor to decide whether the disaster-struck city could cope with an influx of 700 Open Source enthusiasts from the world over.

The meeting was held tonight and LCA2011 Director Shaun Nykvist emailed the mailing list to announce the good news only moments ago.

“Some great news – the lca2011 team and Linux Australia have made a joint decision that lca2011 will go ahead!

At this stage the venue location is still to be confirmed as are a number of social events, though there are some backup plans in place.

We are aware that Urbanest is still without power but expect power to be restored on Thursday.  Should Urbanest be unavailable – backup accommodation has been confirmed at the residential colleges at the University of Queensland (Near St Leo’s).  Delegates who are not staying at St Leo’s or Urbanest should check with their accommodation provider on availability, prior to travelling.”

Busting Myths

Many people have been concerned as to whether surrounding areas remained flooded and whether the aftermath of the natural disaster would affect the conference; speculation has been rife amongst attendees.

Nykvist dispells some rumours with a short Mythbuster sequence in his email:

lca2011 Mythbuster #1 – Brisbane’s water is fine and very very drinkable

lca2011 Mythbuster #2 – Brisbane has not run out of food (although some restaurants will have a limited menu)

lca2011 Mythbuster #3 – public transport is operational (though some routes are still affected).  Unfortunately, the Brisbane CityCat service is out of action till further notice.

lca2011 Mythbuster #4 – lca2011 has not been cancelled

Linux Conference Australia 2011

LCA2011 is one of the largest Open Source conferences in the Southern Hemisphere, attracting over 700 attendees every year.

The 5 day event runs from Monday to Friday and boasts dozens of speakers, sessions, keynotes and miniconfs to keep delegates entertained and informed.

LCA2011 boasts keynotes from Google’s Vice President Vint Cerf, Geoff Huston, Chief Scientist at the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, Eric Allman, the original author of Sendmail, co-founder and Chief Scientist of Sendmail, Inc and Mark Pesce, an inventor, writer, educator and broadcaster as confirmed keynote speakers at the conference.

Some of the more interesting talks include things such as:

Our coverage

Luckily for you, I’m heading across the Tasman on Sunday to participate in the week long event and report for OMG! Ubuntu!, so expect to see the latest news, articles around the sessions and interesting pieces of advice that I pick up throughout the week right here on OMG! Ubuntu!

Attending LCA2011? Let us know in the comments!