RFC 6640

IETF Meeting Attendees' Frequently Asked (Travel) Questions

📅 published June 2012, from ietf

RFC 6640: IETF Meeting Attendees' Frequently Asked (Travel) Questions 🧳✨

Okay bestie, here's the title block tea ☕. This is RFC 6640 from the IETF, written by W. George of Time Warner Cable. It's Informational (so not a standards-track spec 🙅‍♀️), dated June 2012, with ISSN 2070-1721. Its title block doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates, so it's just doing its own thing 💅.

Abstract 🌸

Okay so this doc is basically a list of the FAQs that IETF meeting attendees keep asking about travel logistics and local info. 🧳 It's for the people who are willing to share local knowledge, so they can pre-fill answers in the IETF wiki or a meeting-specific site and have a pretty complete list of ideas to pull from. ✨ It is not a list of required info that the host or Secretariat has to provide. It's just a guideline, vibes only 🫶.

Status of This Memo 📜

This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification. It's published for informational purposes 🎀.

It's a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and represents the consensus of the IETF community. It got public review and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not every IESG-approved doc is a candidate for any level of Internet Standard, so check Section 2 of RFC 5741 if you're curious 🤓.

For info on this document's current status, any errata, and how to give feedback, go to http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6640 🔗.

Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. 💜

This doc is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) as in effect on the date of publication. Please read these carefully, bestie, because they describe your rights and restrictions 📖. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they're provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License 🧾.

Table of Contents 🗂️

1. Introduction ....................................................3
2. Why is this document necessary? .................................3
3. Helpful Information .............................................5
   3.1. Travel .....................................................5
        3.1.1. Transit between the Airport or Train Station
               and Primary Hotels ..................................5
                 3.1.1.1. Taxi Information ...........................6
                 3.1.1.2. Mass Transit ...............................6
        3.1.2. Getting Around near the Conference Venue ............7
   3.2. Regional/International Considerations ......................7
        3.2.1. Health and Safety ...................................8
               3.2.1.1. Water Availability .........................8
        3.2.2. Money ...............................................9
   3.3. Food .......................................................9
        3.3.1. Restaurants ........................................10
        3.3.2. Other Food Items ...................................10
   3.4. Communications and Electronics ............................10
   3.5. Weather ...................................................11
   3.6. Fitness ...................................................11
   3.7. Tourism and Souvenirs .....................................11
4. Acknowledgements ...............................................12
5. Security Considerations ........................................12
6. Informative References .........................................12

1. Introduction ✈️

IETF attendees come from all over the world 🌍. A typical IETF meeting has reps from over 50 countries, wild right? 😭 So a big chunk of the people at any given IETF are newcomers to the city hosting it, or even to the country or region. That means they're going to have questions about their personal travel needs and logistics, and those questions can usually only be answered by someone who's been there before, someone who lives there, and/or someone who speaks the local language 🗣️.

The IETF, the Secretariat, and any local host orgs in charge of the logistics are not travel agencies, but they often can and do help identify and host the common info most attendees want while planning their trip 💖. This doc tries to cover the most commonly asked questions and the categories of info people look for. It is not meant to answer these questions for every possible location where IETF meetings might happen 🙅‍♀️. Instead, it's a set of FAQs for hosts and anyone else with experience in the area, so questions and answers get handled efficiently. Otherwise everyone waits until someone emails the attendees mailing list in the days before the meeting, and nobody wants that chaos 😩.

2. Why is this document necessary? 🤔

Okay so you might be thinking, "Isn't that why search engines and travel sites exist?" 🙃 Valid question! We can sometimes find stuff with search engines, but that means hundreds of people spending ages searching, which is just not efficient 💀. Also, even though everyone thinks if it's on the Internet it must be true, the info out there can be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date, so it can be less reliable than firsthand info from someone who's actually been there 🙈.

And no matter how good online translation gets, some of the most useful local travel sites can be super hard for non-native speakers to navigate 😵‍💫. Navigation buttons, graphics, and other active content usually can't be machine-translated, and non-native speakers may not even realize when machine translation is wrong in a critical way 🚨.

Lastly, the companies that host IETF meetings often have people attending IETF, but the folks handling the details of hosting may not be regular attendees 🧑‍💼. So this doc, especially Section 3, is meant to be handed to host event organizers who may not know much about the IETF, so they get a better sense of what attendees will find helpful 🎀.

The format was picked to capture the FAQs but usually not their answers 💅. That's because RFCs are typically static and rarely updated, which makes them a bad fit for location-specific info 🗺️. The questions here came from informal review of attendee mailing lists from past meetings, plus feedback from lots of people, and they're believed to be reasonably static from one meeting to the next ✨. This doc isn't necessarily all-inclusive, but it should be a reasonable baseline, so a static format like an RFC makes sense 📚. It will probably need revising now and then. A clue that it's time is when, over multiple meetings, several new questions not covered here keep popping up on the attendees mailing list and become FAQs 🔁.

The answers are expected to live somewhere that's easy for multiple parties to update, so site-specific info can be refined as often as needed, creating a living document 🌱. There are several options for where to store it. For some past IETF meetings, the hosting org or an individual [HIROSHIMA] set up a special website. The best recent examples in terms of info are www.ietf75.se and ietf71.comcast.net 🌟. Sadly these sites aren't maintained forever once their meeting is over, so the only way to check them out now is the Internet Wayback Machine [WEBARCHIVE] 🕰️. Still, those sites have been a source of tons of extra info about the location and are always super helpful 💜.

If the host decides to set up a site like that, the hope is this doc gives guidance on what info to put on it 🫶. But it's by no means a requirement that the host set up an external website 🙌. Also, not every IETF meeting has a local host, or even a host at all 😬. In those cases the need for the same info doesn't go away, but the IETF will rely more on people with experience in the area sharing their knowledge with others 🤝. The IETF has a hosted wiki [WIKI] that can just be filled with the same kinds of info, which is great because it's one spot where experienced travelers, locals, and host reps can all add stuff, so it's not totally dependent on the host 🌈. If the IETF-hosted wiki is used, this doc can serve as a framework of categories to pre-build when the site-specific page is set up, so people can start filling it in right away 🧚.

3. Helpful Information 🎀

There are a bunch of general categories of info listed below 📋. Some sections, like Sections 3.1 and 3.2, have info that's necessary for travel. The rest is nice to have 💖. All of it comes from actual FAQs on the attendees mailing lists 📬.

A lot of the info you need may already be online somewhere else, so there's no need to copy stuff that's on external websites. Just pointing people to where it already lives is totally appropriate 🔗. That said, it's really helpful if someone validates and vets the info first, to avoid outdated or inaccurate stuff 🧐. Also, because this doc is static and location-agnostic, some questions will be irrelevant or confusing for some places 🤷‍♀️. So "not really relevant here" and "we don't know" are valid answers! 🙌 In those cases it's better to say so explicitly instead of just leaving the section out, because that shows the info wasn't simply forgotten 🫣. The main thing to remember is that people traveling to the event have never been there before, so don't assume they have a high level of background knowledge about the area, its customs, and so on 🌸.

3.1. Travel ✈️🚆

  • Recommended airport(s) for domestic and international connections. To avoid confusion, include the appropriate International Air Transport Association (IATA) airport code(s) whenever possible 🛫.
  • Non-flight options to get to the city where the meeting is being held (e.g., if there are convenient rail travel options) 🚄💜.

3.1.1. Transit between the Airport or Train Station and Primary Hotels ✨

Okay so this part is especially critical if the airport is way far from the venue, or if grabbing a taxi is just not realistic or not recommended 😭. Like, if attendees have to hop on a train or long-distance bus to get from the airport to the venue, this info is everything 🧳. If the event offers train travel as an option instead of flying, the list below should be given for those trains too (think: train station to primary hotel) 🚆💖

  • Estimated travel time. This one matters on the way back too, from the venue to the airport 🛫. It's worth mentioning if you should leave extra time because airport security and check-in is always slammed, or if rush hour traffic could make the trip take way longer 🙈
  • Shuttles (if applicable). 🚐
  • Arranging transit directly with the hotel (if applicable). Hotels sometimes offer car service, or they'll cover your taxi bill when you arrive so it gets added to your room bill instead of you paying in local currency 🧾✨ It's super helpful to know ahead of time whether that's common or rare in the area 💅

3.1.1.1. Taxi Information 🚕

  • Credit cards accepted? Which ones? 💳
  • Foreign currency accepted? 💱
  • Estimated costs for taxis, plus any rules or recommendations about metered fares versus fixed-rate or pre-negotiated fares 🧮
  • Description of "official" taxis if that's relevant 🚖
  • Links to websites or phone numbers for booking taxis remotely or in advance 📱
  • How to find the taxi stand at the airport or train station 🗺️
  • Printable local-language address card to show the taxi driver in case of a language barrier 🫶
  • Ride sharing. The IETF wiki usually has a section where attendees can post their arrival times and figure out taxi sharing 🙌

3.1.1.2. Mass Transit 🚇

Navigating an unfamiliar mass transit system can be a lot. Stuff that's totally obvious to locals might be a mystery to visitors 😵‍💫

  • English map 🗺️
  • How and where to purchase farecards or tokens 🎟️
  • How to use tickets or tokens: where to insert them, how to get them stamped, how to transfer, and so on 🙃
  • How trains and buses are labeled, and how to tell where a particular train or bus is headed 🚌
  • The general frequency of service. In particular, should you just show up at the station, or check a schedule first? ⏰
  • Which transit system to use for which destination, when there's more than one transit system in the area 🧭
  • Nearby stations and how to spot a station entrance, like a common logo or color 🔴
  • Non-western signage. It may help to point out when things aren't commonly labeled in a western character set (for example, place signs), and to provide pictures or Unicode text versions of the signage as it will actually appear 📸🌏

3.1.2. Getting Around near the Conference Venue 🏙️

The same airport transit info will probably matter here too, including taxi and mass transit details 🔁 If it's possible, walking directions between the venue and the hotel(s) should be provided when the venue isn't in the same building or complex as the hotel 🚶‍♀️🦋

It's also helpful to note whether having a vehicle (rental or personal car) is a help or a hindrance for getting around the area 🚗 For example, it may not be recommended to try driving near the venue because of:

  • Parking availability and costs 🅿️
  • Congestion charges and other restrictions on when and where you can drive 🚧
  • Traffic 🚦

3.2. Regional/International Considerations 🌍

  • Plug type and voltage. This can just be a reference to electricaloutlet.org [PLUGS], unless there are specific exceptions or details that need extra attention 🔌⚡
  • Visa requirements and pointers about travel documents. IETF usually points people to an embassy or similar page with general info about common visa types, when they're required or waived, and so on. It also covers how to get a letter of invitation if one is needed 📄✈️ It's really helpful to go beyond that, especially if people from certain countries are known to struggle getting a visa processed between when the meeting is announced and when they have to leave. If there are expedited processes, this is the place to talk about them 🏃‍♀️💨
  • Languages commonly spoken 🗣️
  • National or regional holidays, work stoppages or strikes, and other issues that could affect travel or business hours during the week of IETF 🎉🛑

3.2.1. Health and Safety 🩺

  • Phone numbers for local emergency services (e.g., 911, 112, 999, etc.) 🚑
  • Closest health clinic or hospital facilities 🏥
  • Areas of high crime to avoid 🚫
  • Common local scams, including taxi scams 🙅‍♀️
  • Hostile flora and fauna, and how to identify and avoid them 🐍🌵
  • Local air-quality considerations. Everyone has a different idea of what counts as "unhealthy" air, and people with health or respiratory problems may need to find local air-quality monitoring info so they can figure out how to prepare 😷🌬️
  • Smoking rules
    • Are most bars and restaurants smoking or non-smoking? Are separate smoking sections available? 🚬
    • Rules about smoking in public places 🏛️
    • Availability of dedicated smoking or non-smoking rooms in hotels 🛏️
    • Rules about smoking outdoors 🌳

3.2.1.1. Water Availability 💧

  • Is local tap water potable (drinkable)? If not, is it truly unsafe because of impurities or contamination, or does it just taste bad by local standards? 🫧
  • How do you tell tap water from bottled water when ordering at a restaurant? 🍽️
  • Are water fountains, bubblers, or water bottle refill taps commonly available in public places? 🚰🌊

3.2.2. Money 💸

  • General credit card acceptance in common locations, including any restrictions (e.g., needing a 'Chip and PIN' card, no American Express, etc.) 💳🚫
  • ATM locations near the venue and at the airport. Note whether they accept foreign cards, which systems they're part of, and whether they have an English language option 🏧
  • Tipping customs, especially for taxis, restaurants, and hotel staff 🤑
  • Currency conversion rate. A reference to a currency converter site, like Yahoo! [CURRENCY], is enough unless there are specific conversion details that matter 🔢
  • Places that accept foreign currency for purchases or exchange: note whether it's recommended or not, depending on whether the exchange rates are good or bad 📉📈
  • Bargaining and haggling. For what kinds of purchases (if any) is bargaining on the price expected or customary, and if so, what are the customary ways to bargain successfully? 🤝🛍️

3.3. Food 🍜

The way IETF's schedule works means food and drink are both a welcome break and a place to keep talking with colleagues, whether about IETF work, other shop talk, or anything but shop talk 🫶 During IETF's lunch break, roughly 1000 people are all looking for reasonably priced lunch at the same time 😱 Their timing ranges from "grab and go" for a working lunch up to 75 minutes for a sit-down meal 🥪🍝 Once meetings wrap up for the day, the crowd is so varied that people want every kind of food, every price range, and every vibe, from a spot for a deep conversation to a seat at the bar 🍸 The more info there is about nearby food and drink, the better 💅 This matters most during the first few days of the conference, since so many people ask the hotel concierge or other info desk staff for help at once that they get totally overwhelmed 😭

3.3.1. Restaurants 🍽️

It's usually helpful to note whether restaurants require or recommend reservations, and whether they have busy or rush times to avoid or plan around 📅

It's helpful to sort restaurants by:

  • Price 💰
  • Proximity to the venue. It's useful to highlight quick options for lunch breaks 🏃‍♀️
  • Type of cuisine. This is a great spot to show off local specialties and favorites 🌮🍣
  • Special dietary needs such as vegan, vegetarian, halal, and kosher 🥗. It's also super helpful to talk about how to tell restaurant staff about these needs when ordering. A more in-depth discussion of dietary concerns can be found in [HEALTHY-FOOD] 🌿

3.3.2. Other Food Items 🥐

  • Local grocery or convenience stores for attendees who can't find restaurant options that meet their dietary needs 🛒
  • Nearby coffee shops and tea houses. Specifically, where can we find the best espresso or cup of tea? ☕🍵
  • Nearby bars and pubs 🍺
  • Restaurants or pubs with private rooms or large seating areas for big groups 🎈

3.4. Communications and Electronics 📱

  • Where to buy local SIMs, and which types of mobile voice and data service are supported (e.g., Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), CDMA, etc.) 📶
  • Where to get replacement electronics and accessories (e.g., power cords, adapters, batteries, etc.) 🔋
  • Public Wi-Fi access (outside of the hotel and venue), including Wi-Fi availability in the recommended airports, mass transit, etc. 🛜

3.5. Weather ☀️

  • A link to a site, or brief info, on temperature and humidity norms for the time of year when the meeting will be held, e.g., Weather Underground [WEATHER] 🌡️💦
  • Extreme weather amenities. If this is an area known for extreme weather, note any amenities that make travel easier, such as enclosed walkways or indoor passages between buildings 🌧️❄️
  • Indoor weather too. What's the usual indoor temperature? 🥶🥵

3.6. Fitness 🏃‍♀️

  • Soccer. If the weather cooperates, lots of IETFers like to hold a "soccer BoF," which is a pick-up soccer game sometime during the week of IETF. So a field suitable for soccer close to the venue is really useful to know about ⚽🔥
  • Running and walking paths or routes. Some folks prefer these over a treadmill for exercise 👟🌳

3.7. Tourism and Souvenirs 🛍️

This isn't necessary info for the main goal of an IETF attendee, but lots of attendees set aside a day or two on either side of the conference for sightseeing, so it's a chance to highlight local attractions 🗼 Links to sites with info on walking tours, local tourist attractions, and the like are very appreciated 💜 If there are events scheduled next to IETF, like music or food festivals or cultural events, attendees would love to hear about those too 🎶

Plenty of attendees also like to buy souvenirs, as gifts or for themselves 🎁 Beyond the usual "tourist-trap" stuff like t-shirts and knick-knacks, many people look for things that are locally crafted, local specialties, or otherwise meaningful to the area and its culture 🧶🏺 This is another topic that can be highlighted in the info given to attendees 🌸

4. Acknowledgements 🙏✨

Okay bestie, big thank-you to these legends for their valuable feedback 🫶: Dave Crocker, Simon Perreault, Joe Touch, Lee Howard, Jonathan Lennox, Tony Hansen, Vishnu Ram, Paul Kyzivat, Karen Seo, Randy Bush, Mary Barnes, John Klensin, Brian Carpenter, Adrian Farrel, Stephen Farrell, Yaacov Weingarten, L. David Baron, Samuel Weiler, SM, Ole Jacobsen, David Black, Stewart Bryant, Benoit Claise, and Lawrence Conroy. The author says there are probably other people they accidentally forgot, so sorry to them 🥺 you're still iconic 💅

5. Security Considerations 🔐

Okay, real talk for a sec 😭 this document is not a protocol specification, so it has no protocol security considerations. BUT some of the stuff above is about the physical security of IETF participants and their property, so please look after yourselves and your stuff 🫶

This document is not meant to be a complete discussion of physical security for IETF attendees, so don't treat it like one 🙈

6. Informative References 📚

Author's Address 💌

Wesley George
Time Warner Cable
13820 Sunrise Valley Drive
Herndon, VA  20171
USA

Phone: +1 703-561-2540
EMail: wesley.george@twcable.com

And that's the whole doc, bestie 🎀 the end ✨💖

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