Andrew Shitov

Today we announce that the YAPC::Europe 2013 in Kiev will be held in the Ukrainian House national centre, a five-storey building in the very centre of Kiev.

Let's first give a word to the official site of the venue.

The Ukrainian House is situated on the main street of the capital city, Kreschatyk Street. It stands at the beginning of a street like the root note of a chord.

Ukrainian House has a simple, uncluttered structure. Crisply rhythmic pylons and white marble walls, coupled with red granite, give it its monumentality. The total area of the building is 17.550 m2, including 8850 m2 of exhibition area.

The Ukrainian House is located in the city centre, where the business, political and artistic life of Kiev is concentrated. There are comfortable hotels, numerous restaurants, cafes and bars nearby.

The solemnity and formality of the facades and interiors of the building create the necessary background for hosting various events, large both in terms of volume and of content: forums, symposia, conferences, presentations, seminars, press conferences, scientific, technical, commercial and industrial exhibitions, cultural and artistic events, opening days, shops, auctions, festivals, concerts and spectacular entertainment.

Ukrainian house is a five-storey building with underground blocks for technical equipment, ensuring uninterrupted air conditioning, power supply and heating. The house is equipped with eight escalators and two passenger lifts.

Spacious rooms, galleries, halls and a lobby constitute not only an example of impeccable design with marble, granite, aluminium, absorbing plates and other high quality materials, but are also part of the high potential technical equipment buildings.

The venue is a five-minute walk from the central square, and a ten-minute walk from the Dnieper River.

We would rent three rooms for the conference:

• A theatre-style main room with 490 seats, equipped with audio and multimedia facilities.
• Two or three smaller rooms with approximately 100 seats apiece, depending on the number of talk tracks.

The venue is equipped for disabled access. Also, note the uninterrupted air conditioning :-)

I believe we made the right choice. No doubt the venue will increase the attractiveness of the YAPC as a conference. Even though it is still a grassroots event, it can be hosted in a great building. As a separate bonus, the venue has a big hall area.

GPS location: 50.453207, 30.526843.

We plan to sign a contract within the coming weeks. After that, we will be able to fix and announce the dates of the conference.

We will also examine the Wi-Fi infrastructure of the building to make sure it will work during the conference, taking into account all the numerous devices you may bring.

There are two hotels located close to the venue: Dnipro Hotel, right in front of the House, and Khreschatyk Hotel, just around the corner.

(Hmm, I have stayed in Khreschatyk before, and I booked it again for my next visit in a couple of weeks. Now I'm curious as to why I did not test Dnipro yet. Maybe I will rebook my order after publishing this post. It's always nice to have your own experience.)

Of course, there are lots of other hotels located very close to the venue we selected, as it is the city centre.