The 'Peak' Summit: An Informal ASPO & Oil Drum Gathering

An informal Oil Drum -ASPO meeting is being organized in Italy in June of this year. Oil Drum readers are welcome to join the discussion with Oil Drum staff and ASPO members. This meeting, to take place on 26, 27 & 28 June in Italy at the “Alcatraz free University” near Perugia, will have a spontaneous self-organized program according to the ‘bar camp’ rules. People can bring any topic to the informal meeting that they want to discuss. The only limitation being the wide ‘systems boundary’, so that issues should be directly or indirectly related to the heart of ASPO & The Oil Drum, discussions about energy and our future.

In order to reserve a place, please send a message to Rembrandt Koppelaar contact at peakoil.nl also in copy to Ugo Bardi (ugo.bardi at unifi.it). Upon approval of your application a registration form will be sent with room and payment details.

More information on the meeting, costs, and traveling to Italy can be found below the fold

On the evening of each day, beginning on the afternoon of the 26th, a loose schedule will be made for the following day of all those interested in presenting or hosting a discussion on certain topics. Participants can work out ideas and papers beforehand or give talks on the fly. Everyone is free to join sessions to their liking or make individual small group appointments if wanted to serve a discussion better. This way of hosting a discussion gives the opportunity to iterate and integrate as the meeting evolves. There will thus be no rigid program and no conference fee except for the lodging and board costs.

Location of the meeting

The meeting will take place at Libera Universita di Alcatraz (Alcatraz University) near Perugia, in Italy. It is a fantastically beautiful place in the Italian hills between Rome and Florence. Owned by Mr. Iacopo Fo, the son of the Nobel prize in literature Dario Fo, it is a structure built specifically to hold meetings; being self-contained with several meeting rooms providing the possibility to room and board about 50 people. They will host the meeting for free, provided that attendees pay the fees for room and board.

Subscription and payment of lodging

To maintain a creative meeting of the minds, as well as due to limitation of the venue, attendance will be limited to about 50 people. Costs of full board including food is 63 euro per day for a total of 189 euro for the three days and nights. We also ask a 10 euro fee to arrange a taxi service from Perugia train station to the meeting site at Alcatraz. Total costs are hence 199 euro. Subscriptions will be processed on a first come, first served basis. The final deadline for subscription is May 15th.

In order to book, please send a message to Rembrandt Koppelaar contact at peakoil.nl also in copy to Ugo Bardi (ugo.bardi at unifi.it). Upon approval of your application a registration form will be sent with room and payment details. An option to extend the stay in Italy is included in the registration form.

Route to Alcatraz University from Rome

To reach Libera Universita di Alcatraz from Rome one needs to travel by train to the city of Perugia which takes 2,5 to 3 hours at a cost of around 20 euro. From there, the only possible transportation is a taxi to Libera Universita di Alcatraz.

• From the Termini station in Rome take one of the trains in the direction of Ancona that either goes straight to Perugia or only until the station of Foligno.

• In case the train only goes until Foligno one needs to take a connecting train to Perugia in the direction of Terontola/Florence.

• At Peruga train station one needs to take a taxi to Libera Universita di Alcatraz at the street of Santa Christina 14 in Gubbio. The cost of the taxi journey is around 50 euro, so we advise participants to join up as to save on costs (as well as on fossil fuels).

As a service to participants we will facilitate joint taxi arrangements for a roundtrip on Friday 26 June and Monday 29 June to diminish costs as well as fossil fuel usage. More information on the journey including taxi groups and a train timetable for trains going from Rome to Perugia on 25/26 June and to Rome from Perugia for the return journey on 28/29 June will be sent to the participants.

Route to Alcatraz University from Florence

To reach Libera Universita di Alcatraz from Florence one needs to travel by train to the city of Perugia which takes 2 to 2,5 hours at a cost of around 13 euro. And from there take a taxi to Libera Universita di Alcatraz.

• From the train station Firenze S. M. Novella in Florence at most times there is a direct train to Perugia that leaves 13 minutes past the hour

• Otherwise one needs to take the same train and switch at the last station, Terontola-Cortona, to travel to Perugia.

• At Perugia train station one needs to take a taxi to Libera Universita di Alcatraz at the street of Santa Christina 14 in Gubbio. The cost of the taxi journey is around 50 euro, so we advice participants to join up as to save on costs (as well as on fossil fuels).

As a service to participants we will facilitate joint taxi arrangements for a roundtrip on Friday 26 June and Monday 26 June to reduce costs as well as fossil fuel usage. More information on the journey including taxi groups and a train timetable for trains going from Florence to Perugia on 25/26 June and to Rome from Florence for the return journey on 28/29 June will be sent to participants beforehand.

Additional information
Rembrandt Koppelaar (contact at peakoil.nl) and Ugo Bardi (ugo.bardi at unifi.it) will be glad to answer any queries.

I want to thank Rembrandt and Ugo for all the work they have put into this. I am really looking forward to attending, and hope that many others will be able to attend as well.

I'd like to see such a 'bar camp' thingy related to peak oil in the place I live in (Bangalore, India). Who wants to set the ball rolling? Can TOD help popularizing this by publishing an article here?

I think someone in India would have to get a few people together to start this, pick dates, and reserve a location. We could probably write a post about the meeting, to publicize it.

"Peak" "Summit" hah!
But wouldn't you rather hold it here in historic Birmingham where all this energy and transport revolution and so on began?
World's then tallest bridge (1829) over world's then largest earthworks:

More canals than Venice:
http://www.culture24.org.uk/places+to+go/west+midlands/birmingham/tra23386
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_British_canal_system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCN_Main_Line
Soho House:
http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/soho/soho.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soho_Foundry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soho_Manufactory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soho_Mint
William Murdoch (sometimes spelled 'Murdock') was the first to utilize the flammability of gas for the practical application of lighting. He worked for Matthew Boulton and James Watt at their Soho Foundry steam engine works in Birmingham England. In the early 1790s, while overseeing the use of his company's steam engines in coal mining in Cornwall, Murdoch began experimenting with various types of gas, finally settling on coal gas as the most effective. He first lit his own house in Redruth, Cornwall in 1792.[2] In 1798 he used gas to light the main building of the Soho Foundry and in 1802 lit the outside in a public display of gas lighting, the lights astonishing the local population.
Plus the invention of electroplating, steel wire, etc etc ad nauseam!
(But unfortunately in the real world it's about as much as I can do to organise my own breakfast let alone any sort of summit.)

Nice photo! Maybe I can drive over from Atlanta some time.

Hopefully we can build the opposite of a canal for you to drive over on. I don't forsee any problems of scaleability.

I am inclined to attend..

That would be great!

I will be attending.