To make a counter point to Chris, having Linux Australia as the backer for the first two PyCon AU's was an obvious advantage.<div><br></div><div>Linux Australia has established itself has being able to finance and run good conferences, going to sponsors and say "we have the backing of the same people who do <a href="http://Linux.conf.au">Linux.conf.au</a>" was a great way to get people over the "your a new conference" hump. Linux Australia already has relationships with a lot of our previous sponsors and thought of kindly. It was very easy to sign sponsors who had dealt with LCA and had a good time without having to do too much selling. Having a group which has been around for 10(?) years gives confidence over a new kid on the block.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Obviously this is changing now that PyCon AU has successfully run for two years and has established itself. I believe Chris is also targeting people who might not have been targeted previously and thus running against new problems.</div>
<div><br></div><div>On a side note, Microsoft Australia had no problems that they explained to us sponsoring a conference run by Linux Australia.</div><div><br>Tim<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 26 April 2012 09:28, Chris Neugebauer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chrisjrn@gmail.com">chrisjrn@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im">On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 23:13, David Newall <<a href="mailto:david@davidnewall.com">david@davidnewall.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> Would it be fair to say that our name hasn't damaged our ability to assist<br>
> the Python community, but merely caused an additional task for the<br>
> organisers?<br>
<br>
</div>Only if it didn't directly affect our ability to sign up sponsors, and<br>
restrict the delegate pool that would otherwise be interested in the<br>
conference.<br>
<br>
And even if it *were* fair to say that, as an organiser, I'd much<br>
rather have the time to chase more sponsors so that we can put on a<br>
better conference. The time spent explaining the role of LA to one<br>
large, potential sponsor could have been used tracking down further<br>
keynote speakers.<br>
<br>
Our time is limited. If an *avoidable* task has been created, it<br>
directly affects our ability to serve the Python programming community<br>
through running PyCon Australia.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> One other point: how is Python on Linux different to Python on other<br>
> platforms? Isn't it more similar than different, to the point that the<br>
> underlying platform is almost irrelevant? Doesn't angst at attending a<br>
> Python conference sponsored by us indicate a hostility to Linux that exceeds<br>
> devotion to the language? Religious mania is core to our principles and<br>
> history, and frankly, won't be mislead by a change of name. If they hate<br>
> Linux they'll hate it just as much under a different name.<br>
<br>
</div>It's absolutely not about them hating Linux.<br>
<br>
It's a more subtle issue. People decide on what conferences they go<br>
to based on limited funding. There are three other PyCons in the<br>
Asia-Pacific region that they could chose to go to.<br>
<br>
If people don't do their work in Python on Linux (yes, there can be<br>
differences between python on specific). The thought process is thus:<br>
"Oh, it's a Python on Linux conference. I do my work on $_OS, so this<br>
conference won't be relevant to me. I'll go elsewhere.". Thus we<br>
lose delegates that we wouldn't have otherwise lost, and that we<br>
*shouldn't* have lost, because the conference is just as relevant to<br>
them.<br>
<br>
To further discount the issue you raise: the sorts of delegates that<br>
we're losing from this process are people we *want* at the conference.<br>
They're people who *would* take part in LA events if they went to<br>
*just one*. These are the sorts of people we can attract.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--Chris<br>
<br>
--<br>
--Christopher Neugebauer<br>
<br>
Jabber: <a href="mailto:chrisjrn@gmail.com">chrisjrn@gmail.com</a> -- IRC: chrisjrn on <a href="http://irc.freenode.net" target="_blank">irc.freenode.net</a> --<br>
AIM: chrisjrn157 -- MSN: <a href="mailto:chris@neugebauer.id.au">chris@neugebauer.id.au</a> -- WWW:<br>
<a href="http://chris.neugebauer.id.au" target="_blank">http://chris.neugebauer.id.au</a> -- Twitter/Identi.ca: @chrisjrn<br>
</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
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