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Re: [Linux-aus] About a User Conference (was...)



(I take it from the complete silence on the part of committee members that the idea is dead?)

Mikal

Michael Still wrote:
Andrew Cowie wrote:

[Reigning the flights of fancy back in, I will mention that Mikal is
considering working on something at the much-smaller end of the scale.
I'll let him discuss that if and when he sees fit]


Ok, here's me coming out of the closet... This grand plan came to me in a dream last week sometime, so it's still quite new, and probably needs tweaking. The fundamental premises are:

- the world needs a introductory user conference in AU
- there are a bunch of people in Canberra who know how to make conferences now
- I don't mind running another conference
- users are extremely price sensitive


Bear those in mind while you look at the following proposal I wrote up last week. It's still in extreme draft mode...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The concept.
------------

The market is "ripe" for a user conference in Australia. The underlying premise of this proposal is that there is now a group of people in Canberra who understand how to run an event, having just done it, who are capable of running said user conference.

I would like to volunteer to run such an event. The operational concept is that of "AusLUG". This is a national event styled on a bigger LUG meeting for two days. The cost is kept deliberately low, and the event is much simpler than LCA. The concept has room for growth into a fuller conference in future years, dependant on demand. I propose that the event have two streams -- a user stream focused on introductory / LUG grade topics (such as how to install and use Apache, what distribution might be right for you, email environments, how iptables works and how to set it up, that kind of thing) and an introductory programmers stream (what license would be right for you, what an open source package usually contains (tarballs, README, license, man pages), how to autoconf your package, what languages work with Gnome and KDE, that kind of thing).

The conference would run in a down scale venue, such as a community club. The only vendor handouts, unless they are donated, would be a tshirt. No catering is provided, but may be bought from the club. The cost of attendance should be approximately $100 per person for the full two days.

I see scope for an associated trade show in future years, once an audience has been established (which I believe is needed for exhibitors to be willing to spend money on booths).

Draft schedule for the event:

Saturday
--------

8:30 - 9:30     Registrations
9:30 - 10:00    Welcome

                User stream                    Intro programming stream
10:30 - 11:30   ...                            ...
11:30 - 12:30   ...                            ...

13:30 - 14:30   ...                            ...
14:30 - 15:30   ...                            ...

16:00 - 17:00   ...                            ...
17:00 - 18:00   ...                            ...

18:00 -         Dinner (not formally organized)

Sunday
------

9:30 - 10:00    Welcome

                User stream                    Intro programming stream
10:30 - 11:30   ...                            ...
11:30 - 12:30   ...                            ...

13:30 - 14:30   ...                            ...
14:30 - 15:30   ...                            ...

15:00 - 16:00   Close, and where to from here

There are 10 talks per stream...

Funding.
--------

I am requesting $xxx seed funding from Linux Australia, and the same amount from AUUG. The reasoning here is to spread the risk of the event, and maximise the benefits to the community and both groups. In return both organizations will recieve branding of the event, and half the profit from the event if there is one. I also need to to receive a commitment to running the event in a similar shared manner in the future.

In the case of the conference making a loss, then both organizations would lose their seed funding, but no more.

Timing.
-------

September. Enough after LCA for me to have a sleep. Not too close to AUUG 2005 (a month away, but a different audience), not too close to LCA 2006 (and again a different demographic). Open to negotiation though.

Chain of command.
-----------------

I would report to both Linux Australia and AUUG, but would have sole delegated control of the event. Subsequent events would be negotiated between myself, Linux Australia and AUUG if this event is a success.

Liability cover would be arranged through Linux Australia's event insurance.

Cheers,
Mikal



--

Michael Still (mikal@stillhq.com) | "The geek shall inherit
http://www.stillhq.com            |  the earth"
UTC + 11                          |    -- The Simpsons

Linux.conf.au 2005 -- Quite like an excellent Linux and Open Source
conference. http://lca2005.linux.org.au