[plug] Fwd: Linux User Conference in WA?

[Leon Brooks]

Want to do something like this here in WA?

----------  Forward; originally to LinuxAus  ----------

Subject: Re: [Linux-aus] About a User Conference (was...)
Date: Wednesday 23 February 2005 10:58
From: Michael Still <mikal at stillhq.com>

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

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

I would not schedule it for Sat/Sun, but rather for a Mon/Tue during the 
school holidays, to give the edu people a good chance to attend and 
others to bundle it into school holiday leave.

Cheers; Leon