[plug] Fwd: Linux User Conference in WA?

Wed Feb 23 17:17:44 WST 2005

Does the current plug committee have any thoughts on this?  If there are
enough bodies to put legs under it (???) will the committee be happy to
see it run as plug event?

Tim Bowden

On Wed, 2005-02-23 at 14:29 +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> 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
> _______________________________________________
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> 