Mar 31, 2011 8:48pm GMT
Now you have your theme, your audience definition, your venue, your track layout, your speaker list...life is sweet...but now the exhausting part starts....the minutia. You are going to have a reception...you need to order the food and drink. What about vegetarians? What about Vegans? How much beer and wine? What about non-alcoholic drinks? Wait, does the facility allow alcohol? What... more »
Setting Up A Conference: Part 3 - SpeakersMar 31, 2011 7:25pm GMT
Why did I insist on talking about sponsors before speakers? Because it was necessary.First of all, having good sponsorship means that you may have the funds to finance travel and an honorarium for some well-known speakers who will help attract a good audience.You may be blessed by having well-known, local speakers who would be happy to show up at your event and give a talk, or you could be luck... more »
Setting Up A Conference: Part 2 - Speakers...no, no, Sponsors!Mar 31, 2011 2:56pm GMT
I know that I promised to talk about speaker selection next, but before that I should talk about sponsors. Since you know the theme of the event, the target audience, the estimated size, scope (local, regional, national or world-wide) and with a rough budget, you can start to develop your sponsor strategy. First realize that large companies (IBM, HP, Oracle, etc.) usually have m... more »
Setting up a conference: Part I - Determining Theme, Time and PlaceMar 31, 2011 12:31am GMT
I am often invited to small and medium sized Free and Open Source Software events, and I enjoy going to them. Some of these events have been taking place for almost a decade, happening every year without interruption. Others happen only one or two times, then fade from view. Some suffer a stillbirth, and never make it to the first year. Sometimes people ask my advice on their event,... more »
Are Companies Evil?Mar 30, 2011 12:26am GMT
Lately I have been seeing blog posts and hearing statements where (if I had to boil them down to an appropriate theme) seem to be along the lines of “all companies are evil”.The authors of these statements are not quite that strong in their words, but the tone of their articles loudly questions various things that "all" companies do, and usually in a very negative way.I must admit tha... more »
A Truly Small ConferenceMar 29, 2011 8:52pm GMT
On Saturday, April 2nd I will be attending a small conference at Worcester State University in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States, the Northeast GNU/Linux Fest. The conference will be a single day, lasting from 10:30 in the morning until 3 P.M. in the afternoon. It will have a single track, four speakers and be oriented toward a student audience (although anyone is invited... more »
Off Topic: Mom&Pop(TM) - the passing of Marian Rhoda (nee Burns) HallMar 11, 2011 11:54am GMT
Mom&Pop(TM) were married in Trenton, New Jersey on June 27th, 1942, Pop was a 21 year-old graduate from Luscombe's School of Aeronautics fresh from upstate New York and Mom was a graduate of the business program of New Jersey's high schools, barely 19 years old at the time. Thus started a sixty-eight year commitment of love.They moved to Baltimore, Maryland to build airplanes at Glenn L. Ma... more »
