On 01/09/2012 08:31 PM, Jeremy White wrote:

Hi All,


If you've been to a technical conference recently that you thought was
well done, what did they do well?  Anything we could emulate?

I've gave you some of this feedback in person at WineConf in France.

First, as long as it is aimed at Wine hackers, that's who'll show up. The stagnation in attendance is, therefor, more an indication of the state of wine hackers than it is of the conference. What I'd suggest:

1. Split the days. First day aimed at hackers, second day at users. Have a better defined schedule for that second day, so people would have an idea what to expect.
2. For the hacker's day, I expected the "free form" to take on the form of small working groups. For example, in France, I expected to have some time where Aric and I could sit on a laptop together and actually hack BiDi into a better working state. The conference didn't leave enough room for such an activity.
3. Have the schedule and location ride another conference (similar to the co-op we did with Samba in Germany). Either that, or schedule the conference at a place that has a strong local LUG. The conference at Germany had a great attendance, not only of Samba hackers, but also of local Linux enthusiasts who took the opportunity to attend. Having a non-Minnesota US conference might help, where there is an established LUG that will be interested to tag along.

Any other ideas, or suggestions?

On a practical note, I suggested to help organize a conference in Jerusalem. I had a specific location in mind, which is extremely close (easy walking distances) to the pubs and restaurants of the center of the city, and it's a combination of hotel and youth hostel, so prices can be expected to be cheap(er, at least in off-season). Israel at large, and Jerusalem in particular, have established LUGs that will probably contribute a lot of fresh eyeballs. Let me know if you want me to find out more.

Shachar

-- 
Shachar Shemesh
Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.
http://www.lingnu.com