Whaddya want from a conference?

I've been corresponding with a gentleman recently about the various US-Linux conferences -(thebazaar, LinuxWorld, Atlanta Linux Showcase, and LinuxExpo)-what goes on? What do people want to do there? I'd like to open the discussion floor up to this-click below for more details. So, we've been talking about what types of booths there are, what sessions there are, and what Birds-of-a-Feather sessions there are, and how often the show doesn't do what you want. That begs the question of what people are looking for? What do you want from a show?

And in the way of plugs, ALS is currently seeking sponsers for a huge LUG party down there, as well as for the speakers. So, if you are willing to contribute, or your company is, please step forward and help out. LinuxWorld has also exhibit-only badges can be registered for from their web site, for the Feb. NYC show. Update: 09/14 12:01 by H : Natalie Vercauteren from LinuxWorld asks to e-mail her with BOF proposals, if you want anything in particular at LinuxWorld NYC.

Comments

A wider variety of topics

[bigdawg]

I've attended a number of technical conferences in the past. One of the most valuable conference experiences that I have had have been the two world wide GIS conferences put on by ESRI (the makers of a proprietary GIS).

These shows provide a wide variety of experiences. They typically run a week with short opening and closing days for to allow for travel etc. The conference revolves around a huge vendor show with all of the typical stuff (freebies/free food/booze/marketing blah blah blah). An added bonus is the location (San Diego) which offers a number of other activities to keep you interested.

The three most valuable parts of the show are:
1) the attendees ability to take short (2-3 hour) training sessions that are streamed for different levels of technical ability (manager/new user/guru). These sessions are held throughout the week and their is a lot of duplication for the popular sessions so that you can organize your schedule to see them all.
2) ability to meet directly with the developers/architects of the software to discuss problems face to face as well as getting the inside scoop on the future development direction of the software. Their is a "Dr.'s Office" where attendees can meet with support people and bring their own data/system to work through problems....very cool.
3) meet with your peers and have a beer....the full emersion into the world of the technology is something that few of us get to do all the time.

Linux conferences can be structured in a similar fashion. Offering more of a variety to more people. Unlike others I want more substance and more options rather than glitz and glam.

Re:good shows

[chris]

Well, ALS has all of that.
www.linuxhshowcase.org

Three nights of BOFs

65+ Vendors who know this is a technical audience

The largest Technical conference track

WIPs, and an introduction to Linux for people migrating from windows

Chris
(Yes, i'm one of the people running the thing)
--
3rd Annual Atlanta Linux Showcase

Response from an ALS Organizer

[bsorensen]

Reading through the comments, there's a lot of good info and suggestions out there. I especially like the idea of setting up the vendor meetings to ask 'What do you want?'. It's possibly too late to set that up for this year's ALS, but we can probably find space for any vendors who want to do that.

Reading the other comments:
To lots of people - sorry we can't help you with having a Linux show 'near where you live'. We're the Atlanta User's group putting this on. We may move it next year.

Lots of people want to put names to faces - ALS is holding our annual fundraiser dinner as an 'Old Farts' roundtable with folks like Peter Salus, Maddog, and some of the others who've been part of the community forever.

Lower prices: ALS is a not-for-profit show - our proceeds are donated to community groups, but we have to have proceeds to do this. We make our prices as low as we can and still afford the Conference Hall and putting up speakers. Tell your favorite Linux company to buy sponsorships.

Non-Profit booths: We give out as many as we can and still pay for the Show Floor. We also offer discounts for educational or community groups. We are hosting or discounting the following groups this year:
Debian
FSF/Gnome
Linux.com
Linux International
LinuxNewbie.org
Linux Professional Institue
Linux Today
NetBSD
Slashdot/Freshmeat
Stampede
Time City Project
x.org
Linux Fund

BOFs: Lots of people want good BOFs - we have rooms set aside during the entire conference for anyone who wants to reserve one for a topic. Email me if you want to see a particular BOF added to the list. You don't need to be willing to get up and lecture - just let me know what topics you want to see.

Technical Talks: With USENIX's help, we are trying to become a more technical show - we have several in-depth sessions this year. Check out the web page for info (www.linuxshowcase.org/conference/).
Examples:
-GTK programming for the Blind
-Phone Based Email
-Examination of the Pros/Cons of various distributions
-Optimizing Linux Device Drivers
-Mastering the GIMP
-The Secure Filesystem

We at ALS want to be a community focused technical show. We need feedback like this forum to enable us to do that - please contact me if you want to discuss any of these points further.

--
Blake Sorensen
Registration Coordinator
1999 Atlanta Linux Showcase

Free stuff

[Electric Barbarella]

it's just that simple. i want free shit.

btw, first post
-Andy Martin

Pacific Northwest show?

[Brian Knotts]

I'd really like to attend some of these shows, but I haven't seen one yet in the Pacific Northwest. I just can't afford to go to NYC or NC, and I doubt my company would want to foot the bill. Still, you never know until you ask, eh?

Anyhow, when will there be a Linux show in the Pacific Northwest? We have lots of computer-related industry here, trees, ocean, mountains...as well as tons of microbreweries. What more could you ask for?

--
Interested in XFMail? New XFMail home page

More centrally located conferences

[parc]

I would love more centrally located conferences. As a student, I can barely afford a hotel room in another city, much less conference fees and a hotel room AND trip money.

Maybe something in Texas? ;)

I imagine Europeans have this same sort of problem, but a bit bigger since a trans-atlantic ticket is more than a Texas-to-Georgia ticket.

Honestly?

[kieran]

1. Free stuff. Let's face it, don't we all?

2. A chance to put names to faces. That means
anything that'll encourage people to meet &
talk to others - a good (see point 1 ;) bar
is always a good start.

3. Decent representation. A booth staffed by
people who can't answer your questions is
really no good.

4. A good atmosphere. A bit more of a community
feel than your average "Industry" conference.
Although those who are used to wearing a tie
may be less bothered by that, of course.

Good BOFs

[mattdm]

I don't know about the second Linux World Conf/Expo, but the first one really failed in the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. They were all on the same night, in the same room. If done right, this can (and should) be a central part of a conference.

--

In a perfect world...

[SLOfuse]

What I want is a conference that doesn't cost
a fortune to get to, stay at, attend, or even
exhibit at. The prices have gone up up up.
Some of these (now wealthy) sponsors *could*
help pay (more of) the show's costs - then the
shows could be run as non-profit (yeah, right).
For me, the ideal show would be held in
Kansas City, Missouri, cost $25 a day for
the conference, $100 per full-day tutorial,
10x10 exhibitor's booth space would be $1000,
and oh yeah, would feature keynotes by
Linus Torvalds and "Maddog" Hall. I guarantee
any size hall would be packed!

Re:Booth babes, booze, and freebies!

[Molly]

What about FreeBSD?

Why do I go?

[Analog]

Lessee, at the first LinuxWorld Expo I talked to a gentleman who confided that even though his company made a database product that was 'Red Hat Certified', all the development was done on Debian boxes; at the latest I spoke at length with a gentleman from Motorola about their current experiments with moving to RT Linux for their embedded products (availabitilty of source is something they're used to paying 10's or 100's of thousands for); I got to try to convince an engineer from SGI that Debian wasn't a flash in the pan distro, and would be around for awhile. I find business fascinating, and it's great to be able to talk to these people and find out what's going on behind the scenes.

Perhaps best of all, though, is that I got to meet many of the people whose names I'm always seeing around the net. Can't beat it with a stick.

SysAdmin's View... (or, what I'd really like)

[trims]

This is admittedly going to be biased, because I'm a full-time SysAdmin and Network Architect, which is probably a bit different than the typical /.-er.

1. Sessions where we can give vendors feedback on their products. I'd love it if most of the vendors (or say, a small group of 3-4 vendors who sell very similar things) had a 1 hour or so session where they asked the audience: What do You Want? What are you missing from our current lineups? Where should we go? Doing this in a room with 50-60 other like-minded individuals is so much more productive than talking to one of the people at some booth 1-to-1. To use a marketing buzzword, you get alot more "synergy".
2. Vendors who aren't solely concentrated on selling Linux. I know it's nice to have IBM there, but the people in most of the booths tend to be extremely focused on Linux. While this is nice, few of us run Linux-only shops. I want to know how to run X server/OS with Y server/OS with Z application. People who I can talk about heterogeneous offerings from the same company are really needed.
3. Networking products that run under Linux. I know this isn't something the show organizers can do, but dammit, I want all those network management tools to work on Linux, too. It's taking the tools vendors WAYYYYY too long to port.
4. Real BOFs. The BOFs are starting to become lecture-like. A step in the right direction is to do away with the "designated speaker" thing at a BOF; make the emphasis the topic, and not the person who's going to be leading it.
5. PUT THE CONFERENCES IN PLACES THAT MAKE SENSE, AT TIMES THAT MAKE SENSE. No one wants to go to New Orleans in mid-July (hello, USENIX?) Or Seattle in mid-March. Yet idiots schedule conferences then. Tip: put conferences in the South from Oct-April, and in the North May-Sept. And please, put them near interesting things. When you have the conference completely across town from anything interesting, it really sucks. Geeks need to get out, too, and having to taxi all over the place is a royal pain.
6. Try to encourage people to have SMALLER post-conference thingys. The RedHat parties were fun, but seriously, I have a lot more fun with 2 dozen people than 200. And I get alot more out of them.

Oh, and as much as everyone likes the bikini girls holding the new Server X2000, please don't. Eye candy is fine, but don't insult my intelligence, and don't pander to me. Also, it's a bit like throwing a glass of water in the face of a man dying of dehydration. :-)

-Erik

From a Conference Organizer...

[farrellj]

of Science Fiction Conferences.

One thing that really gets me is the price of these computer conferences, especially Linux ones. I've help run and/or attend SF cons up and down the East Coast and across Quebec and Ontario. Some of these events bring in guests that charge thousands of dollars for speakers fees, vast amounts of convention space and using up most or all of the rooms at local hotels. We have hospitality suites for all members with either cheap or free beverages both alchoholic and non, munchies, and stuff like hotdogs and pizza pockets. We have up to 5 tracks of simultanious programming and free static displays for local clubs. And more often than not, a wonderful program book.

We have all this, and we don't have mega-corperations buying huge tracks of land...and how much do we charge? Max $50.00. Who is making all the money?!?!?!

ttyl
Farrell McGovern
Co-Chair and founder: CAN-CON SF conference
Have worked on/Gophered at over 50 conferences