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

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

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