Rethinking WineConf

[Shachar Shemesh]

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

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