I agree that conference-ish things are mostly not broken, and that we
should keep talking about this in order to make them better. I also
think Tim makes an important point here:
>>then let's not separate the two parts of C4L conf like a
traditional conference
Why do we need to define workshops or hackfests as "pre-conference"?
Why not just say "this is the conference: hackfests, workshops, talks,
great people, and brew-tasting"? And maybe more people would participate
or benefit if hackfest was "middle-conference" or "post-conference",
i.e. after they're spurred by presentations and ready to dive in.
And couch-surfing ++
I'm expecting I won't get to spend my library's entire travel budget to
attend C4L this year and lodging obviously accounts for a huge chunk of
that. If not, I'll just save up my bottles of KC's finest for next year
and hope some newcomer replaces me in the registration rush.
Jason
Jason Stirnaman
Biomedical Librarian, Digital Projects
A.R. Dykes Library, University of Kansas Medical Center
jstirna...@kumc.edu
913-588-7319
On 11/10/2011 at 11:01 AM, in message
<cajajqvrgw8ogxojo3+zzwgz1e2ozyfafgx5dw2y1ajumhdj...@mail.gmail.com>,
Cary Gordon<listu...@chillco.com> wrote:
In the grand scheme of things, $150 for a conference is very low, and
$320 for a pre conference is low, as well. This doesn't make them
cheap or mean that everyone who would like to go, can go. I fully
understand that $25 is in inconsequential amount of money… Unless it
is your $25.
I think that there is consensus that we want to keep c4l at its
current size, and I think that money shouldn't be the primary factor
determining attendance.
Perhaps it would be good if we raised our price to $200 or $250,
increased our sponsorship fundraising efforts, and used the excess to
provide partial and full (including travel and lodging) scholarships
for those who need them.
Maybe we should encourage local couch surfing hosts.
We should keep talking about this.
Cary
On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 9:11 PM, Timothy McGeary<timmcge...@gmail.com>
wrote:
At $150 for registration, I agree with Kyle, that this is a very
good price
in comparison to most technical conferences. Perhaps you could
consider the
extra airfare and hotel room night as the price of the
pre-conference.
The extra airfare and hotel, in this case, is $320 per person.
Hardly a
reasonable comparison.
I realize that I'm now looking at this from a different perspective
than
when I was a first time Code4Libber, when I was simply try to soak it
all
in and build a network of people I could work with on projects that I
and
my library were interested in. Now I have to be concerned with
budgets,
and getting people other than myself to C4L so they can join the
community
and contribute.
If the price points of rentals goes down because of the preconf day
where
the costs are mostly a wash, then that's great, but then let's not
separate
the two parts of C4L conf like a traditional conference, or put such
emphasis on the "participation" in a preconf that undermines or
undervalues
the participation of someone coming to the conference days
themselves. We
can't have it both ways. Code4Lib conferences *ARE* unique and they
are
invaluable to many, many, many people who are fortunate enough to A)
register in time and B) can afford to come at all. So let's not
diminish
this by presuming or assuming anything, rather take extra care in
protecting this event as a treasure, lest all of the tireless efforts
the
conference planners put forth be for naught.
The last thing I'd want to see is C4L be under attended because
people
couldn't justify reasonable costs to their organization due to lack
of
information, openness, or mere confusion.
Tim
--
Tim McGeary
Team Leader, Library Technology
Lehigh University
610-758-4998
tim.mcge...@lehigh.edu
timmcge...@gmail.com
GTalk/Yahoo/Skype/Twitter: timmcgeary
484-938-TMCG (Google Voice)
On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 6:26 PM, Fowler, Jason<jason.fow...@ubc.ca>
wrote:
let people completely fend for themselves w/r/t to food/drink on
the
preconference day.
Coders consume from the "flat" food group. Anything that fits
beneath a
door…
..jason
On 11-11-09 3:12 PM, "Kevin S. Clarke"<kscla...@gmail.com<mailto:
kscla...@gmail.com>> wrote:
On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 1:41 PM, Kyle Banerjee<baner...@uoregon.edu
<mailto:baner...@uoregon.edu>> wrote:
Yes, we have. We've even had people want to come to the
preconference
(and pay the preconference charge) but not attend the regular
conference. :-)
They've wanted to do it, but have they actually been able to? What
makes
c4l worthwhile is the ability to mix it up. If people attend with
the
intention of just receiving specific training, they're not
contributing and
that undermines the experience for everyone.
Yes... at least at the Asheville conference (though there were just
a
couple).
C4l has seen both free and paid preconferences and it's easy enough
to
rationalize either.
Having put on a paid preconference, I think if I were to do it
again
I'd make it free. We received several comments about the lack of
food
at the Asheville preconference (though we had coffee). I think
having
a price attached to it leads to expectations like that. Perhaps it
is
better to just say "The preconference is free... the price for the
conference is $150" ... let people completely fend for themselves
w/r/t to food/drink on the preconference day.
Fwiw...
Kevin
--
Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
http://chillco.com
