On Monday 16 March 2009 00:39:33 John Pinner wrote:
>
> 2009/3/15 Martin P. Hellwig <[email protected]>:
> >
> > I think not longer then one month after this years so we still have
> > freshly in our memory what worked and what not.
>
> I think that after this year's, you want to know about organising
> conferences for a few months!

Although it's tiring work, there's always stuff to do after the conference, 
anyway. I was uploading pictures and doing other things after last year's 
conference, and I think it makes sense to get stuff written up if anyone has 
the time and energy for it.

> > This also gives us the
> > opportunity to spam a lot sooner but still stay relative.
> >
> > I think we can conclude that the extra early bird works very well, what
> > we could consider is starting it earlier, but stopping it earlier too.
> > With the lessons learned till now and what comes in the future it might
> > be handy to create a sort of procedure handbook. I am more then happy to
> > make a first draft.
>
> We already have quite a bit on various wikis: that would make a good
> starting point.

I think people should take a look at the following pages. For publicity:

http://www.europython2008.eu/Planning/Publicity
http://wiki.python.org/moin/EuroPython/2007/PublicRelations (mostly copied 
into the above)

For general volunteer/planning information:

http://www.europython2008.eu/Volunteers
http://wiki.python.org/moin/EuroPython/2007

For attendee information:

http://www.europython2008.eu/Planning/Projections

(My quick attendee counting script suggests that last year we had 76 people 
from Lithuania and 29 from Poland, which we may not be able to match this 
year.)

In order to inform the annual "bikeshed" discussion about software, I wrote up 
this page some time ago:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/EuroPython/SoftwareRequirements

Some very useful material has been written up on the subject of running 
conferences:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/AdvocacyWritingTasks/RunningAConference
http://wiki.python.org/moin/ConventionHowto

> > For me I already got some things I want to do for next years EP:
> > - Subscribing to all python mailing list that are (vaguely) related to
> > the EU with the publicity@ account.
> > - Reviewing the publicity mail templates and make them a bit more future
> > proof.

I found that drafting templates on a Wiki and getting them reviewed (typically 
by Dave!) was the best approach. On that front, I'm aiming to get another 
article in the Python Papers about EuroPython which might do some good.

> > Mailing lists are only getting to a small percentage of python users who
> > may be interested to come.
> > But they are convenient and cheap! I think that any other ways of getting
> > more 'forced' publicity (that is forced we need to do initiate it) will
> > be costing a significant amount of money with probably limited effect.

The publicity pages mentioned above have some ideas, some of which we took 
from the PyCon publicity lists. Last year, I more or less expected people to 
suggest more and better places to publicise the conference, but no-one really 
said anything.

> > However once we have a good turn up we might think about 'loyalty'
> > bonuses, like a voucher that will get them rebate for their next EP
> > conference. Also 'recruiting' local publicity managers at the conference
> > might be a good idea (I volunteer) since till now we have only a limited
> > number of people handling publicity. Key people would be the ones that
> > work at a large python shop, universities and write articles for relevant
> > magazines,
>
> We've just gained a podcast (linuxoutlaws) podcasts may be the easiest
> way to reach large numbers.

I've got EuroPython mentioned on the Python 411 podcast, and since Michael 
Foord is mentioned every week on that podcast, I think we have our feet in 
the door. Such podcasts are good ways to get people acquainted with the 
community and, of course, its celebrities. ;-)

> > but at this
> > stage I have to say anybody will do :-)
> >
> > I am afraid that any other method of getting more publicity will cost
> > money and I am not sure that when there is any money left we should spend
> > it on publicity.
>
> Agreed. In my experience paid publicity doesn't work. The best is
> word-of-mouth.

It would be interesting to know how people found out about EuroPython. This is 
a survey question, usually, isn't it?

[...]

> > I hope that other people have better ideas then me, otherwise we are
> > doomed ;-)

I don't think you're short of ideas, Martin. I think it's really a question of 
deciding how to publicise the conference and then just doing it - "executing" 
as the business people like to say.

Paul
_______________________________________________
Europython-improve mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython-improve

Reply via email to