+1 for Dublin-only I would have preferred London or Paris (easy to reach, bigger audiences) to be honest, but I understand there is a context here.
Good points, Adrian. Lucian -- Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology! Nux! www.nux.ro ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Giles Sirett" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Friday, 6 March, 2015 17:11:36 > Subject: RE: CloudStack Conferences > Adrian > > > The problem here IS is that we're trying to tick two, quite different, boxes: > 1. increase project awareness by doing MORE, smaller events for people to find > out about ACS. For me the 5 x1 day format works very well for that > 2. provide an opportunity for the existing community to meet & share > > > The 5 x events *should* achieve the first, but I think they may be > counter-intuitive to the 2nd. > However, as Arjan et al explain this all takes time & money and the situation > is > we haven’t got enough of either to achieve both of these objectives > > I think you have summarised really well here and suggested a very pragmatic > way > forward. > > I really do have to agree that I don’t think Budpaest & Dublin can both fly, > being so close to each other. We should focus our efforts on one or the other. > For me, that would have to be Dublin: there is enough ACS people within an > hours > flight, and I think cloudopen is likely to be a better attended event than > apachecon > Of course, I would love to see both being successful (especially since I just > paid to sponsor them all :-) ) - but I don’t think we've got enough cycles > between us to get 2 x agendas organised - if somebody thinks different and is > prepared to take on a 2nd agenda within a week , please shout > > Hopefully there will be enough critical mass for Austin & Seattle. I don’t > think > Tokyo will be a problem at all > > Although I am always fearful of trying to do DIY conferences - I think, if we > can find the space to bolt on a community day (or two) around the Dublin > event, > we could probably overcome the objections that many people have of not wanting > to travel for only a 1 day event. > > We can get the EU user group people involved (looking back at people like you > Adrian :-) ) and combine our autumn meeting and I'm SURE we can find some > meeting space in Dblin for a couple of days > > Thinking about it: there is also another way of looking at this. > The cloudstack day in Dublin is co-located with linux cloud open. These a > really > good events (I've been to the last two) - they have a big attendance and > they > are, well, focussed on "open cloud" - that’s us ! > At last years, there were 4 (I think) ACS talks at cloudopen. > Theres nothing to stop us, as a community, submitting talks to that conference > and using it as somewhere to "congregate". > If we ask very very very nicely - we could maybe find out if theres a spare > room > during that event we could use for a hackathon stlye thing for Cloudstack > > Either way: I think we could, as a community, decide to be at one of these en > mass > > > > > > > > Kind Regards > Giles > > D: +44 20 3603 0541 | M: +44 796 111 2055 > [email protected] > > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Adrian Lewis [mailto:[email protected]] >> Sent: 06 March 2015 16:02 >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: RE: CloudStack Conferences >> >> My opinion (not sure how much it counts but anyway) is that there are a >> number of problems here that could be solved with relative ease. Looking in >> particular at Dublin/Budapest, I'd say that these are very good candidates >> for >> merging. The issues I see with having these as separate events are: >> >> 1. Being a relatively small community still, we should aim to get together >> physically as much as possible. Mailing lists are great but it's getting >> people >> together that seems to make stuff happen. Communities don't work well if >> they're split up. Clearly, a single global conference causes other issues but >> fragmenting unnecessarily seems counter-productive to me. >> >> 2. As already mentioned, most visitors will need to fly and the difference >> between the cost of a flight to Budapest vs a cost of a flight to Dublin for >> most >> candidates for either event will not be all that significant when all costs >> for >> attending are added up. >> >> 3. We may not have big sponsors, pots of cash to spare, or unlimited >> organisational resources so combining the two venues would surely help >> immensely in that regard. Economies of scale come into it as sponsors are >> more >> likely to want to chip in if there's greater attendance at a single event >> than >> two >> smaller ones. >> >> 4. People are less likely to bother even registering (or getting expenses >> approved) if, as many have already mentioned, the event is just a single day >> and >> justifying the efforts/costs then becomes a real issue. I understand that >> previously colocated events with ApacheCon haven't actually resulted in many >> people going to both. Ilya has mentioned this as well. >> >> In addition to combining the two events, I think that it should be relatively >> easy >> to have a single 'official' day that is well funded and organised but have >> one >> (or >> even two) day events before or after the main event that can be informally >> organised by the community. Call them hackathons if you will but not >> necessarily dedicated to writing code - perhaps conduct panel discussions >> around marketing, direction of the project, different use-cases (or markets), >> and >> some coding as well. If ShapeBlue were interested in doing some 'sample >> chapters' of their training courses as well I'm sure that would go down well >> for >> those new to ACS (perhaps the day before the main event). These additional >> days could be done without any AV, catering, presents, sponsored evening >> events etc. >> I'm quite sure most people wouldn't complain about buying their own >> drinks/food. >> >> As for a venue however, this is the hole in my argument. Is it safe to say >> that >> there are enough ACS types in Dublin that something could be organised? >> Would Paddy Power be able to supply meeting rooms for example? >> Is there an academic community in Dublin that might be happy to assist with >> these sorts of informal events? Even a hotel with a bar/restaurant might be >> willing if we agreed to a minimum spend on food/drink and that we'd put it as >> the top listed suggestion for where to stay when attending. >> They might even give us a discount on rooms. >> >> Obviously if it appears that we do have resources to improve these additional >> informal days then great but in terms of commitment, we could set a much >> lower requirement vs trying to run a full two or three-day event. Doesn't >> mean >> that the event can't autoscale with demand! >> >> How does that resound with everyone? >> >> Adrian >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Arjan [mailto:[email protected]] >> Sent: 06 March 2015 05:32 >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: CloudStack Conferences >> >> Price is mostly venue, catering, audio video, evening events. (Gifts) >> >> Time is number of tracks, speakers, sponsors, look and feel. >> >> So you can fiddle around with combinations. Two day low profile single track >> could be easier than 1 day the whole shebang with party and speaker dinner >> etc >> >> Rgds, >> >> Arjan >> >> > On 5 mrt. 2015, at 23:56, ilya musayev <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > >> > Arjan and Sebastian >> > >> > Thanks for sharing your experiences in setting up the conferences, >> > >> > Just curious would 2 day events be more justifiable, easier to >> > organize >> and also less expensive? >> > >> > Thanks >> > ilya >> > >> >> On 3/5/15 2:39 PM, Arjan wrote: >> >> Thanks Seb, >> >> >> >> I agree. We wanted to organize ccceu14 again, but the effort on >> organizing another 3 day event was too big. Next to that for Amsterdam we >> have put in serious money together with Citrix. >> >> >> >> So 3 day events work, but you need time and / or funds. >> >> >> >> A one day event is much easier. Single track. Smaller location etc etc. >> >> >> >> I am in favor of the hybrid approach though, but most likely the 1 >> >> day >> events will happen more. Maybe it is even an option to do the devops days >> approach. Every city can organize one as a sort of franchise model. >> >> >> >> Arjan >> >> >> >>> On 5 mrt. 2015, at 10:00, Sebastien Goasguen <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> >> >>> Morning folks, >> >>> >> >>> This is a good point, however like Chip mentioned we would need >> sponsors. >> >>> >> >>> Organizing a 3 day event is a big task, you need to find a location >> that suits people, you need to pay for that location, you need a program, you >> need attendance, you need sponsors etc. >> >>> >> >>> For Amsterdam, Schuberg took the lead role. Citrix was the main >> financial backer with Schuberg. I believe it basically took ~3 people full >> time >> from Schuberg for several months to organize things the way it was, plus a >> lot >> of >> time and energy from other folks to get sponsors, drive attendance etc. The >> event cost ~200k euros and was in the black at the end (no secret there). >> >>> >> >>> For Denver and Budapest we aligned with the ASF and leveraged the >> Linux Foundation to do the logistics and help get sponsors. It worked out >> but it >> is >> still a lot of effort to get the program together, help LF reach out to >> sponsors >> etc. >> As a side note, even though these were 3 day events, lots of folks arrive on >> tutorial day, spend the keynote day and leave at night or in the morning. >> That's >> why I pushed for a poster session at the end of Budapest, because typically >> folks >> leave before and we end up with semi empty sessions in the last afternoon. >> >>> >> >>> The bottom line is that it is a question of cost, attendance, who >> takes the lead in planning and what does the event look like. We could >> organize >> three day events much cheaply. Something that comes to mind is configuration >> management camp in Ghent. It drives 400 people, is hosted at the university. >> There is almost no sponsors/booth, no signage, no video recording, very >> little >> lunch etc. But if we want something like Denver or Budapest, we are looking >> at 6 >> figures plus the human investment. >> >>> >> >>> CloudStack is a brand owned by this community, so anyone here is >> >>> free >> and should feel entitled to organize its own CloudStack Day close to home. >> Norway, India etc. It could be a 30 people event or it could grow into its >> own >> 300/500 people event. The Japanese community for example organizes >> CloudStack Japan on their own and drives 500 people. >> >>> >> >>> Now all these 1 day events are co-located (before, after or during) >> the linuxcon events (cloud open, KVM forum, Xen summit, Kernel summit etc). >> So I am sure you can justify going for 3 days, attend the other LF events and >> attend the CloudStack day. I do think there is better alignment with LF >> events >> than with other ASF projects. Sadly the Apachecon itself is not a large >> conference, and I don't think we got the cross-pollination we were hoping. LF >> events are much bigger (Dusseldorf in the fall was 1,500 people). >> >>> >> >>> The risk I do see with 1 day event is that we get fragmented and >> >>> that >> we don't see each other that often. >> >>> >> >>> To conclude, it is key that everyone on our lists feels entitled to >> >>> do >> things and take the lead. In some sense there is no such thing as us vs. >> "the organizers". We are all the organizers of these conferences. It is a >> matter >> of >> who has the time and the will to step up and lead these events >> (1 or 3 days ) and who will attend. >> >>> >> >>> -If you have the time, can you take the lead and organize another 1 >> day event closer to home ? >> >>> -If you have time, can you take the lead on one of those scheduled >> events and take on the program planning ? >> >>> -If you have funds, can you sponsor the event ? >> >>> -if you have space, can you donate it for an event ? >> >>> >> >>> >> >>> -sebastien >> >>> >> >>> >> >>>> On Mar 5, 2015, at 2:01 AM, Erik Weber <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>>> >> >>>> On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 3:45 AM, ilya musayev >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>>> Am i right in assuming that we no longer going to have 3 day long >> conferences and instead 5 separate cloudstack day events? It does makes sense >> as it helps with awareness, but.. >> >>>> >> >>>> Looking at it from my employers side, as well as my personally - >> >>>> its >> a bit hard to justify a trip for just one day :( On average, a person would >> have >> to >> travel a night before and leave a day later to make the most of it. That is 2 >> days >> spent in transit to attend 1 day event. >> >>>> >> >>>> Lets see how this works out, but i really think we need at least 1 >> event that is longer than a day - so we can have a community get together >> that >> many would be able to attend. >> >>>> >> >>>> I must agree. >> >>>> >> >>>> Unless you live near one of the airline hubs you'll most likely >> >>>> have >> to travel three days anyway. >> >>>> In my case I have to travel the night before to get there before >> >>>> 1PM, >> and as anyone would want to attend the night events (that's usually where I >> personally get most out of the conference) I have stay a night longer. >> >>>> >> >>>> Justifying a three day trip to attend a one day event is >> significantly harder than justifying a four day (we usually arrive a bit >> later >> on the >> first day) trip to attend a three day event. >> >>>> >> >>>> -- >> >>>> Erik >> > > Find out more about ShapeBlue and our range of CloudStack related services > > IaaS Cloud Design & Build<http://shapeblue.com/iaas-cloud-design-and-build//> > CSForge – rapid IaaS deployment framework<http://shapeblue.com/csforge/> > CloudStack Consulting<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-consultancy/> > CloudStack Software > Engineering<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-software-engineering/> > CloudStack Infrastructure > Support<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-infrastructure-support/> > CloudStack Bootcamp Training > Courses<http://shapeblue.com/cloudstack-training/> > > This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended > solely > for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions > expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent > those > of Shape Blue Ltd or related companies. If you are not the intended recipient > of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its contents, nor > copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you believe you have > received this email in error. Shape Blue Ltd is a company incorporated in > England & Wales. ShapeBlue Services India LLP is a company incorporated in > India and is operated under license from Shape Blue Ltd. Shape Blue Brasil > Consultoria Ltda is a company incorporated in Brasil and is operated under > license from Shape Blue Ltd. ShapeBlue SA Pty Ltd is a company registered by > The Republic of South Africa and is traded under license from Shape Blue Ltd. > ShapeBlue is a registered trademark.
