[opensuse-marketing] openSUSE conference 2010 approaching

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Michael Loeffler

16 Apr 2010 16 Apr '10

14:33

Moin, first refresh your mind and/or get inspired of the openSUSE conference 2009 [1]. And then let's have some starting conversation about openSUSE conference 2010. Most important for the start is a place and a date. As place we think Nürnberg, Germany is a good fit as it is good to reach from where ever you're coming from and its a convenient place to attract as many SUSE/Novell developers as possible. For the venue we're aiming for the same venue we had last year - Berufsförderungswerk Nürnberg [2] - which is perfect from a conference perspective and has 75 hotel rooms on-site with a reasonable price. Downside was internet connectivity (2Mbit) but they meanwhile can offer 4Mbit and work on getting 10Mbit till mid of this year. So, with some luck this downside should be solved till the conference takes place. From a timing perspective we currently have two options for the openSUSE conference: a) week of Sept 6-12 b) week of Oct 18 - 24 I strongly vote for the latter variant b) as in Southern Germany its not just still vacation season, it's still school vacation till Sept 13th or so which means pretty many people are on vacation in reality. Further, most of the preparation work would fall into the globally vacation season which might not be perfect. Last year we had a 4 days conference [3] from Thursday through Sunday which imo was the right duration. My question would be if it should shift days, eg. from Wednesday through Saturday ? For the conference in general I propose to create a team which takes care of everything such as key notes, major topics, content in general, sponsoring, special events, PR, advertising etc.. What about doing a openSUSE conference 2010 kick-off meeting next week on Thursday 22, 6pm CEST [4] on openSUSE-project IRC channel? Looking forward having an effective conference organization and to see you all at openSUSE conference 2010. Best M [1] http://gallery.opensuse.org/Conference%2009/ [2] http://www.bfw-nuernberg.de/admin.tool/_cms/de/Content/na/na/19,0.html [3] http://en.opensuse.org/Conference_2009 [4] http://tinyurl.com/y289c3c -- Michael Löffler, Product Management SUSE LINUX Products GmbH - Nürnberg - AG Nürnberg - HRB 16746 - GF: Markus Rex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org

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Bryen M. Yunashko

16 Apr 16 Apr

15:02

On Fri, 2010-04-16 at 16:33 +0200, Michael Loeffler wrote:

...

Moin,

first refresh your mind and/or get inspired of the openSUSE conference 2009 [1].

And then let's have some starting conversation about openSUSE conference 2010. Most important for the start is a place and a date. As place we think Nürnberg, Germany is a good fit as it is good to reach from where ever you're coming from and its a convenient place to attract as many SUSE/Novell developers as possible. For the venue we're aiming for the same venue we had last year - Berufsförderungswerk Nürnberg [2] - which is perfect from a conference perspective and has 75 hotel rooms on-site with a reasonable price. Downside was internet connectivity (2Mbit) but they meanwhile can offer 4Mbit and work on getting 10Mbit till mid of this year. So, with some luck this downside should be solved till the conference takes place.

- I think the cost of Berufsforderungswerk is very beneficial to planning the conference as it ensures we can help focus whatever conference funding we have on other needs. My only issue with Berufsforderungswerk is that the name is sooo long that I never learned how to pronounce it. :-) = Lack of solid internet access was both a positive and negative. It was positive in that it forced us to focus on the conference rather than spending time fooling around online all the time. But, negatives were that we were unable to access the internet to download or demonstrate stuff in the hallways to each other. Also, we were unable to tweet/blog/publicize the conference activities live. This is something that the marketing team should look at and come up with some kind of good "press corps" plan that takes any internet limitations into consideration.

...

From a timing perspective we currently have two options for the openSUSE conference: a) week of Sept 6-12 b) week of Oct 18 - 24

I strongly vote for the latter variant b) as in Southern Germany its not just still vacation season, it's still school vacation till Sept 13th or so which means pretty many people are on vacation in reality. Further, most of the preparation work would fall into the globally vacation season which might not be perfect.

Well, from US perspective, students are returning at beginning of September or end of August. I am unsure about the rest of the world. The question though is whether "student vacation" is a good thing or a bad thing? If students are not in class, are they more likely to attend because they are on vacation? You brought this up during last board meeting and I think we reached a general consensus that considering the vacation issues and other events happening in September, October looked much more attractive. So, I'm voting for October as well.

...

Last year we had a 4 days conference [3] from Thursday through Sunday which imo was the right duration. My question would be if it should shift days, eg. from Wednesday through Saturday ?

Yes, most definitely we should shift days. The length is perfect, but travel abroad is not that easy from Nuremberg. If we end on Sunday, then abroad travelers can't leave until Monday. Which means abroad workers can't return to work until Tuesday. I would vote for Wed-Sat for conference days, and then leave Sunday open as a general informal hackday for those that want to hang out and continue doing some uninterrupted work.

...

For the conference in general I propose to create a team which takes care of everything such as key notes, major topics, content in general, sponsoring, special events, PR, advertising etc..

Yes, the conference will be even more successful in appearance when it looks like it is organized by its own community. I endorse this proposal.

...

What about doing a openSUSE conference 2010 kick-off meeting next week on Thursday 22, 6pm CEST [4] on openSUSE-project IRC channel?

I think a kick-off meeting is good and the conference planning itself should include broad community discussion. But I think you should consider contacting a few people first whom you think would be good organizers and get them to discuss and frame/shape the ideas before presenting it to the general population. otherwise, we spend all of our time with "I wanna this, I wanna that... I wanna... I wanna.." and not enough time actually focusing on what it is we can and should do based on whatever resources we have available to us (i.e., funding, services, etc.) Most definitely, I would like to see folks from Marketing participate in the conference planning. So, any of you folks on this team who are interested (AND HAVE THE TIME BECAUSE THIS IS A BUSY PROJECT!) please step up. I'll be around as well, but more as a Board Member so I want to make sure Marketing folks have the opportunity to participate and get more experience.

...

Looking forward having an effective conference organization and to see you all at openSUSE conference 2010.

Best M

[1] http://gallery.opensuse.org/Conference%2009/ [2] http://www.bfw-nuernberg.de/admin.tool/_cms/de/Content/na/na/19,0.html [3] http://en.opensuse.org/Conference_2009 [4] http://tinyurl.com/y289c3c -- Michael Löffler, Product Management SUSE LINUX Products GmbH - Nürnberg - AG Nürnberg - HRB 16746 - GF: Markus Rex

-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org

Shayon Mukherjee

15:46

On 04/16/2010 08:32 PM, Bryen M. Yunashko wrote:

...

On Fri, 2010-04-16 at 16:33 +0200, Michael Loeffler wrote:

- I think the cost of Berufsforderungswerk is very beneficial to planning the conference as it ensures we can help focus whatever conference funding we have on other needs. My only issue with Berufsforderungswerk is that the name is sooo long that I never learned how to pronounce it. :-)

= Lack of solid internet access was both a positive and negative. It was positive in that it forced us to focus on the conference rather than spending time fooling around online all the time. But, negatives were that we were unable to access the internet to download or demonstrate stuff in the hallways to each other. Also, we were unable to tweet/blog/publicize the conference activities live. This is something that the marketing team should look at and come up with some kind of good "press corps" plan that takes any internet limitations into consideration.

...

...
What about doing a openSUSE conference 2010 kick-off meeting next week on Thursday 22, 6pm CEST [4] on openSUSE-project IRC channel?

I think a kick-off meeting is good and the conference planning itself should include broad community discussion. But I think you should consider contacting a few people first whom you think would be good organizers and get them to discuss and frame/shape the ideas before presenting it to the general population. otherwise, we spend all of our time with "I wanna this, I wanna that... I wanna... I wanna.." and not enough time actually focusing on what it is we can and should do based on whatever resources we have available to us (i.e., funding, services, etc.)

Most definitely, I would like to see folks from Marketing participate in the conference planning. So, any of you folks on this team who are interested (AND HAVE THE TIME BECAUSE THIS IS A BUSY PROJECT!) please step up. I'll be around as well, but more as a Board Member so I want to make sure Marketing folks have the opportunity to participate and get more experience.

...
Looking forward having an effective conference organization and to see you all at openSUSE conference 2010.

...

...

Hello , Well this definitely sounds interesting . I would like to know more on what kind of Marketing folks you are looking for ;) . That is , what qualification they should have , on what basis they would be eligible and so on . As you said 'THIS IS A BUSY PROJECT' . Looking forward to contribute to it and get a chance to know more about openSUSE . -- Regards, SJ(Shayon) openSUSE http://en.opensuse.org/User:Wwarlock Twitter: ShayonM -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org

Bryen M. Yunashko

16:40

On Fri, 2010-04-16 at 21:16 +0530, Shayon Mukherjee wrote:

...

On 04/16/2010 08:32 PM, Bryen M. Yunashko wrote:

...
On Fri, 2010-04-16 at 16:33 +0200, Michael Loeffler wrote:

- I think the cost of Berufsforderungswerk is very beneficial to planning the conference as it ensures we can help focus whatever conference funding we have on other needs. My only issue with Berufsforderungswerk is that the name is sooo long that I never learned how to pronounce it. :-)

= Lack of solid internet access was both a positive and negative. It was positive in that it forced us to focus on the conference rather than spending time fooling around online all the time. But, negatives were that we were unable to access the internet to download or demonstrate stuff in the hallways to each other. Also, we were unable to tweet/blog/publicize the conference activities live. This is something that the marketing team should look at and come up with some kind of good "press corps" plan that takes any internet limitations into consideration.

...
...
What about doing a openSUSE conference 2010 kick-off meeting next week on Thursday 22, 6pm CEST [4] on openSUSE-project IRC channel?

I think a kick-off meeting is good and the conference planning itself should include broad community discussion. But I think you should consider contacting a few people first whom you think would be good organizers and get them to discuss and frame/shape the ideas before presenting it to the general population. otherwise, we spend all of our time with "I wanna this, I wanna that... I wanna... I wanna.." and not enough time actually focusing on what it is we can and should do based on whatever resources we have available to us (i.e., funding, services, etc.)

Most definitely, I would like to see folks from Marketing participate in the conference planning. So, any of you folks on this team who are interested (AND HAVE THE TIME BECAUSE THIS IS A BUSY PROJECT!) please step up. I'll be around as well, but more as a Board Member so I want to make sure Marketing folks have the opportunity to participate and get more experience.

...
Looking forward having an effective conference organization and to see you all at openSUSE conference 2010.

...
...
Hello , Well this definitely sounds interesting . I would like to know more on what kind of Marketing folks you are looking for ;) . That is , what qualification they should have , on what basis they would be eligible and so on . As you said 'THIS IS A BUSY PROJECT' . Looking forward to contribute to it and get a chance to know more about openSUSE .

Shayon, Good questions. First of all, oftentimes marketing teams and conference planning go hand-in-hand. Conferences are a way for companies to showcase their products. And in our case, marketing team definitely needs to participate and at the very least, be aware of what the conference goals are (which need to be determined by the upcoming Conference Planning Team.) However, I'd like to ensure that we do not turn our conference into a marketing event. We should be focusing more on hacking, developing, infrastructuring, etc. The conference should not be as focused on showcasing openSUSE but rather focus on bringing contributors together in one place. So what should the marketing team be concerned with? - Spreading the word that the conference is going to happen on <insert date here.> - Ensuring that our conference is listed on FOSS event calendars - Contacting Media people to get them to attend our event. - Reaching out to existing and potential new contributors to come to the event. - Planning a "press corps" to ensure that the event is tweeted/blogged/talked-about live during the conference - Looking at what materials (if any) can be given to contributors who attend - Coordinating how videos are gathered and posted for people to view after the conference - Maybe make a commercial or two? - Create online brochures for people interested in learning more about why they should attend the conference. - Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. The possibilities of what the marketing team can do is endless, and is limited only by your creativity. :-) Bryen -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org

Shayon Mukherjee

17 Apr 17 Apr

19:09

On 04/16/2010 10:10 PM, Bryen M. Yunashko wrote:

...

Shayon,

Good questions.

First of all, oftentimes marketing teams and conference planning go hand-in-hand. Conferences are a way for companies to showcase their products. And in our case, marketing team definitely needs to participate and at the very least, be aware of what the conference goals are (which need to be determined by the upcoming Conference Planning Team.)

However, I'd like to ensure that we do not turn our conference into a marketing event. We should be focusing more on hacking, developing, infrastructuring, etc. The conference should not be as focused on showcasing openSUSE but rather focus on bringing contributors together in one place.

So what should the marketing team be concerned with?

- Spreading the word that the conference is going to happen on <insert date here.> - Ensuring that our conference is listed on FOSS event calendars - Contacting Media people to get them to attend our event. - Reaching out to existing and potential new contributors to come to the event. - Planning a "press corps" to ensure that the event is tweeted/blogged/talked-about live during the conference - Looking at what materials (if any) can be given to contributors who attend - Coordinating how videos are gathered and posted for people to view after the conference - Maybe make a commercial or two? - Create online brochures for people interested in learning more about why they should attend the conference. - Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.

The possibilities of what the marketing team can do is endless, and is limited only by your creativity. :-)

Ok , well then looking forward to the meeting to get the entire scenario and try to contribute accordingly . Btw , is the meeting time mentioned above is Final or is flexible enough to change ? ;)

...

Bryen

-- Regards SJ(Shayon) openSUSE http://en.opensuse.org/User:wwarlock Twitter:ShayonM -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org

Andrew Wafaa

16 Apr 16 Apr

15:41

Aloha! On Fri, 2010-04-16 at 16:33 +0200, Michael Loeffler wrote:

...

Moin,

first refresh your mind and/or get inspired of the openSUSE conference 2009 [1].

Day 1 videos are now edited and up for viewing pleasure :-)

...

And then let's have some starting conversation about openSUSE conference 2010. Most important for the start is a place and a date. As place we think Nürnberg, Germany is a good fit as it is good to reach from where ever you're coming from and its a convenient place to attract as many SUSE/Novell developers as possible. For the venue we're aiming for the same venue we had last year - Berufsförderungswerk Nürnberg [2] - which is perfect from a conference perspective and has 75 hotel rooms on-site with a reasonable price. Downside was internet connectivity (2Mbit) but they meanwhile can offer 4Mbit and work on getting 10Mbit till mid of this year. So, with some luck this downside should be solved till the conference takes place.

Berufsförderungswerk Nürnberg worked pretty well I think, even if the net connection wasn't the best. So I'm happy to see this as the venue.

...

From a timing perspective we currently have two options for the openSUSE conference: a) week of Sept 6-12 b) week of Oct 18 - 24

I strongly vote for the latter variant b) as in Southern Germany its not just still vacation season, it's still school vacation till Sept 13th or so which means pretty many people are on vacation in reality. Further, most of the preparation work would fall into the globally vacation season which might not be perfect.

I would definitely vote for b). Not only does it mean that travel will be easier as vacations are over, but crucially it gives us an extra month for planning/prep etc.

...

Last year we had a 4 days conference [3] from Thursday through Sunday which imo was the right duration. My question would be if it should shift days, eg. from Wednesday through Saturday ?

I agree the length was good, I am however unable to answer the day shift question. I'm not sure it makes much of a difference, so I'm not fussed either way :-)

...

For the conference in general I propose to create a team which takes care of everything such as key notes, major topics, content in general, sponsoring, special events, PR, advertising etc..

Ah the openSUSE Conference Coordination Committee (oSC-CC). Good idea, but we need to put a call out to get volunteers to help out. I'm not sure there is the knowledge/experience in any one team. Out of interest is there a school/college/university in or near Nürnberg that deals with Media? Reason I ask is maybe it would be better if we could get them to do the filming/editing of the conference, and maybe other media related items? Just a thought.

...

What about doing a openSUSE conference 2010 kick-off meeting next week on Thursday 22, 6pm CEST [4] on openSUSE-project IRC channel?

OK I've pencilled that into my hugely busy diary.

...

Looking forward having an effective conference organization and to see you all at openSUSE conference 2010.

Best M

[1] http://gallery.opensuse.org/Conference%2009/ [2] http://www.bfw-nuernberg.de/admin.tool/_cms/de/Content/na/na/19,0.html [3] http://en.opensuse.org/Conference_2009 [4] http://tinyurl.com/y289c3c --

Regards, Andy -- Andrew Wafaa, openSUSE Member: FunkyPenguin. PGP: 0x3A36312F openSUSE: Get It, Discover It, Create It at http://www.opensuse.org

Strainu

21:20

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Michael Loeffler wrote:

...

For the venue we're aiming for the same venue we had last year - Berufsförderungswerk Nürnberg [2] - which is perfect from a conference perspective and has 75 hotel rooms on-site with a reasonable price. Downside was internet connectivity (2Mbit) but they meanwhile can offer 4Mbit and work on getting 10Mbit till mid of this year. So, with some luck this downside should be solved till the conference takes place.

As a participant at last year's conference I have several issues to report regarding Berufsförderungswerk: - it was excessively far for people coming from downtown - over 1 hour 15 in commuting. The main problem was the bus, which was only coming each half hour, and if I remember correctly had a different ticket price. I think a location that one can reach by tram would be more appropriate for that city. - in 2010 lack of Internet sucks (especially for geeks). There are no good points here; we're not monks ore slaves that should concentrate only on the matter at hand, we're mature people that can focus during the presentations and do whatever they like in the rest of the time - the place outside the conference rooms was pretty small. The solution was to talk outside the building, but the later the conference is in the year, the more chances there are of rain. The organizers should take this into account too. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org

Michael Loeffler

19 Apr 19 Apr

09:35

On Friday 16 April 2010 23:20:57 Strainu wrote:

...

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Michael Loeffler wrote:

...
For the venue we're aiming for the same venue we had last year - Berufsförderungswerk Nürnberg [2] - which is perfect from a conference perspective and has 75 hotel rooms on-site with a reasonable price. Downside was internet connectivity (2Mbit) but they meanwhile can offer 4Mbit and work on getting 10Mbit till mid of this year. So, with some luck this downside should be solved till the conference takes place.

As a participant at last year's conference I have several issues to report regarding Berufsförderungswerk: - it was excessively far for people coming from downtown - over 1 hour 15 in commuting. The main problem was the bus, which was only coming each half hour, and if I remember correctly had a different ticket price. I think a location that one can reach by tram would be more appropriate for that city. Good point - the bus was the bottle neck here. I can't guarantee a solution right now but I think a possible solution might a cab/rented car which swings between tram and venue. - in 2010 lack of Internet sucks (especially for geeks). There are no good points here; we're not monks ore slaves that should concentrate only on the matter at hand, we're mature people that can focus during the presentations and do whatever they like in the rest of the time As written the capacity already has doubled (which is not enough - I know) and we have a fair hope to get a 10Mbit line which should solve this. - the place outside the conference rooms was pretty small. The solution was to talk outside the building, but the later the conference is in the year, the more chances there are of rain. The organizers should take this into account too. In German October is called "the golden October" as its known for nice late summer weather. But yes, there might be exception and we should offer enough room that people can gather when they like to.

Best M

...

-- Michael Löffler, Product Management SUSE LINUX Products GmbH - Nürnberg - AG Nürnberg - HRB 16746 - GF: Markus Rex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org

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Andrew Wafaa
Bryen M. Yunashko
Michael Loeffler
Shayon Mukherjee
Strainu