Hi,
On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 10:59 AM, Jukka Zitting wrote:
> I’m putting together a plan for a “Content Technology” track for the
> ApacheCon US 2009 in Oakland later this year.
I’m moving forward with this. Apart from Thorsten’s proposal, are you
interested in organizing some Cocoon-related program at the ApacheCon?
The Content Technology track is already pretty crowded so I probably
can’t promise you more than a single normal session with speaker
benefits (note that unlike before, speaker travel is not covered), but
we can also arrange space for unofficial sessions, workshops, meetups,
etc. To do this, I need people who’d like to help in planning and
organizing the Cocoon parts of the event. Any volunteers?
See the suggestions below and
http://wiki.apache.org/jackrabbit/ContentTrackApacheConUs2009 for more
information.
BR,
Jukka Zitting
SUGGESTIONS
* People pay to see the scheduled content at ApacheCon. Provide
material which will reach and attract our paying audience. If you have
Geeks for Geeks content to present, please save that for the daytime
un-con tracks, or evening MeetUps/BOFs. Consider that people attending
the main tracks probably need to have a clear business case for
registration costs - but your community are free to attend the free
evening programming (and that’s free as in beer!), so choose
appropriately!
* Work with your community. Some of the best presentations have been
from presenters who don’t belong to that project’s PMC.
* Be creative! You’re not limited to the strict 50-minute-sessions
model. You can organize the schedule in whatever way makes the most
sense for your project’s content. (Ensure that your attendees still
get their coffee- and lunch-breaks and keynote sessions.)
* The main track drives paid attendence, so you must submit
well-written proposals. If the proposals are not clearly written, and
answer “Who, What, and Why?”, then what can be expected of the
presentations? We’ve reviewed the proposals that were received in the
main CFP, and they accompany this email. You can use these verbatim
(appropriately edited for spelling/to fit the program!), or work with
the submitters to refine them to work better within the track you’re
planning and/or solicit completely new proposals. Use whichever
solution creates the most effective program.
* During the day, we will run un-con tracks on Wednesday through
Friday in smaller rooms (capacity ~50), also coordinated by PMCs. They
do not need to be formalized until the morning of the track, but
guidance for the prospective audience can be gathered on the un-con
tracks’ wiki pages. Registration will be required to attend these
parallel tracks, but they’re a great place to schedule the
?Geeks4Geeks content that’s really interesting for a narrower
audience.
FREE STUFF!
During the day, on Monday and Tuesday, we will run a free BarCamp
alongside the traditional Hackathon. The space set aside for the
BarCamp and Hackathon is truly massive, and should have a very open
feel without excessive background noise. By colocating these events,
we can enable attendees to jump between hacking together and attending
BarCamp sessions.
Free evening activities include MeetUps and BOFs. These will be
organized by the PMCs, and can be scheduled for any night from Sunday
through Thursday. Wednesday night is set aside for the free BIG
FEATHER BIRTHDAY BASH! and Welcome Reception. We expect to attract
many commuting attendees from the Bay Area, both for the main program
(paid registration required) and for all of these free events and
opportunities.
REALITY CHECK
Of course the economic realities do not permit the Conference Producer
to cover the costs of everyone who has information to present to such
a diverse audience of this many topics. For this conference, for each
hour of main track material, the Producer will be covering one (1)
hotel night plus one (1) conference pass, and will provide an
additional (1) night for overseas travelers. However, the conference
will not be paying airfare for speakers from the US and Canada, and
will work on a limited case-by-case basis with those from overseas.
And with so many friends in the Bay Area, those who are not covered
can consider staying with fellow ASF members who are willing to host.
If you’re not sure how this will work for you, or what it means when
you start getting creative with the program, please check with your
planning-mentor.
