Raw Notes from 10/16/12 Wicked Good Ruby Conf

[Dan Pickett]

If there's anything I forgot or left out please add. I'll see if we can get a wiki going or something.

Stuff to Do

* venue ($35k)

  * David is organizing A/V logistics

* uniqueness

* sponsors

  * James and Joe owning

  * partnerships with education / students?

  * possible fellowship opportunity? application process for subsidized participants?

* attendance

  * Tickets, insurance

  * Patrick to own

* hotels

  * Pickett to manage

* stay with a local?

* extra stuff (hotels)

* after hours (ignite type events)

  * Pickett to manage (Wilbur has a bar, with the opportunity of having a band)

* keynotes

  * everybody

* swag

* Brand

  * Johnny

* food

  * Eduardo and Will to investigate the Wilbur's requirements 

* site

* CFP's (pull requests)

  * pull request workflow

  * solicit preferred speakers?

* Budget

  * Brian and James

* ConfFreaks? Mark to talk to Colby

* Workshops - Andrew & Johnny

* Tech

* hallway track? the venue could be not conducive

  * Rent a room from Emerson?

  * Andrew to own this

* speaker's dinner

* speaker's room

* PR and Marketing

  * Brian to run with this

  * Ruby Rogues

  * Ruby5

  * RailsCast sponsorship?

* Mark to talk to Corey Haines about a Code Retreat

Open Issues

* power? wifi? - stake an opinion? 

* power on stage? mifi/hardline for network connectivity on stage? harline might be important due to quantity of radios

* ask on attendee sign up - what do you want to get out of the conference?

* parent 5013c with PRX? Andrew to discuss with PRX business manager

Items that annoy us

* notification to people that submitted talks

* not announced speakers when tickets are on sale

Opinions

* cater to both n00bs and advanced rubyists (document the sophistication in the agenda)

Off the wall ideas

* period of time for open forum for speakers (similar to BoF sesssions but less formal) - a Rails fair

  * can't be pitchy/salesy

* lightning talks?

* Mark to talk to Addison Wesley around books and book giveaways

Attendance

* aiming for 300 attendees, venue can hold 700, probably want to cap at 500

* aiming for a $250 / ticket charge (early birds, free tickets)

Continue to communicate via google groups

--

=========================

Dan Pickett

Principal at LaunchWare, Inc.

launchware.com | twitter.com/dpickett | twitter.com/launchware

[sean]

Great meeting, everyone!

I'd like to sign up to help out with:

 * Venue coordination

 * Workshops (I already mentioned this to Johnny last night)

 * Potential space at Emerson (my wife is an alumna and I may also have some contacts through Berklee, which sometimes acts as a sister school to Emerson)

 * After hours events (I've negotiated with a few bars for large groups of out-of-town people)

 * Budget (Brian, if you need me, I'm in)

Those are what jump out to me now, but I'll be looking forward to helping out wherever I can.

Sean

[jboursiquot]

Thanks for offering to help on the workshops front Sean. You, Andrew and I have some homework to do surrounding what, where, who and at what price.

First thing we'll need is to find out what other conferences have done in the past in term of workshop topics, what their attendance numbers looked like with regards to the overall conference and what they charged. If anybody knows or has a relationship with any ruby/rails conference organizers, I'd love an introduction and I can take it from there.

We'll also need a place to hold the workshop(s). Let's explore the Emerson possibility among others. Ideally the location should be in town to facilitate access to public transportation.

Regarding the instructor(s), it'd be great to get  a well-known presenter or instructor to help draw in people. I'm also open to reaching out to local shops like Thoughtbot who put on workshops of their own and see if they'd be willing to donate a workshop or at least do so at a reduced price. I want to have a plan around what we expect to charge for the workshops before asking and adjust based on what they're willing to agree to.

Andrew, Sean, let's discuss further in a separate thread.

Johnny