[linux-elitists] Conference planning

[Ilan Rabinovitch]

On 4/27/09 10:32 AM, Don Marti wrote:
> Just thinking some more about what makes community
> conferences better than corporate conferences.
>

Interesting ideas Don.  Unfortunately I was not able to attend the 
OpenSourceWorld BOF at SCALE this past February (running a conference 
seems to keep you busy, who would have thought?), but I would be very 
interested in discussing  and investigating the differences between the 
two types of events further.


> One more difference: the speaker lounge.  At LWCE,
> there's in effect this little secret elite conference
> just for speakers.  At SCALE, you see speakers out
> in conversation in the lobby/bar area.  Looks like
> a major attendee bonus.  I'm inclined to ask IDG
> management to scratch the speaker lounge, and just
> have a speaker office and decent numbers of tables
> and chairs set up open to everyone.
>

At SCALE we've actually been discussing adding a speaker green room to 
help speakers prepare for their sessions, test their gear with the A/V 
equipment, etc.   While we offer conference laptops, which are supported 
and tested with the A/V equipment,  most speakers opt to use their own 
laptops.  In many cases they then run into video problems with the 
projectors.   The goal in our case would not however be a lounge where 
they would spend the entire day, but rather a green room they could go 
to and remedy any potential hick-ups with equipment.


Is it possible that some of the distance between the speakers and 
attendees comes from the types of speakers/attendees at the conference? 
   In the case of SCALE, the vast majority of speakers are active 
community members, where as historically I recall LWCE had more 
"corporate" speakers.


-Ilan