RE: CloudStack Conferences

[Karen Vuong <ka...@citrix.com>]

Thanks, Marco! I will put you in touch with Angela and Kevlin from the Linux Foundation and you could make the introductions.

Karen

From: Marco Sinhoreli [mailto:marco.sinhoreli@shapeblue.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2015 3:27 PM
To: marketing@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: Re: CloudStack Conferences

About sponsors, I heard from globo.com they have some plan to sponsor CCC this year. I can put them in touch if you consider a global conference.

Best regards,

Marco Sinhoreli
Consultant Manager

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From: ilya musayev <il...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: "marketing@cloudstack.apache.org<ma...@cloudstack.apache.org>" <ma...@cloudstack.apache.org>>
Date: quinta-feira, 5 de março de 2015 20:21
To: "marketing@cloudstack.apache.org<ma...@cloudstack.apache.org>" <ma...@cloudstack.apache.org>>
Subject: Re: CloudStack Conferences

While Apache Con is great conceptually, however some folks just follow one of many apache projects, in this case - my main focus is cloudstack.

Everything else is secondary and harder to justify.

Also, if it makes sense, increase the attendee fee, for some of us, its not a huge deal to justify $1000. For cash strapped, they can choose to use a promo code, for others who's employers are more lenient, 1k would not be a big deal - if comparing to other conferences.
On 3/5/15 2:53 PM, Chiradeep Vittal wrote:
Some of the CloudStack Days are collocated with other conferences.
E.g.,
ApacheCon NA & CloudStack Days Austin.
ApacheCon EU & CloudStack Days Budapest
http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/cloudstack-austin/attend/cloudstack-days-events
Surely your company uses more than one Apache technology? :)


From: Arjan <er...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: "marketing@cloudstack.apache.org<ma...@cloudstack.apache.org>" <ma...@cloudstack.apache.org>>
Date: Thursday, March 5, 2015 at 2:39 PM
To: "marketing@cloudstack.apache.org<ma...@cloudstack.apache.org>" <ma...@cloudstack.apache.org>>
Subject: Re: CloudStack Conferences

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 <ru...@gmail.com>> 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 <te...@gmail.com>> wrote:
On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 3:45 AM, ilya musayev <il...@gmail.com>> 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


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