I’ve added a topic to the wiki page for “topics for discussion” at the QAH:
Should we rename this event? Eg to “Perl QA Workshop”, or something like that. There’s a well-established definition for “hackathon” these days, and the QAH is not one of those. As a result when talking to potential sponsors, we have to be careful to define what the event is, how it works, and the attitude towards the output(s). I’ve had plenty of discussions explaining “no, not that kind of hackathon”. Ie people who aren’t already familiar with the QAH hear “4-day … hackathon” and think something along the lines of: So you’re going to get together and lash things up in a frenzy, in teams competing against each other. Uh, no. Producing the number of sponsors we have requires contacting an awful lot more companies and organisations, and I wonder how many of them skim it and think: So they want some money to get together for a hackathon? We don’t support hackathons. And then don’t bother replying. Or just reply with a “no”, which obviously we have to respect. On the flip side, it’s an established name, which is being held for the 9th time this year. I’m not saying “we must change the name!", but think we should consider it. Neil
