I guess, a couple of thousand attendees would make a lot of parties happy. Best regards,
Pierre Smits *ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>* Services & Solutions for Cloud- Based Manufacturing, Professional Services and Retail & Trade http://www.orrtiz.com On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 3:54 PM, Niclas Hedhman <nic...@hedhman.org> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 4:42 PM, Pierre Smits <pierre.sm...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > Let's face it: the event costs... It cost effort to organise, it uses > > precious ASF resources. And net-wise it should be beneficial to both the > > projects and the ASF regarding supporting the projects. Meaning adding to > > the budgets, or at least be cost neutral, and leading to more > contributors > > to the projects. > > Sorry for nitpicking (although I welcome you raising the question), but > ApacheCon doesn't need to "be cost neutral". "Cost is what you Pay, Value > is what you Get.", so as long as we "Get" more than we "Pay", it is a Win > for the Foundation. Now, what "Get" includes can be hard to define in > dollar terms (unlike the "Pay" part). > > My view of ApacheCon goals; > > - Community Face Time!!! I have only attended two conferences (distance > plays a huge factor for me), but those are unforgettable days. People are > much different in real life, and we get along remarkably well. > > - Hackathon - talk project, new ideas, hack on bugs (bugathon), discuss > collaborations across projects, seek advice from some project expert, and > all that good jazz. Don't know a community? Just sit down and strike up a > conversation... Build lasting relationships, sign PGP keys. > > - Educate "Management". On licensing, on adoption "Use --> Modify --> > Contribute", on Non-profit Org status and tax breaks, on sponsorship > programs and so on. Corporations can contribute more resources, IF they are > aware of the value it brings. > > - Industry Use-cases. People like to hear about someone else did > something, and what were the results. "We changed from 200 MySQL servers to > Cassandra. Here is what we like, and here are what we had problems with." > kind of presentations always inspires others in similar situations. > > - Apache Content to Developers. All the classic project presentations. > IMHO, this shouldn't be more than 50% of all activities. > > - Innovation. When smart people come together (with beer) innovation > happens (The crux is to remember the great stuff next morning.). Seriously > though, it should be possible to 'inspire' innovation some way, by creating > a marketplace and/or a nursery of (crazy) Ideas, and give those who "click" > on a given idea, the necessary space to run with it. Not entirely sure > about the mechanics, just a vague concept in the back of my head at the > moment. > > - Marketing. Apache needs marketing, and ApacheCon is a reason to contact > every technology firm within the catchment area. For some of us, we may use > this as an opportunity to meet potential customers or strengthen ties with > existing ones. > > > Personally, I think ApacheCon should be moving towards a brighter future. > Apache is home of ~200 projects, many of which are exciting and fresh. This > should interest the public, and with a decent location and good marketing, > it should be impossible to drive record numbers to the Event. A couple of > thousand should be a reasonable goal, and if JavaZone in Norway can do that > on an all-volunteer basis, Apache should not set the goals too low. > > Hope to see you at ApacheCon "soon" > > Cheers > Niclas >
