Open Stack

OK, so I'm just going to throw this one out there to re-stoke the
discussion ...

Venue selection process.

At the moment, there's a few of us who work hard in the shadows to make
the best choice we can from a range of generous offers :)

In our brave new world, I think this should be a bit more open, what do
you think?

What kind of structure do we need to make the best decision?


Regards,


Tom


On 01/07/15 15:29, Tom Fifield wrote:
> Team,
> 
> It's great to see so much passion! :)
> 
> Here's an attempt at a summary email. I'll wait until a later email to
> wade into the discussion myself ;) Feel free to jump in on any point.
> 
> =Things we tend to agree on=
> "Spirit of the event"
> * The response most people had in common was that they didn't want to
> see vendor booths :) Several others noted the importance that the event
> should remain accessible and ensure there were no barriers to
> attendance, space for networking with others and sharing information
> about deployments without fear of vendor harassment.
> 
> Multiple Sponsors
> * are OK, but they are more like underwriters who should be OK with only
> modest acknowledgement (see previous: no booths). Preference for
> operator sponsors. Several ways to recognise them possible.
> 
> Current Schedule Format
> * It appeared like the current format is working well in general, but
> could do with minor tweaks.
> 
> 
> =Things still under discussion=
> Sell Tickets
> * Many people agreed that some moderate form of ticketing could be OK,
> but the question remains to what extent this should be priced ("low
> fee"? $100-200? "cover costs"?). A strong counterpoint was that paid
> ticketing makes it less accessible (see "spirit"), prevents some local
> attendance, and is unfair to smaller operators, though others noted that
> it may be the only practical way to raise funds in the future.
> 
> Break into Regional Events
> * A number of viewpoints, ranging from "multiple regional events" to
> "one event only [maybe with a travel fund]" to "one event that moves
> around [maybe even outside USA]" to "make it in the centre of USA for
> easier travel on average".
> 
> 
> Capping Numbers (inc. Limit Attendees per Company)
> * A lot of disagreement here. Many argued that any kind of cap or
> barrier to entry detracts from the accessibility of the event. Others
> put forth that too few restrictions could dilute the ops-heavy attendee
> base, and implied that large companies might send too many people.
> 
> 
> Multiple Tracks
> * To help deal with room size, we could split into multiple tracks. The
> ideal number of tracks is not clear at this stage.
> 
> Evening Event
> * Several people said they found the PHL evening event uncomfortably
> packed, and suggested cancelling it on this basis, or on the basis of
> cost. Suggested alternate was posting a list of nearby venues.
> 
> Lightening Talks
> * Have lightening talks, perhaps by renaming "show and tell". More of
> them? Arranged differently? Unclear.
> 
> =Ideas=
> * Video Recording - Might be worth a shot, starting small.
> * Travel Fund, Scholarship Fund, Slush Fund
> * Use Universities during the summer break for venues
> 
> =Open Questions=
> * How will the number of attendees grow?
> * What are the costs involved in hosting one of these events?
> * Stuff about the summit - probably need a different thread for this
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Tom
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 30/06/15 12:33, Tom Fifield wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Right now, behind-the-scenes, we're working on getting a venue for next
>> ops mid-cycle. It's taking a little longer than normal, but rest assured
>> it is happening.
>>
>> Why is it so difficult? As you may have noticed, we're reaching the size
>> of event where both physically and financially, only the largest
>> organisations can host us.
>>
>> We thought we might get away with organising this one old-school with a
>> single host and sponsor. Then, for the next, start a brainstorming
>> discussion with you about how we scale these events into the future -
>> since once we get up and beyond a few hundred people, we're looking at
>> having to hire a venue as well as make some changes to the format of the
>> event.
>>
>> However, it seems that even this might be too late. We already had a
>> company that proposed to host the meetup at a west coast US hotel
>> instead of their place, and wanted to scope out other companies to
>> sponsor food.
>>
>> This would be a change in the model, so let's commence the discussion of
>> how we want to scale this event :)
>>
>> So far I've heard things like:
>> * "my $CORPORATE_BENEFACTOR would be fine to share sponsorship with others"
>> * "I really don't want to get to the point where we want booths at the
>> ops meetup"
>>
>> Which are promising! It seems like we have a shared understanding of
>> what to take this forward with.
>>
>> So, as the ops meetup grows - what would it look like for you?
>>
>> How do you think we can manage the venue selection and financial side of
>> things? What about the session layout and the scheduling with the
>> growing numbers of attendees?
>>
>> Current data can be found at
>> https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Operations/Meetups#Venue_Selection .
>>
>> I would also be interested in your thoughts about how these events have
>> only been in a limited geographical area so far, and how we can address
>> that issue.
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
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>> OpenStack-operators at lists.openstack.org
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>>
> 
> 
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