[AusNOG] AUSNOG Conference? (posted to Whirlpool)

[Trent Lloyd]

Hi all,

Gavin Tweedie wrote:
> Skeeve,
>
> Skeeve Stevens wrote:
>   
>> An idea was floated on the ausnog mailing list a couple of weeks ago by
>> Terry @ APNIC that there was a suggestion at the recent AUSCERT2007 that
>> their might be some interest in kicking off a AUSNOG conference of sorts.
>>     
>
> This was an idea I too was hoping to kick off after Apricot2006 in Perth
> but I really struggled to find people willing to do the work, hopefully
> that has changed.
>
>   
>> I am not even sure what body would host it - since AUSNOG, like NZNOG
>> doesn't officially exists as a legal entity - but the NZNOG guys haven't
>> seem to find this a major challenge.
>>     
>
> The "organisers" and the "host" can be totally seperate. In some ways
> being hosted by an organisation that changes each year can be good as it
> limits burn-out of a small number of people. It also opens
> oppourtunities for the location to move around. There are lots of
> variants here..
>
>   
>> - Ideas for seminar topics
>>     
>
> Or are you better off asking for submissions of papers and see what you
> get? Just supply some really rough guidelines and approach a couple of
> known good speakers and you should be able to fill a day or two really
> easily. You wouldn't want to run lots of tracks simultaneously for a
> first one, need to keep it simple.
>
>   
>> - Length of conference (1 or 2 days / weekdays or weekend)
>>     
>
> Depends if you can fill it with good content! As a first go 1 might be a
> better aim.
>
>   
>> - Location suggestions (free offers of hosting it would obviously be the
>> favourite?
>>     
>
> This can depend a lot on when you hold it. Some organisations will allow
> cheap or free use of their facilities, this can including Universities
> or the like during their student breaks. This will be the most expensive
> of all outgoings for a conference if you go for a commercial conference
> center.
>
> When you hold it is pretty important both for getting delegates and
> speakers. You need to ensure you don't clash with any other major
> conferences or events or you risk losing delegates and more importantly
> speakers due to other committments.
>
>   
>> - Raising some money for obvious expenses I guess - Sponsors?
>>     
>
> Sponsors, yeah. Don't forget ticket price, if you can keep the costs low
> enough then ticket price alone might almost cover the costs.
>
>   
>> - Where should a possible conference be discussed? This REP area is
>> closed to some people such as APNIC and maybe regional people who might
>> be interested?
>>     
>
> Not Whirlpool - either a list such as Ausnog or a new list intended for
> conference discussion would seem most appropriate to me.
>   
A lot of what Gavin has mentioned above is the model that Linux.conf.au 
employs -- it is "organised" by Linux Australia, but each year a new 
volunteer team is put together to actually organize/host/run the event, 
and it changes cities every year as well.  Linux Australia serves as the 
"legal entity", while the actual conference "team" are typically just "a 
bunch of insan^H^H^H^H^Hpeople"  While this may start small, organizing 
such conferences, especially when they get to the 500+ and 3+ day size 
can take significant chunk out of your time over a year (as I'm sure Gav 
can attest to with APRICOT)

Regards,
Trent