Having just completed ApacheCon EU 2009, the conference planners immediately spend 2 days figuring out the next conference...
For some time I for one have thought that ApacheCon needs to morph away from "Big Conference, Lots of $$$" mode. Its not that past ApacheCons haven't been great, but the world economy coupled with the diversity that has grown up at Apache make it very difficult to construct a compelling conference program. If we pick talks with an eye to representing Apache, then we end up covering a great number of topics but none of them deeply. If on the other hand we pick several talks on a few topics we flavor the conference by only focusing on the hottest topics...Either way its hard for attendees to justify paying big bucks. What to do?
Speaking personally, I'm much more interested in content and formats that are fresh. As we're reading these carefully worded abstracts, I keep thinking about how hard it is to even remember what my intention was when I get around to finally speaking 6 months after an abstract is accepted in traditional "Call For Papers" kinds of conferences...
So, I've been involved in helping ApacheCon think about BarCamps and other "unconference" models. This past week we had several Meetups and a BarCamp actually at ApacheCon EU. Next weekend I'll be attending another BarCampApache in Oxford, England. We're learning a huge amount about what works for Apache and what doesn't. If you're in Oxford next weekend...I'll be happy to see you there!
As Danese knows, I'm in full agreement with the more BarCamp style organisation of events. Unfortunately, Danese had to leave the ApacheCon US planning meeting early which means she missed out on the big changes that came along in the afternoon of that session.
In short ApacheCon US will be organised very differently to previous ApacheCons. If successful we will completely reinvent ApacheCon. we'll be delivering something to convince the boss that they should pay, but we'll also be delivering something more dynamic, community focussed and, dare I say it, even *more* enjoyable than the existing format (which lets face it, is cool).
Posted by: Ross Gardler | April 02, 2009 at 11:14 AM