And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the Waggledance, said he
...and other things blech didn't say.
Last Thursday was the official London Perl Mongers meeting. The New Heretics had held their meeting a week earlier (on the first Thursday of the month rather than the official day after the first Wednesday of the month.) Since they both were in pubs, I went to both.
This week acme, james and I (and later Nick) talked about YAPC. We're all speaking this year. james and acme are doing over an hour and a half each, and both Nick and I are doing 45 minutes (and Greg's doing 45 himself) meaning that London.pm is speaking for about six and a half hours this year. Funky.
We, with Ranguard and blech, morphed this conversation into one about setting up a mini conference. The idea that YAPC, while being an order of magnitude cheaper than OSCON, was still too expensive. The expenses were tied up in the things that YAPC couldn't do anything about - accommodation and flights. So, the solution as we see it is to have a 'mini-conference' that lasts only a day, meaning people can go home after it's done, and only really involve people from the UK (others still welcome, but make it small enough that we don't have to rely on them)
There was much discussion about this - where it would be (hmm, venue for 300 people, hmm), who would come (UK people, London.pm and the other people who don't get a chance to meetings) who would speak (The UK has some big names,) how much it would cost (very little, cover the venue and the speakers and provide nothing else - not even muffins,) and when to have it (eerk, try not to clash with other conferences.)
It's all very much pie in the sky atm. Though it does seem like a good idea, if we can ever get organised, and if we see if there's demand.
davorg talked about his new role as the overall coordinator for all the Perl Monger groups. I think what he's trying to do sounds really good - though he's still working out the details. I promised to help him and acme, and reminded acme that he promised to help me with some Template/Axkit stuff. Ranguard and I chatted with blech about applying this to the london.pm.org website, and plans were made.
mbm turned up and shouted abuse at davorg across the room. Greg didn't turn up and buy us beer as promised. aef showed us his new digital camera (which acme complained about when he took too many pictures - irony strikes.) zool totally failed to tell us about dorkbot as she was engrossed in a conversation with robin that I couldn't make heads or tails of. Jasper and andym also wibbled on about something totally non-linear too. Waggledance is excellent. A large tip was left with the remains of the kitty and we staggered back home.
