YAPC::Europe 2008 in Copenhagen is fast approaching, and the deadline for proposals for next year's conference is not too far away (June 30th), but I've been thinking of events even further in the future. With the Perl Monger census that Dave Cross is organising, I'm hoping it might identify some of the groups that could potentially host the event, given that their membership would be big enough to help out. I then hope to get to know some of the leaders and members that are attending YAPC::Europe themselves, and see if I can encourage a few to at least think about hosting a YAPC::Europe. Seeing as we've now had 3 in the UK, there's no reason why we can't hold it in Germany, France or Portugal again. So I won't just be trying to persuade those in countries who have never hosted before ;)
I'm organising a Perl Mongers BOF in Copenhagen, so if you're interested in organising a conference, workshop or just want to get your group more active, please come along and ask questions. Even if you think that you might not be ready to host a conference or workshop just yet, but would like to know what's involved so you can perhaps think about it for the future, it would be an ideal opportunity to meet previous organisers.
With all the tools, resources and previous organisers now available, there is certainly a lot for future organisers to build on, so theoretically it should be easier to organise a YAPC conference these days. However, I think we might not be getting that message across very well. Organisers joke about the event afterwards, saying that they would never do it again, but we do get involved in other similar events, so it really can't have been that bad. The Tokyo folks are outdoing themselves every year with YAPC::Asia, and by all accounts YAPC::SA is too. Chicago is taking on YAPC::NA again, and many of the previous European organisers are involved with workshops.
As next year will be the 10th YAPC::Europe, it will be interesting to see what sort of party^Wcelebration we can manage. If you're thinking that you (whether that's a Perl Monger group or other Perl related group of people) would like to host a YAPC::Europe, then please come along to the Perl Mongers BOF or get in touch with the Venue Committee, as we'd all be delighted to give you all the encouragement you need. And if you think you could put on a good show for the 10th YAPC::Europe, please read the Call for Venue, and submit a proposal.
