Alas I won't be speaking at this year's YAPC::Europe, as unfortunately my two talks have been deemed too long :( Which, purely on a selfish note, makes it a little more difficult to get ML to pay for me to get there. As such I will likely be travelling once again under my own steam. It's made me appreciate that trying to encourage getting those who can't get their employer to pay for them, is difficult. With travel costs rising, and the venue being in a captial, thus hotels aren't exactly cheap, it's a costly business getting there.
It'll be the first time since 2003 that I haven't presented at a YAPC::Europe event, and means I get to go to talks without worrying about making sure I've prepared my own talk. Plus if I do end up going under my own steam, then I can pick and choose the talks I go to, without feeling obligated to go to ones that I think would be relavent to work. When I first went to the YAPC::Europe conferences (all 4 from 2000-2003) I paid for myself and had much more fun getting to know people. For a good while I could actually hide in anonymity and just feel part of the audience. And to be fair it's the audience we should be thinking about, so may be it'll be good to have that perspective again.
A large proportion of the attendees know each other these days, but there are also plenty who don't know anyone. While we are always getting new attendees, they don't always come back. We're obviously reaching people outside of the echo chamber, but are we reaching the right people? To a large degree I think we are, but I wonder whether there are other ways of reaching and encouraging people, who are currently doing Perl, and are not part of the community. In some cases I suspect they just see their work as a job and wouldn't be that interested in doing anything further anyway, as I've come across those kinds of people in many jobs I've had before. However, its the people who are likely to be interested, and perhaps haven't yet discovered that there is a lot of benefit to be had from attending YAPC events, not just to attend talks, but also to meet developers and get involved with the community, that I'm interested in reaching.
I've yet to figure out how that can be done, but I'm hoping that those new to the conferences, take the surveys and give us feedback as to things that we can do to encourage them come back. As well as getting them to tell their firends and colleagues what a great experience the event was. After all word of mouth counts for a lot. If they're getting a bad experience, and I doubt that that is the case, it would be useful to know that, and hopefully then we can try and fix it for the future. So far feedback has been very positive, and although there are often minor gripes about little details, in the main organisers do get it right. I've certainly enjoyed every YAPC I've attended, I'm just hoping we can encourage others to get the most out of them too.
For the last few years I have also been attending other grassroot Open Source conferences, such as LUGRadio Live, GUADEC and to a lesser extent the UKUUG. These all have a similar kind of approach to conferences as YAPCs, but they are often much better attendeed. They do have the benefit that they can encompass more than just one language, so from that angle they can expect to have a bigger attendance. However, I still regularly meet Perl programmers who are either more involved with LUG events or just aren't aware of the Perl community. Is there a better way to reach these people? Do they advertise better than we do for YAPCs? Something to ponder over at least.
Re:Europe or North America?
barbie on 2008-05-20T13:36:08
I did mean YAPC::Europe, but the thought could be applied to any YAPC. I'm more involved in YAPC::Europe, so that's where my natural focus lies. I couldn't afford to fund myself to go to Chicago anyway, but Europe is more feasible. I would be interested to discover what (if anything) we can do to keep new attendees coming back, or at least getting involved with the Perl community.Re:Europe or North America?
domm on 2008-05-20T17:47:07
ok, but in your first sentence you said that you won't be speaking at this years YAPC::Europe because your talks (which link to YAPC::NA) are deemed too long...Regarding people coming back to YAPCs: I think that a lot of 'local' attendees still don't can or want to travel to next YAPC, which mostly isn't local. For example, there where 67 Austrians at YAPC::Europe 2007, but only 10 registered for 2008. Not everybody gets her trip payed by the employer, or wants to fund it on his own.
OTOH, at YAPC::Europe 2007, there where max 4 Austrians. Additionally, we now have something like 15 regular attendees to monthly techmeets (which did not exist prior to YAPC..). So even though not all of the Austrian attendees will come back to Kopenhagen, they (or at least some of them...) are now involved with the Perl community.
YAPC attendance IMO isn't a good metric for Perl communitiy involvement. There are too many factors that keep interested people from attending. It might be a good metric for community involvement of hardcore Perl maniacs
:-) Re:Europe or North America?
barbie on 2008-05-20T19:12:43
ok, but in your first sentence you said that you won't be speaking at this years YAPC::Europe because your talks (which link to YAPC::NA) are deemed too long...I'm doing the talks at YAPC::NA, but they're both too long for YAPC::Europe, which has a 30 minute time limit this year.
I think that a lot of 'local' attendees still don't can or want to travel to next YAPCThat's definitely a factor, but I'm hoping that we give them enough of a good experience that they do decide to go to another.
Not everybody gets her trip payed by the employerExactly, which is why I want to see if there is something we can do to encourage those people. With the economic downturn happening in the world at the moment, more companies are unlikely to be willing to send so many people these days. So we fall back on people funding themselves. Once upon a time we were aiming to encourage students to come along, we've rarely seen them these days. Part of that I think is that Perl is not being taught at Universities as much, but it would be nice to reach them too. Even if they only come to the local YAPCs
:) Then possibly they might come along to others in the future when they graduate. Additionally, we now have something like 15 regular attendees to monthly techmeetsSo obviously the YAPC worked for Vienna, but what about those others from further afield who were attending for the first time? The fact that some of the Vienna attendees are now involved with the Perl community is brilliant. But what was it that inspired them, that hasn't inspired others previously? And more importantly can we keep being inspiring?
It might be a good metric for community involvement of hardcore Perl maniacs:-) That's a fair point, and probably the perception that is being seen by some. May be we need to show you don't have to be a maniac to join the Perl community
... but it helps ;) Re:Europe or North America?
domm on 2008-05-20T20:27:12
I'm doing the talks at YAPC::NA, but they're both too long for YAPC::Europe, which has a 30 minute time limit this year.
Now I get it!
:-) Yes, that hard 30 minute limit is a bit annoying, but it sure makes it easy to generate the schedule..
Re:Wait a minute
barbie on 2008-05-21T12:08:59
Unfortunately my main talk isn't something I can split. It's already a long talk, and because it generates some healthy discussion, can last a little longer.
I'm still planning on attending, but more likely using my own resources, and not those of my employer. Hence why I was thinking about those attendees who are in a similar position, who aren't previous speakers or recognisable members of the community. What are they looking for in a YAPC conference, and how can we give them the right experience that they want to come again?
It's rare that newer speakers propose a talk longer than 30 minutes, as it is nerve-wracking to get up and present to an audience you don't know. But some attendees do like the longer talks, and not necessarily tutorials, but longer more indepth talks. You're never going to please everyone, but personally I think restricting yourself to only 30 minutes per presentation, is not going to give you the choice of talks as there has been in previous years.
