[AUUG-Talk]: AUUG2007 speakers

[Arjen Lentz]

Hi Adrian,

On 07/02/2007, at 1:10 PM, Adrian Close wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Feb 2007, Arjen Lentz wrote:
>> Are you joking? You want to actually compete with LCA/SAGE-AU/OSDC ?
>> They are growing, AUUG has been shrinking for years.
>
> Umm... no, not joking.  Not compete, but complement.
>
> It seems to me that the AUUG conference has traditionally covered  
> all of the areas you mention. Those who can't go to three  
> conferences can get some coverage of all that in one.  I also think  
> it's beneficial to get all those people together and talking and  
> kind of broad scope is one reason I think AUUG needs to exist.

That would be nice in theory, however people have a limited budget.
That is, big corporations that would just send people to any  
conference have either ditched that policy or have a very much  
restricted budget, and modern/smaller organisations just have little  
money to begin with, which is actually (rather than philosophy) one  
of the key reasons they are using open source technology.
If two conferences look somewhat similar, the prospective attendee  
will be made to choose within their budget.

 From this I conclude that AUUG *would* be competing against the  
other conferences, and I think that is a rather bad idea.
It's wasteful of a number of valuable resources. It might be more  
effective to tweak where the traction is.


> While last year's conference was a little smaller than I would have  
> liked, I also see benefit in not having a huge number of attendees  
> (less good for sponsors you might say, but good for registrants).

With all due respect to your great efforts and commitment, Adrian,  
the first part of your sentence does not even qualify as a euphemism.

A significant number of attendees and a good diversity of speakers is  
necessary to make a conference valuable to attend.
It requires a certain critical mass, consisting of both old and new  
faces.
Otherwise one can not meet new people or pick up fresh ideas and  
debate. Closed circuits don't innovate.


> Now, I'm interested in putting together a conference and I am  
> looking for drawcard international speaker and conference theme  
> suggestions.
>
> Constructive criticism is also welcome, but we're not going to  
> shrivel up and die because you think we shouldn't exist.

I am questioning in order to draw out the facts and strategy, which  
have not otherwise come out.
People here have talked about the past, personal wishes, and make  
broad statements that have no foundation.

For the first time, a reasonable answer to the "why" was supplied by  
you, above. Thanks for that, by the way.
So I asked a further question.


> The message from our members was pretty clear at the AGM - they  
> want the conference to continue, so we're going to make it happen.   
> If you want to help, you're very welcome, but we don't need the  
> kind of hindrance we had last year, nor do I want to spend my  
> precious AUUG-time on dealing with it.

How many people were present at the AGM, and how many of those  
attended the conference?


Regards,
Arjen.
-- 
Arjen Lentz, Support Engineer & Trainer, MySQL AB
Based in Brisbane, Australia

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