[Van-pm] YAPC::NA::2006 ?

[José Castro]

Hi there :-)

Sorry for not being present at the Trees meeting, but travelling
around the world for a meeting in a place I haven't the slightest idea
how to find...

Oh, well, truth is I just found out about it :-) It was thanks to a
Google's alert that I found your mailing list archives and noticed all
the discussion regarding YAPC 2006 in Vancouver.

Since I've just been through organizing YAPC::EU::2005 in Braga,
Portugal, I thought I'd drop in and try to make myself useful :-)

From what I've seen in the archives, here's what I'd like to say:

 - Organizing a conference with a small team is best. We organized
   ours with just two guys (me and Alberto) and it was an amazing
   conference. I've been involved in the organization of about six
   conferences so far and I can tell you that the less people involved,
   the easier it gets to put things together (there's less discussion and
   everybody knows who's doing what).

 - Yes, it's hard work. It is also one of the best experiences you
   will have throughout your life and you will never forget about it.

 - There is absolutely no way of knowing how many people will show up.
   That simply depends on too many factors. We considered the
   possibility of streaming Larry's keynote to other rooms, but it's not
   the same thing watching video or seeing the person right in front of
   you. Our backup plan was to have people sitting... pretty much
   everywhere, and accomodate everybody for a couple of hours inside the
   same room (capacity was 211, we got about 200 attendees)

 - Contacting potential sponsors with whom you have no previous
   contact can be troublesome, and most times unprofitable. It is
   sometimes easier to find somebody who knows the company than trying to
   contact them yourselves.

And that's it for now. If you feel like asking questions regarding the
YAPC in Braga, go ahead.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure I've met some of you before, but I
really don't know who's on this list. I remember a girl asking people
whether they'd be willing to go to Vancouver for a YAPC, by the end of
the one in Toronto; I'd assume she's around here.

BTW, I gave the obfuscation talk in Toronto.

Cheers, :-)

jac

--
Jose Alves de Castro <cog at cpan.org>
      http://jose-castro.org/