From fluhmann at gmail.com Mon Mar 12 14:52:17 2007 From: fluhmann at gmail.com (Jeremy Fluhmann) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:52:17 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] ideas for housing payments In-Reply-To: <45DB142E.2010008@buffalo.edu> References: <7f7c2d5e0702170719h3cbd3bfcg11c64209d44ad7b@mail.gmail.com> <45DB142E.2010008@buffalo.edu> Message-ID: <7f7c2d5e0703121452v61d4bb80sda7e62594254a8ee@mail.gmail.com> Thanks Jim and Josh. If we keep the meal option, I'll go with the $20 Cougar Card. To keep the pricing simple though, I may just do without the meal option. From my experience last year, I only ate on campus for lunch. I wasn't sure about everyone else. I knew the shopping cart wouldn't be an option this year. I'm hoping that future conferences will have the ability to 'add' items to their registration vs having the single drop-down. Maybe we can include ACT development in the hackathon ;-) I'll update the wiki tonight with pricing schemes. I think we may take the Buffalo approach to post-conference housing and handle them separately. I just thought of another idea for the meal option but I'll need to think about it more before putting it out there. It may be crazy (or maybe it's me ;-) Jeremy On 2/20/07, Jim Brandt wrote: > > Jeremy, > > The general advice I would offer is keep it simple. Don't make your life > a misery trying to accommodate a bunch of confusing combinations. Think > about other big conferences you may have attended and use that as your > guideline. OSCON, for example, does the earlybird thing and a few > options with tutorials, but they keep it simple with food. > > I think the general plan you outlined below is very sensible for > registration/housing. For Buffalo we had to pay in one lump sum as well, > so we collected money and gave UB a single check for the housing. We had > one or two stay long, and I dealt with those individually as exceptions > rather than trying to offer it as an option for everyone. > > For food, I agree with Josh. Go with the card and keep it simple. YAPC > attendees are a resourceful bunch and will sort things out for > themselves given reasonable options. > > Also agree with Josh not to target a shopping cart for this round. Keep > the price combinations somewhat simple so you don't need the full > shopping card functionality. > > Hope this helps. Feel free to throw a proposed 'final' pricing structure > up on the wiki and poll us again. Then we can comment one more time > before you go live. Also, glad to hear you're working on this stuff now. > Seems to me the timing is just about right to be working out these > details. > > Jim > > > Jeremy Fluhmann wrote: > > Hey everyone, > > > > I'm working on the housing and food worksheets that UH wants filled > > out. The form states that the group is responsible for making payment > > on the dorms and meal plans instead of the individual person staying in > > the room. Here's my request for ideas. I'm trying to figure out how to > > structure the conference pricing to include housing and meals. One > > option is to have separate prices on the YAPC::NA site for the > following: > > early bird - $85 > > early bird w/single room (3 nights) - $184 > > early bird w/double room (3 nights) - $145 > > normal price - $100 > > normal w/single room (3 nights) - $199 > > normal w/double room (3 nights) - $160 > > > > But, then there's also the food costs: > > 3 meal packing in the RFoC (Real Food on Campus) all-you-can-eat - > > $21.25/day > > the 3-meal package is broken up into the meals as following: > > * Breakfast - $5.75 > > * Lunch - $6.75 > > * Dinner - $8.75 > > So, assuming someone's first meal is breakfast on Monday and last meal > > is lunch on Wednesday (minus the auction dinner): > > $21.25 * 2 + 5.75 + 6.75 - 8.75 = $46.25 > > But, if people are like me, they rarely eat breakfast and I never ate > > breakfast at YAPC::NA 2006. Also, I know several people went off-campus > > for dinner last year. And I'd rather not include prices for variations > > on food. > > > > We might try to utilize UH's Cougar card, a declining value meal card. > > Then, we could include something like: > > w/ $20 Cougar card > > w/ $40 Cougar card > > > > That would include 6 more prices in the pricing scheme. I liked the > > "shopping cart" from last year. I'm wondering if future ACT-hosted > > sites could implement a shopping cart. Another alternative to the meal > > pricing is to just not include it on the conference pricing and let > > everyone fend for themselves. > > > > Another problem is accommodating the people staying longer than the > > "typical" conference stay Sun-night through Wednesday afternoon. We > > need to be able to accommodate these people with housing and food. > > > > Should we try and include "all" pricing options in the choices for the > > conference? Should we separate the housing and food out into an > > external shopping cart? Should we separate out only the special cases > > of extended stays? > > > > I welcome any and ALL thoughts and ideas. > > > > Thanks, > > Jeremy > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > > -- > Jim Brandt > Conferences Chair > The Perl Foundation > email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org > IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com > perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070312/eabcdd08/attachment.html From fluhmann at gmail.com Mon Mar 12 23:01:17 2007 From: fluhmann at gmail.com (Jeremy Fluhmann) Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:01:17 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] yapc organizers wiki updated Message-ID: <7f7c2d5e0703122301j5fe2efdbxa98615317b6eb939@mail.gmail.com> I've updated the wiki with a Pricing page. Please offer your thoughts and opinions. http://rakudo.org/yapc-houston/index.cgi?pricing Thanks, Jeremy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070313/76fa3861/attachment.html From rdice at pobox.com Tue Mar 13 05:31:22 2007 From: rdice at pobox.com (Richard Dice) Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:31:22 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] yapc organizers wiki updated In-Reply-To: <7f7c2d5e0703122301j5fe2efdbxa98615317b6eb939@mail.gmail.com> References: <7f7c2d5e0703122301j5fe2efdbxa98615317b6eb939@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5bef4baf0703130531x6056687ei784098674ce87b48@mail.gmail.com> Two questions -- What about people who are planning on being there some number of nights other than 3? I would like to come down a few days early myself for instance, and I imagine a bunch of hard-core hackathoners will be there earlier and later, too. In the $99 for 3 nights figure, is there a "markup"? I mean, are you buying it for $90 (e.g.) for 3 nights? I ask because this might not be a bad thing, with the markup to try to mitigate expenses for people for whom collection of the $99 becomes difficult. (I.e. we get stiffed.) Cheers, Richard On 3/13/07, Jeremy Fluhmann wrote: > > I've updated the wiki with a Pricing page. Please offer your thoughts and > opinions. > > http://rakudo.org/yapc-houston/index.cgi?pricing > > Thanks, > Jeremy > > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070313/b463e969/attachment.html From fluhmann at gmail.com Tue Mar 13 06:40:49 2007 From: fluhmann at gmail.com (Jeremy Fluhmann) Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:40:49 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] yapc organizers wiki updated In-Reply-To: <5bef4baf0703130531x6056687ei784098674ce87b48@mail.gmail.com> References: <7f7c2d5e0703122301j5fe2efdbxa98615317b6eb939@mail.gmail.com> <5bef4baf0703130531x6056687ei784098674ce87b48@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <7f7c2d5e0703130640q718d0250j27eedc9e778666e4@mail.gmail.com> Yeah, I forgot to add what has been discussed about pre- and post-conference housing (it's updated now). To keep the pricing structure simple for the conference itself, we have talked about handling the pre- and post-conference housing separately. But, to add to the difficulty, I found out this morning that the ACT site only allows four pre-determined 'types' of pricing (earlybird, normal, reduced, and business). As of right now, we are unable to 'add' prices beyond that. The entire housing, meal option, and master classes may have to be handled separately. The $99 is actually what the price came out to. A single is $28 per night ($84 for 3 nights), plus $15 for the linen package (sheets, pillow, etc) bringing the total to $99. I suppose we could mark it up a dollar, making it an even $100. Thoughts everyone? For those coming early and/or staying late, there's also the on-campus Hilton. We're working on a discounted price right now. Thanks, Jeremy On 3/13/07, Richard Dice wrote: > > Two questions -- > > What about people who are planning on being there some number of nights > other than 3? I would like to come down a few days early myself for > instance, and I imagine a bunch of hard-core hackathoners will be there > earlier and later, too. > > In the $99 for 3 nights figure, is there a "markup"? I mean, are you > buying it for $90 (e.g.) for 3 nights? I ask because this might not be a > bad thing, with the markup to try to mitigate expenses for people for whom > collection of the $99 becomes difficult. ( I.e. we get stiffed.) > > Cheers, > Richard > > On 3/13/07, Jeremy Fluhmann wrote: > > > I've updated the wiki with a Pricing page. Please offer your thoughts > > and opinions. > > > > http://rakudo.org/yapc-houston/index.cgi?pricing > > > > Thanks, > > Jeremy > > > > _______________________________________________ > > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070313/5db8cd3c/attachment-0001.html From joshua.mcadams at gmail.com Tue Mar 13 19:43:41 2007 From: joshua.mcadams at gmail.com (Joshua McAdams) Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:43:41 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] yapc organizers wiki updated In-Reply-To: <5bef4baf0703130531x6056687ei784098674ce87b48@mail.gmail.com> References: <7f7c2d5e0703122301j5fe2efdbxa98615317b6eb939@mail.gmail.com> <5bef4baf0703130531x6056687ei784098674ce87b48@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <49d805d70703131943n51a76b63v2594f931d6396a9d@mail.gmail.com> > In the $99 for 3 nights figure, is there a "markup"? I mean, are you buying > it for $90 (e.g.) for 3 nights? I ask because this might not be a bad > thing, with the markup to try to mitigate expenses for people for whom > collection of the $99 becomes difficult. ( I.e. we get stiffed.) We didn't mark-up for YAPC Chicago, but in retrospect, we should have. Even a couple of dollars a night would have offset any losses from the room shuffling we had to do last-minute. Good call on this on Richard. From fluhmann at gmail.com Thu Mar 15 18:40:34 2007 From: fluhmann at gmail.com (Jeremy Fluhmann) Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:40:34 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Airline discounts Message-ID: <7f7c2d5e0703151840y54e990d9obae03609bf39fa02@mail.gmail.com> I thought that since Houston is the Continental Airlines Headquarters, we possibly stand a good chance of working out a discounted price with them. Josh and Pete (or Jim or any other previous host), how did you guys approach American Airlines for a discount? Would we stand a better chance of trying to go with American Airlines again? Did you try other airlines as well? Thanks, Jeremy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070315/f1125072/attachment.html From joshua.mcadams at gmail.com Sun Mar 18 11:04:00 2007 From: joshua.mcadams at gmail.com (Joshua McAdams) Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 13:04:00 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Airline discounts In-Reply-To: <7f7c2d5e0703151840y54e990d9obae03609bf39fa02@mail.gmail.com> References: <7f7c2d5e0703151840y54e990d9obae03609bf39fa02@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <49d805d70703181104u63e394f4rf8edb4be46911c65@mail.gmail.com> > I thought that since Houston is the Continental Airlines Headquarters, we > possibly stand a good chance of working out a discounted price with them. > Josh and Pete (or Jim or any other previous host), how did you guys approach > American Airlines for a discount? Would we stand a better chance of trying > to go with American Airlines again? Did you try other airlines as well? Most of the airlines have a standard group rate deal that you can call and ask about. I think that we chose American because their's was the least binding. You have to guarantee a certain number of fliers to get the discount. I think that American wanted a guarantee of ten. It turns out that only nine people actually used the coupon code, but American didn't penalize us. If we had gotten 40 fliers, we would have received a free ticket for this year's conference, but we didn't even come close to that :) From cbrandt at buffalo.edu Mon Mar 19 05:56:27 2007 From: cbrandt at buffalo.edu (Jim Brandt) Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:56:27 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] yapc organizers wiki updated In-Reply-To: <49d805d70703131943n51a76b63v2594f931d6396a9d@mail.gmail.com> References: <7f7c2d5e0703122301j5fe2efdbxa98615317b6eb939@mail.gmail.com> <5bef4baf0703130531x6056687ei784098674ce87b48@mail.gmail.com> <49d805d70703131943n51a76b63v2594f931d6396a9d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <45FE887B.2090000@buffalo.edu> Joshua McAdams wrote: >> In the $99 for 3 nights figure, is there a "markup"? I mean, are you buying >> it for $90 (e.g.) for 3 nights? I ask because this might not be a bad >> thing, with the markup to try to mitigate expenses for people for whom >> collection of the $99 becomes difficult. ( I.e. we get stiffed.) > > We didn't mark-up for YAPC Chicago, but in retrospect, we should have. > Even a couple of dollars a night would have offset any losses from > the room shuffling we had to do last-minute. Good call on this on > Richard. I'd be careful going down this road too far (adding additional fees to things) without some discussion. This would be a change in the way things have always been done for YAPC, so we'd want to make sure folks were aware of it. I'm not saying it's bad, but if we were to change the implied policy, we should announce it and say why. > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers -- Jim Brandt Conferences Chair The Perl Foundation email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo From will.willis at gmail.com Mon Mar 19 15:04:36 2007 From: will.willis at gmail.com (Will Willis) Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:04:36 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] a few updates Message-ID: <6ee1e6090703191504s6af2d16bh8243aa0e8a6769e6@mail.gmail.com> Howdy all, * Discounted/Group rates on rooms at the Hilton on UH campus: still waiting on a response, there are a total of ~85 rooms. * Traveling in/around Houston: I'm still waiting on solid feedback from METRO, but as-is, we're expecting ~400 system route maps. I'm also waiting to hear back on discounted passes for attendees. * T-shirts: I've nailed down a vendor, he needs at least 2 weeks lead time to get the shirts printed and delivered. Under this 2 week window, last-minute sponsorships wouldn't get t-shirt space - thoughts? Are we using the mongueurs site to track everyone's status and ToDos or are we still using tp://yapchouston.org/wiki/ ? -Will From joshua.mcadams at gmail.com Mon Mar 19 21:00:05 2007 From: joshua.mcadams at gmail.com (Joshua McAdams) Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:00:05 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] a few updates In-Reply-To: <6ee1e6090703191504s6af2d16bh8243aa0e8a6769e6@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703191504s6af2d16bh8243aa0e8a6769e6@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <49d805d70703192100i3ae980d3hbffb10b060e7b919@mail.gmail.com> > * T-shirts: I've nailed down a vendor, he needs at least 2 weeks lead > time to get the shirts printed and delivered. Under this 2 week > window, last-minute sponsorships wouldn't get t-shirt space - > thoughts? Just make sure that potential sponsors know about the deadline... only tell them it's a three-week wait on the shirts so that you have a buffer for the indecisive ones. From toddr at null.net Tue Mar 20 03:48:02 2007 From: toddr at null.net (Todd Rinaldo) Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:48:02 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Damian In-Reply-To: <49d805d70703192100i3ae980d3hbffb10b060e7b919@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703191504s6af2d16bh8243aa0e8a6769e6@mail.gmail.com> <49d805d70703192100i3ae980d3hbffb10b060e7b919@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <005e01c76add$3c73fee0$0201a8c0@centurysupply.com> I might be starting out my first email to the list with foot in mouth, but does anyone know how I can contact Damian? I contacted his email adress (damian at conway.org) about a JP Morgan Chase sponsored course while he's in town and never got a reply. From rdice at pobox.com Tue Mar 20 04:42:30 2007 From: rdice at pobox.com (Richard Dice) Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:42:30 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Damian In-Reply-To: <005e01c76add$3c73fee0$0201a8c0@centurysupply.com> References: <6ee1e6090703191504s6af2d16bh8243aa0e8a6769e6@mail.gmail.com> <49d805d70703192100i3ae980d3hbffb10b060e7b919@mail.gmail.com> <005e01c76add$3c73fee0$0201a8c0@centurysupply.com> Message-ID: <5bef4baf0703200442h83d72b1i8cc04e41d82b3ea0@mail.gmail.com> Hi Todd, I have let Damian know to get in touch with you. Let me know if you don't hear from him in about 2 days. He was taking a few weeks of vacation, ending about 3 weeks ago. Maybe you sent him an email during that time? Cheers, Richard On 3/20/07, Todd Rinaldo wrote: > > I might be starting out my first email to the list with foot in mouth, but > does anyone know how I can contact Damian? > > I contacted his email adress (damian at conway.org) about a JP Morgan Chase > sponsored course while he's in town and never got a reply. > > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070320/c0479bf8/attachment.html From will.willis at gmail.com Tue Mar 20 15:08:07 2007 From: will.willis at gmail.com (Will Willis) Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:08:07 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair Message-ID: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> Here's an idea that just ran through my head.... Would it be possible to promote the job fair on http://jobs.perl.org/login ? The page where employers log-in to post jobs? This would make potential employers aware of the fair, as well as giving them face-time with some excellent talent. All while increasing sponsorship dollars. Any reason why this wouldn't be a good (or feasible) idea? -Will From fluhmann at gmail.com Tue Mar 20 15:16:37 2007 From: fluhmann at gmail.com (Jeremy Fluhmann) Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:16:37 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> I think that's a GREAT idea! If we get enough interest, we could possibly utilize another room at the venue on the job fair day. We may have to persuade Ask to get it up on the jobs.perl site. On 3/20/07, Will Willis wrote: > > Here's an idea that just ran through my head.... Would it be possible > to promote the job fair on http://jobs.perl.org/login ? The page where > employers log-in to post jobs? > > This would make potential employers aware of the fair, as well as > giving them face-time with some excellent talent. All while increasing > sponsorship dollars. > > Any reason why this wouldn't be a good (or feasible) idea? > > -Will > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070320/dfea6c6e/attachment.html From cbrandt at buffalo.edu Wed Mar 21 05:52:10 2007 From: cbrandt at buffalo.edu (Jim Brandt) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:52:10 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <46012A7A.7030001@buffalo.edu> I can talk to Ask. My only question is, what were the comments last year regarding employers being at the conference (good and bad)? I don't see any problem with it, but some might not like it for some reason. I'd say as long as we don't muddy the waters between conference content and company tables or booths, we're OK. We want to avoid any cases where Company X has a table and is also giving a presentation about how cool their company is. They do this at other conferences and it really annoys me. Jeremy Fluhmann wrote: > I think that's a GREAT idea! If we get enough interest, we could > possibly utilize another room at the venue on the job fair day. We may > have to persuade Ask to get it up on the jobs.perl site. > > On 3/20/07, *Will Willis* > wrote: > > Here's an idea that just ran through my head.... Would it be possible > to promote the job fair on http://jobs.perl.org/login ? The page where > employers log-in to post jobs? > > This would make potential employers aware of the fair, as well as > giving them face-time with some excellent talent. All while increasing > sponsorship dollars. > > Any reason why this wouldn't be a good (or feasible) idea? > > -Will > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers -- Jim Brandt Conferences Chair The Perl Foundation email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo From fluhmann at gmail.com Wed Mar 21 06:44:23 2007 From: fluhmann at gmail.com (Jeremy Fluhmann) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:44:23 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <46012A7A.7030001@buffalo.edu> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> <46012A7A.7030001@buffalo.edu> Message-ID: <7f7c2d5e0703210644h6f27c97x5f52ee0ce906ace9@mail.gmail.com> On 3/21/07, Jim Brandt wrote: > > I can talk to Ask. > > My only question is, what were the comments last year regarding > employers being at the conference (good and bad)? I don't see any > problem with it, but some might not like it for some reason. I'll look back through my notes. Off the top of my head, the only thing I remember is someone saying, "Keep the recruiters out of the restroom". They may have been referring to the stacks of business cards on the urinals. I'd say as long as we don't muddy the waters between conference content > and company tables or booths, we're OK. We want to avoid any cases where > Company X has a table and is also giving a presentation about how cool > their company is. They do this at other conferences and it really annoys > me. I hope that if we have enough interest, we could rent another room at the venue for the job fair. I'll need to check, though, to make sure that there's room. > -- > Jim Brandt > Conferences Chair > The Perl Foundation > email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org > IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com > perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070321/c748e915/attachment.html From will.willis at gmail.com Wed Mar 21 06:58:22 2007 From: will.willis at gmail.com (Will Willis) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:58:22 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <7f7c2d5e0703210644h6f27c97x5f52ee0ce906ace9@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> <46012A7A.7030001@buffalo.edu> <7f7c2d5e0703210644h6f27c97x5f52ee0ce906ace9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6ee1e6090703210658i2e9fde9dgda6dd743292418db@mail.gmail.com> I really enjoyed the JF last year. The location was clearly separate from the presentation rooms and only happened during a specific window in time. I was not aware of any formal presentations going on by employers, just casual conversations initiated by attendees. It was reassuring for me to see all the companies looking for perl talent as well as an opportunity to see what specific skills are in demand. I used the lists of job description requirements as a list of things to familiarize myself with. As mentioned by Jeremy, the business cards in the restroom was overly tacky and probably placed by an overly zealous company recruiter OR a prankster who walked away from the employer's table with a hand-full of business cards. Either way, if that's the worst complaint from the whole experience, I'd say it left more of a positive impact than negative. -Will On 3/21/07, Jeremy Fluhmann wrote: > > > On 3/21/07, Jim Brandt wrote: > > I can talk to Ask. > > > > My only question is, what were the comments last year regarding > > employers being at the conference (good and bad)? I don't see any > > problem with it, but some might not like it for some reason. > > I'll look back through my notes. Off the top of my head, the only thing I > remember is someone saying, "Keep the recruiters out of the restroom". They > may have been referring to the stacks of business cards on the urinals. > > > I'd say as long as we don't muddy the waters between conference content > > and company tables or booths, we're OK. We want to avoid any cases where > > Company X has a table and is also giving a presentation about how cool > > their company is. They do this at other conferences and it really annoys > me. > > I hope that if we have enough interest, we could rent another room at the > venue for the job fair. I'll need to check, though, to make sure that > there's room. > > > > > -- > > Jim Brandt > > Conferences Chair > > The Perl Foundation > > email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org > > IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com > > perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo > > > > > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > > From rdice at pobox.com Wed Mar 21 07:20:16 2007 From: rdice at pobox.com (Richard Dice) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:20:16 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <6ee1e6090703210658i2e9fde9dgda6dd743292418db@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> <46012A7A.7030001@buffalo.edu> <7f7c2d5e0703210644h6f27c97x5f52ee0ce906ace9@mail.gmail.com> <6ee1e6090703210658i2e9fde9dgda6dd743292418db@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5bef4baf0703210720o67fc8ef0o20c8c77b24f820b6@mail.gmail.com> I really liked the set-up of the job fair at YAPC in Chicago. I thought it added a lot to the conference in a lot of ways. I didn't have the same negative feelings that some other people appear to have had regarding the urinal business card episode. I thought it showed a lot of creativity on the part of the recruiter (Todd Cranston-Cuebas, at TicketMaster in LA. He's also the leader of LA.pm and I expect that the contact that Bill and I have made with him will lead to many great things). I can understand how some people might have found it "tacky", but I think that's the worst that could be said of it. And one person's tacky is another person's whacky, and another's creative. I respected that he was willing to give it a try. This is *not* an endorsement for more urinal business card placements, by the way. It's been done, and it obviously accomplished its goal which was to get people talking and thinking. But I like seeing people try new things. So I look forward to the next unexpected new thing. Cheers, Richard On 3/21/07, Will Willis wrote: > > I really enjoyed the JF last year. The location was clearly separate > from the presentation rooms and only happened during a specific window > in time. I was not aware of any formal presentations going on by > employers, just casual conversations initiated by attendees. > > It was reassuring for me to see all the companies looking for perl > talent as well as an opportunity to see what specific skills are in > demand. I used the lists of job description requirements as a list of > things to familiarize myself with. > > As mentioned by Jeremy, the business cards in the restroom was overly > tacky and probably placed by an overly zealous company recruiter OR a > prankster who walked away from the employer's table with a hand-full > of business cards. Either way, if that's the worst complaint from the > whole experience, I'd say it left more of a positive impact than > negative. > > -Will > > On 3/21/07, Jeremy Fluhmann wrote: > > > > > > On 3/21/07, Jim Brandt wrote: > > > I can talk to Ask. > > > > > > My only question is, what were the comments last year regarding > > > employers being at the conference (good and bad)? I don't see any > > > problem with it, but some might not like it for some reason. > > > > I'll look back through my notes. Off the top of my head, the only thing > I > > remember is someone saying, "Keep the recruiters out of the > restroom". They > > may have been referring to the stacks of business cards on the urinals. > > > > > I'd say as long as we don't muddy the waters between conference > content > > > and company tables or booths, we're OK. We want to avoid any cases > where > > > Company X has a table and is also giving a presentation about how cool > > > their company is. They do this at other conferences and it really > annoys > > me. > > > > I hope that if we have enough interest, we could rent another room at > the > > venue for the job fair. I'll need to check, though, to make sure that > > there's room. > > > > > > > > -- > > > Jim Brandt > > > Conferences Chair > > > The Perl Foundation > > > email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org > > > IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com > > > perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > > > > > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070321/ea505c34/attachment-0001.html From will.willis at gmail.com Wed Mar 21 10:41:12 2007 From: will.willis at gmail.com (Will Willis) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:41:12 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Fwd: Metro Info for Conference attendees In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6ee1e6090703211041g44bf2a7el7e3043141c1add16@mail.gmail.com> Here's the status on METRO (http://ridemetro.org/), Houston's transit (bus and rail) system. * We will be getting system maps and local bus schedules for attendees * Weekly bus passes are available for $9, providing unlimited rides on all local routes and the Rail for 7 days from date of first use. I'm having these items shipped to my office and I'll be responsible for getting them to the pre-conference bag-stuffing party =) Assuming we get bags at registration like last year... Could we add the $9 bus pass an option when registering? UH isn't exactly within walking distance from the rest of the city - I imagine anyone wanting to do any sight seeing would want one. Thoughts? -Will ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Nunez Date: Mar 21, 2007 12:08 PM Subject: RE: Metro Info for Conference attendees To: Will Willis You will be receiving the maps and schedules within a week or two. Regarding the fare items, we do not have anything like a visitor's pass at this time. A good bargain for visitors that will be using METRO transit regularly is the weekly pass for $9. The weekly pass offers unlimited rides on all Local routes and the Rail for 7 days from date of first use. Many, but not all METROStops (such as Randall's, HEB, Kroger, etc.) sell the weekly pass as well as other METRO fare items. All METRO fare items can also be purchased at the two downtown METRO RideStores located at 1001 Travis at McKinney or 1900 Main at St Joseph Parkway (METRO building) between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. John Nunez METROVan Business Development 713-739-4066 jn05 at ridemetro.org From will.willis at gmail.com Wed Mar 21 10:55:05 2007 From: will.willis at gmail.com (Will Willis) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:55:05 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] The Numbers Message-ID: <6ee1e6090703211055s171da6bo503be28787af1412@mail.gmail.com> Forgive me if this has already been mentioned in this list or on some other resource. Where do we get our attendance numbers from? With registrations spiking near the end of registration, how do we give estimates to vendors/sponsors today, or even on June 1? I asked Metro to ship us enough bus routes for 400 attendees. However, items like T-shirts are another matter, we probably want to have a slight surplus early on to cover at-the-door registrations and demand for those that want more than one shirt, but not more than we're able to sell throughout the conference. Any suggestions from seasoned veterans out there? -Will From fluhmann at gmail.com Wed Mar 21 10:57:10 2007 From: fluhmann at gmail.com (Jeremy Fluhmann) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:57:10 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Fwd: Metro Info for Conference attendees In-Reply-To: <6ee1e6090703211041g44bf2a7el7e3043141c1add16@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703211041g44bf2a7el7e3043141c1add16@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <7f7c2d5e0703211057g1b174150u5379c8e8c8d358fe@mail.gmail.com> On 3/21/07, Will Willis wrote: > > Here's the status on METRO (http://ridemetro.org/), Houston's transit > (bus and rail) system. > > * We will be getting system maps and local bus schedules for attendees Great! * Weekly bus passes are available for $9, providing unlimited rides on > all local routes and the Rail for 7 days from date of first use. > > I'm having these items shipped to my office and I'll be responsible > for getting them to the pre-conference bag-stuffing party =) Assuming > we get bags at registration like last year... I assumed we would go for the bags again. I'll have to look at my bag again, but I believe LiveText or someone must have sponsored the bags (someone's logo was on the bag). We can bulk price some bags in the event that someone doesn't sponsor for it. Does anyone have any creative ideas for bag alternatives? Could we add the $9 bus pass an option when registering? UH isn't > exactly within walking distance from the rest of the city - I imagine > anyone wanting to do any sight seeing would want one. Thoughts? I know it was mentioned in the past about possibly providing the passes 'free of charge' to registrants if the price was low enough. Would there be a discount if we bought 400+ passes? If not, I prefer to go the route of letting each registrant purchase their own pass. I'm sure once the ACT software gets used more (I'm hoping for some hackathon action on it ;-), it will provide the ability to more easily add things to registration. As it is now, it's a single drop down. If we include a $20 meal card option, we have 24 prices that will be in the dropdown (12 for Early bird, 12 for regular pricing). Double the total each time we add an item. :-( I'm hoping future registrations are allowed the ability to add specific items to their registration separately. I think we should also still look into the charter/shuttle option we've talked about previously. This would get people to downtown (where most of the action is ;-) and from there they can use the METRORail system (cheaper pass?). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070321/fd29a2ee/attachment.html From rdice at pobox.com Wed Mar 21 11:09:32 2007 From: rdice at pobox.com (Richard Dice) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:09:32 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] The Numbers In-Reply-To: <6ee1e6090703211055s171da6bo503be28787af1412@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703211055s171da6bo503be28787af1412@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5bef4baf0703211109g687b5cadye9629416d44e556e@mail.gmail.com> T-shirt numbers were a huge issue for me. I ended up being about 50 shirts short in Toronto in 2005. I was really cautious (maybe paranoid?) about the budget so I planned for the "expected case", and I had 50 more people show up than I thought would. (The # who showed up was my "It will blow my mind if this many people show up" case.) Ordering 50 more shirts than you think you'll need will probably cost about $250. Which in the grand scheme of things isn't a big deal. Selling extra ones at the auction - it's a good thing! They'll sell well (and for good $) if you get "celebrities" at the conference to autograph them. Cheers, Richard On 3/21/07, Will Willis wrote: > > Forgive me if this has already been mentioned in this list or on some > other resource. > > Where do we get our attendance numbers from? With registrations > spiking near the end of registration, how do we give estimates to > vendors/sponsors today, or even on June 1? I asked Metro to ship us > enough bus routes for 400 attendees. However, items like T-shirts are > another matter, we probably want to have a slight surplus early on to > cover at-the-door registrations and demand for those that want more > than one shirt, but not more than we're able to sell throughout the > conference. > > Any suggestions from seasoned veterans out there? > > -Will > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070321/d074aeda/attachment.html From petek at bsod.net Wed Mar 21 11:28:46 2007 From: petek at bsod.net (Pete Krawczyk) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:28:46 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Fwd: Metro Info for Conference attendees In-Reply-To: <7f7c2d5e0703211057g1b174150u5379c8e8c8d358fe@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703211041g44bf2a7el7e3043141c1add16@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703211057g1b174150u5379c8e8c8d358fe@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Subject: Re: [Yapc-na-organizers] Fwd: Metro Info for Conference attendees From: Jeremy Fluhmann Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:57:10 -0500 }I assumed we would go for the bags again. I'll have to look at my bag }again, but I believe LiveText or someone must have sponsored the bags }(someone's logo was on the bag). You are correct - LiveText sponsored them and actually supplied them to us. We didn't know until they arrived what they'd be, and we wound up giving the extras back. -Pete K -- Pete Krawczyk petek at bsod dot net http://www.petekrawczyk.com/ From gwadej at anomaly.org Wed Mar 21 16:45:22 2007 From: gwadej at anomaly.org (G. Wade Johnson) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:45:22 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Fwd: Metro Info for Conference attendees In-Reply-To: <7f7c2d5e0703211057g1b174150u5379c8e8c8d358fe@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703211041g44bf2a7el7e3043141c1add16@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703211057g1b174150u5379c8e8c8d358fe@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20070321184522.14b0805a@sovvan> On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:57:10 -0500 "Jeremy Fluhmann" wrote: > On 3/21/07, Will Willis wrote: > > > > Here's the status on METRO (http://ridemetro.org/), Houston's > > transit (bus and rail) system. > > > > * We will be getting system maps and local bus schedules for > > attendees Sounds good. > I know it was mentioned in the past about possibly providing the > passes 'free of charge' to registrants if the price was low enough. > Would there be a discount if we bought 400+ passes? If not, I prefer > to go the route of letting each registrant purchase their own pass. > I'm sure once the ACT software gets used more (I'm hoping for some > hackathon action on it ;-), it will provide the ability to more > easily add things to registration. As it is now, it's a single drop > down. If we include a $20 meal card option, we have 24 prices that > will be in the dropdown (12 for Early bird, 12 for regular pricing). > Double the total each time we add an item. :-( I'm hoping future > registrations are allowed the ability to add specific items to their > registration separately. > > I think we should also still look into the charter/shuttle option > we've talked about previously. This would get people to downtown > (where most of the action is ;-) and from there they can use the > METRORail system (cheaper pass?). We may need to do more than one type of charter thing, though. Downtown is not "where most of the action is" in Houston. Don't get me wrong, there's good stuff there. But, some people might have more of an interest in Rice Village, or the Richmond area, or the Galleria area. G. Wade -- "Very sad life. Probably also have sad death. But at least there is symmetry." -- Zathras From cbrandt at buffalo.edu Thu Mar 22 05:53:53 2007 From: cbrandt at buffalo.edu (Jim Brandt) Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:53:53 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <46027C61.8080206@buffalo.edu> Will, Ask said he would put up a blurb on the site. Can you guys work something up and send it along? Thanks, Jim Will Willis wrote: > Here's an idea that just ran through my head.... Would it be possible > to promote the job fair on http://jobs.perl.org/login ? The page where > employers log-in to post jobs? > > This would make potential employers aware of the fair, as well as > giving them face-time with some excellent talent. All while increasing > sponsorship dollars. > > Any reason why this wouldn't be a good (or feasible) idea? > > -Will > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers -- Jim Brandt Conferences Chair The Perl Foundation email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo From joshua.mcadams at gmail.com Thu Mar 22 09:35:20 2007 From: joshua.mcadams at gmail.com (Joshua McAdams) Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:35:20 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <5bef4baf0703210720o67fc8ef0o20c8c77b24f820b6@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> <46012A7A.7030001@buffalo.edu> <7f7c2d5e0703210644h6f27c97x5f52ee0ce906ace9@mail.gmail.com> <6ee1e6090703210658i2e9fde9dgda6dd743292418db@mail.gmail.com> <5bef4baf0703210720o67fc8ef0o20c8c77b24f820b6@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <49d805d70703220935g6287d0acpbfa295a1c5f1be3d@mail.gmail.com> > I really liked the set-up of the job fair at YAPC in Chicago. I thought it > added a lot to the conference in a lot of ways. Other than comments about the business cards, I think everyone that I talked to thought that the job fair was a good idea. Some attendees said that we should have promoted it to them (the attendees) more before the conference so they would have know to have brought a polished resume. So, if you are going to do it, make sure that everyone attending knows that it's happening well before they arrive. From rdice at pobox.com Thu Mar 22 09:41:16 2007 From: rdice at pobox.com (Richard Dice) Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:41:16 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <49d805d70703220935g6287d0acpbfa295a1c5f1be3d@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> <46012A7A.7030001@buffalo.edu> <7f7c2d5e0703210644h6f27c97x5f52ee0ce906ace9@mail.gmail.com> <6ee1e6090703210658i2e9fde9dgda6dd743292418db@mail.gmail.com> <5bef4baf0703210720o67fc8ef0o20c8c77b24f820b6@mail.gmail.com> <49d805d70703220935g6287d0acpbfa295a1c5f1be3d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5bef4baf0703220941w3429d5c8y7d5849e95ac6e3bf@mail.gmail.com> Re: promoting the job fair so that people would know to bring a polished resume --> excellent idea! Also, while that is being promoted, make sure to include a sub-message of "Is your company hiring? Maybe you could mention to your manager that booths are available to be bought at YAPC::NA." Cheers, Richard On 3/22/07, Joshua McAdams wrote: > > > I really liked the set-up of the job fair at YAPC in Chicago. I thought > it > > added a lot to the conference in a lot of ways. > > Other than comments about the business cards, I think everyone that I > talked to thought that the job fair was a good idea. Some attendees > said that we should have promoted it to them (the attendees) more > before the conference so they would have know to have brought a > polished resume. So, if you are going to do it, make sure that > everyone attending knows that it's happening well before they arrive. > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070322/02612787/attachment.html From cbrandt at buffalo.edu Thu Mar 22 09:46:25 2007 From: cbrandt at buffalo.edu (Jim Brandt) Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:46:25 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Promoting the Job Fair In-Reply-To: <5bef4baf0703220941w3429d5c8y7d5849e95ac6e3bf@mail.gmail.com> References: <6ee1e6090703201508n42a37b8cqa980f01ada58e8d1@mail.gmail.com> <7f7c2d5e0703201516o1ebe7263r1b7f10f695c6389a@mail.gmail.com> <46012A7A.7030001@buffalo.edu> <7f7c2d5e0703210644h6f27c97x5f52ee0ce906ace9@mail.gmail.com> <6ee1e6090703210658i2e9fde9dgda6dd743292418db@mail.gmail.com> <5bef4baf0703210720o67fc8ef0o20c8c77b24f820b6@mail.gmail.com> <49d805d70703220935g6287d0acpbfa295a1c5f1be3d@mail.gmail.com> <5bef4baf0703220941w3429d5c8y7d5849e95ac6e3bf@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4602B2E1.8040007@buffalo.edu> At the risk of stating the painfully obvious, I think the best and easiest ways to get info to YAPC folks right now are the website and the yapc list. The yapc list has everyone who attended last year (plus folks from previous years who haven't un-subscribed). Richard Dice wrote: > Re: promoting the job fair so that people would know to bring a polished > resume --> excellent idea! > > Also, while that is being promoted, make sure to include a sub-message > of "Is your company hiring? Maybe you could mention to your manager that > booths are available to be bought at YAPC::NA." > > Cheers, > Richard > > On 3/22/07, *Joshua McAdams* > wrote: > > > I really liked the set-up of the job fair at YAPC in Chicago. I > thought it > > added a lot to the conference in a lot of ways. > > Other than comments about the business cards, I think everyone that I > talked to thought that the job fair was a good idea. Some attendees > said that we should have promoted it to them (the attendees) more > before the conference so they would have know to have brought a > polished resume. So, if you are going to do it, make sure that > everyone attending knows that it's happening well before they arrive. > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers -- Jim Brandt Conferences Chair The Perl Foundation email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo From gwadej at anomaly.org Fri Mar 23 05:22:59 2007 From: gwadej at anomaly.org (G. Wade Johnson) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 07:22:59 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Link to YAPC 2007 sponsorship document Message-ID: <20070323072259.3ea255dc@sovvan> I tried to send this to the list and was blocked (too large), so here's a link instead. http://anomaly.org/wade/yapc2007/yapc-2007-sponsorship.pdf As suggested, I'm submitting the YAPC:NA sponsorship document here for suggestions before posting it for the general public. I would appreciate any comments in the next few days. Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide. G. Wade From cbrandt at buffalo.edu Fri Mar 23 06:29:13 2007 From: cbrandt at buffalo.edu (Jim Brandt) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:29:13 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Link to YAPC 2007 sponsorship document In-Reply-To: <20070323072259.3ea255dc@sovvan> References: <20070323072259.3ea255dc@sovvan> Message-ID: <4603D629.4000806@buffalo.edu> Any chance you could put the doc up on the wiki as an attachment? http://rakudo.org/yapc-houston/index.cgi?sponsorship It might make things easier, but my side motive is to have everything in one place so we can batch it up for next year's folks. Thanks, Jim G. Wade Johnson wrote: > I tried to send this to the list and was blocked (too large), so here's > a link instead. > > http://anomaly.org/wade/yapc2007/yapc-2007-sponsorship.pdf > > As suggested, I'm submitting the YAPC:NA sponsorship document here for > suggestions before posting it for the general public. > > I would appreciate any comments in the next few days. > > Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide. > > G. Wade > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers -- Jim Brandt Conferences Chair The Perl Foundation email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo From rdice at pobox.com Fri Mar 23 06:29:18 2007 From: rdice at pobox.com (Richard Dice) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:29:18 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Link to YAPC 2007 sponsorship document In-Reply-To: <20070323072259.3ea255dc@sovvan> References: <20070323072259.3ea255dc@sovvan> Message-ID: <5bef4baf0703230629s1287f1bka24fc4833a84b827@mail.gmail.com> Some feedback so far - First of all, really good stuff that you're on top of this! Different levels of sponsorship... - often have different perks associated with them beyond just being called something different... see if you can provide extra-special benefits to higher levels of sponsors (e.g t-shirt placement starts at Gold) - could be above just $3000 - maybe you could make a $7500 "Foundation Sponsor" level? (I had one $10k sponsorship and another $6k sponsorship - they got some extra-special treatment.) Re: staff a table at the job fair -- for a $100 Bronze sponsorship? I think this is a waaay too low a price for a job fair table. I think it could be good planning to say that Platinum (and above) sponsors get a free table, but I'd think tables themselves could go for $1k. (Anyone here an OSCON organizer? What do you guys charge there?) Re: May 18th deadline - it's good to include something like this on the sheet, but in a practical sense you could find yourself receiving (or even soliciting) sponsorships right up to the day before the event. Which might make it tougher to put some of these sponsors into the program but that's okay as long as they know about it. Re: contact email address -- you've got the yapchouston.org domain... maybe you could set yourself up an @yapchouston.org email address to go along with this? Sometimes, people want to sponsor an _aspect_ of the conference. E.g. Wednesday lunch, the afternoon food breaks, the 1 evening banquet, snacks at the arrival-night pub outing, the t-shirt. If you prepare a list of specific items with specific costs then that could make it easier to sell those items, not to mention that they can be big ticket items. (For instance, it could be easier to find someone to pay for t-shirts for $3000 than to find a Platinum sponsor.) There is no official mandate for YAPC to "turn a profit." Every YAPC organizer for the past several years (going back to 2003 from what I've seen, maybe earlier) has managed to come out comfortably in the black, though, by basically being really conservative (cautious, paranoid, whatever) in their budget (revenue _and_ expense) projections. This has effectively made YAPC the key fundraising effect of TPF every year. But you guys are totally allowed / empowered to allocate your budget to your conference first. Do what you gotta to to make sure that your attendees having a fantastic time. Hope that helps! Cheers, Richard On 3/23/07, G. Wade Johnson wrote: > > I tried to send this to the list and was blocked (too large), so here's > a link instead. > > http://anomaly.org/wade/yapc2007/yapc-2007-sponsorship.pdf > > As suggested, I'm submitting the YAPC:NA sponsorship document here for > suggestions before posting it for the general public. > > I would appreciate any comments in the next few days. > > Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide. > > G. Wade > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070323/f0f5b85c/attachment.html From petek at bsod.net Fri Mar 23 07:34:34 2007 From: petek at bsod.net (Pete Krawczyk) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:34:34 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Link to YAPC 2007 sponsorship document In-Reply-To: <5bef4baf0703230629s1287f1bka24fc4833a84b827@mail.gmail.com> References: <20070323072259.3ea255dc@sovvan> <5bef4baf0703230629s1287f1bka24fc4833a84b827@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Subject: Re: [Yapc-na-organizers] Link to YAPC 2007 sponsorship document From: Richard Dice Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:29:18 -0400 }Re: staff a table at the job fair -- for a $100 Bronze sponsorship? I think }this is a waaay too low a price for a job fair table. I will agree with this - we set a minimum of $250 in Chicago, and even that was a bit low, I think. Companies will spend that much on a single ad in the Sunday paper - for a table at a conference with their prospective audience, they'll gladly pay at least that, especially if they get good leads out of it. I would set the individual level at $100 and the bronze level at $250. }Re: May 18th deadline - it's good to include something like this on the }sheet, but in a practical sense you could find yourself receiving (or even }soliciting) sponsorships right up to the day before the event. We had a sponsor pay the day of the job fair for a table! If you're going to have a deadline, make sure you put it as late as possible, and only phrase the deadline to indicate they can still sponsor after this date: "In order to be mentioned in our program and on the t-shirt, you must become a sponsor by June 1st, 2007. However, you will still be entitled to several of the other benefits listed above." Our t-shirts went to press with two weeks to go and our program and sponsor list was sent to print six days before the conference started. Both were picked up the Friday before the conference started. I can't speak highly enough about the company I had print the programs, but unfortunately, the owner retired and the company closed. }Re: contact email address -- you've got the yapchouston.org domain... maybe }you could set yourself up an @yapchouston.org email address to go along with }this? People respond much better to this, as well as to conference "organizers". Make sure your .sig and introductory paragraph reflect this. They want to think they're dealing with the most important people at the conference. }Sometimes, people want to sponsor an _aspect_ of the conference. This is how ValueClick sponsorship came about - they sponsored Damian! LiveText sponsored bags, Google sponsored the T-shirts, etc. Companies really like it when they know exactly what their money will be spent on. -Pete K -- Pete Krawczyk petek at bsod dot net From gwadej at anomaly.org Fri Mar 23 21:22:10 2007 From: gwadej at anomaly.org (G. Wade Johnson) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:22:10 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Link to YAPC 2007 sponsorship document In-Reply-To: <5bef4baf0703230629s1287f1bka24fc4833a84b827@mail.gmail.com> References: <20070323072259.3ea255dc@sovvan> <5bef4baf0703230629s1287f1bka24fc4833a84b827@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20070323232210.025de2ee@sovvan> On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:29:18 -0400 "Richard Dice" wrote: > Some feedback so far - > > First of all, really good stuff that you're on top of this! Thanks....except I feel it has taken too long to get to this point. > > Different levels of sponsorship... > > - often have different perks associated with them beyond just being > called something different... see if you can provide extra-special > benefits to higher levels of sponsors (e.g t-shirt placement starts > at Gold) I was hoping for some input from the list on things like this. If I read the Chicago sponsorship doc correctly, it did not look like they had shown any differences. I'm really open to suggestions here. I like the idea of different placement based on level, I just wasn't comfortable with where the cutoffs should be. Anyone else? > - could be above just $3000 - maybe you could make a $7500 > "Foundation Sponsor" level? (I had one $10k sponsorship and another > $6k sponsorship - they got some extra-special treatment.) I was going on the numbers from last years conference. Despite a $5000 level, the max donated seemed to be $2500 (except for one group that paid for Damian to come in). So, it seemed to me that other levels might not be very useful. Obviously, you had different experience. We had also thought that maybe having the next level at $3000 rather than $5000 might entice someone to move up from the $2500 level. Anybody else have experience and/or opinions that we could use as a guide? > Re: staff a table at the job fair -- for a $100 Bronze sponsorship? > I think this is a waaay too low a price for a job fair table. I > think it could be good planning to say that Platinum (and above) > sponsors get a free table, but I'd think tables themselves could go > for $1k. (Anyone here an OSCON organizer? What do you guys charge > there?) Any other input? Anyone from last year? > Re: May 18th deadline - it's good to include something like this on > the sheet, but in a practical sense you could find yourself receiving > (or even soliciting) sponsorships right up to the day before the > event. Which might make it tougher to put some of these sponsors > into the program but that's okay as long as they know about it. I plan to keep checking. I guess we didn't make it explicit enough, but the deadline is for getting placement on the shirts and programs. Obviously, we can't get a company on the shirt if they donate the day before we start. > Re: contact email address -- you've got the yapchouston.org domain... > maybe you could set yourself up an @yapchouston.org email address to > go along with this? I'll have to check with the owner of the domain. Hey Will, any thoughts? > Sometimes, people want to sponsor an _aspect_ of the conference. E.g. > Wednesday lunch, the afternoon food breaks, the 1 evening banquet, > snacks at the arrival-night pub outing, the t-shirt. If you prepare > a list of specific items with specific costs then that could make it > easier to sell those items, not to mention that they can be big > ticket items. (For instance, it could be easier to find someone to > pay for t-shirts for $3000 than to find a Platinum sponsor.) What I heard from Josh was that this had turned into a hassle on their original sponsorship document. My plan had been to mention these things as possibilities when talking with individual companies. If they wanted to sponsor something in particular, we could work it out separately. This also gives me the opportunity to play gatekeeper so that we don't get several people wanting to pay for one item. > There is no official mandate for YAPC to "turn a profit." Every YAPC > organizer for the past several years (going back to 2003 from what > I've seen, maybe earlier) has managed to come out comfortably in the > black, though, by basically being really conservative (cautious, > paranoid, whatever) in their budget (revenue _and_ expense) > projections. This has effectively made YAPC the key fundraising > effect of TPF every year. But you guys are totally allowed / > empowered to allocate your budget to your conference first. Do what > you gotta to to make sure that your attendees having a fantastic time. We'll do our best. Thanks for the feedback. G. Wade From gwadej at anomaly.org Fri Mar 23 21:28:49 2007 From: gwadej at anomaly.org (G. Wade Johnson) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:28:49 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] Link to YAPC 2007 sponsorship document In-Reply-To: References: <20070323072259.3ea255dc@sovvan> <5bef4baf0703230629s1287f1bka24fc4833a84b827@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20070323232849.3c390ea9@sovvan> On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:34:34 -0500 (CDT) Pete Krawczyk wrote: > Subject: Re: [Yapc-na-organizers] Link to YAPC 2007 sponsorship > document From: Richard Dice > Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:29:18 -0400 > > }Re: staff a table at the job fair -- for a $100 Bronze sponsorship? > I think }this is a waaay too low a price for a job fair table. > > I will agree with this - we set a minimum of $250 in Chicago, and > even that was a bit low, I think. Companies will spend that much on > a single ad in the Sunday paper - for a table at a conference with > their prospective audience, they'll gladly pay at least that, > especially if they get good leads out of it. That's good to know. We'll revise this. > I would set the individual level at $100 and the bronze level at $250. The individual level was a bit of an in-joke, since '87 was a special year for Perl. > }Re: May 18th deadline - it's good to include something like this on > the }sheet, but in a practical sense you could find yourself > receiving (or even }soliciting) sponsorships right up to the day > before the event. > > We had a sponsor pay the day of the job fair for a table! If you're > going to have a deadline, make sure you put it as late as possible, > and only phrase the deadline to indicate they can still sponsor after > this date: > > "In order to be mentioned in our program and on the t-shirt, you > must become a sponsor by June 1st, 2007. However, you will still be > entitled to several of the other benefits listed above." We'll rework the text on this. I had not realized that we weren't clear enough. > Our t-shirts went to press with two weeks to go and our program and > sponsor list was sent to print six days before the conference > started. Both were picked up the Friday before the conference > started. I can't speak highly enough about the company I had print > the programs, but unfortunately, the owner retired and the company > closed. I'm a bit on the paranoid side. The idea of ordering the shirts with "no" slack time makes me nervous. I could just see a call two days before the conference saying the shirts were going to be a week late. > }Re: contact email address -- you've got the yapchouston.org > domain... maybe }you could set yourself up an @yapchouston.org email > address to go along with }this? > > People respond much better to this, as well as to conference > "organizers". Make sure your .sig and introductory paragraph reflect > this. They want to think they're dealing with the most important > people at the conference. I'll definitely talk with Will about this. > }Sometimes, people want to sponsor an _aspect_ of the conference. > > This is how ValueClick sponsorship came about - they sponsored > Damian! LiveText sponsored bags, Google sponsored the T-shirts, etc. > Companies really like it when they know exactly what their money will > be spent on. As I said, I was hoping to talk with each company about this possibility, so that it's more custom than choices off a list. Maybe we need to play up the "special sponsor" role better in the document. Thanks for the ideas (and experience). G. Wade From fluhmann at gmail.com Mon Mar 26 07:25:15 2007 From: fluhmann at gmail.com (Jeremy Fluhmann) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:25:15 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] CFP reminder announcement Message-ID: <7f7c2d5e0703260725m73bffed5rd361a41ea6b4bfc@mail.gmail.com> I'm getting ready to send out a reminder about the Call for Presentations. Please review the posting below and offer any comments you might have. Thanks! Jeremy -------------- CFP deadline approaching Two weeks remain in the Call For Participation! Visit http://conferences.mongueurs.net/yn2007 to register as a new user (or login with your existing account) and submit a talk proposal. If possible, please indicate (in the comments section) if you consider this talk to be suitable for a beginner, intermediate, or advanced Perl user. Some of the comments from last year indicated a desire to know the level of knowledge expected of talk attendees. Official CFP posting at http://conferences.mongueurs.net/yn2007/cfp.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070326/0a9075a4/attachment.html From cbrandt at buffalo.edu Mon Mar 26 09:39:43 2007 From: cbrandt at buffalo.edu (Jim Brandt) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:39:43 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] CFP reminder announcement In-Reply-To: <7f7c2d5e0703260725m73bffed5rd361a41ea6b4bfc@mail.gmail.com> References: <7f7c2d5e0703260725m73bffed5rd361a41ea6b4bfc@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4607F74F.1050700@buffalo.edu> Looks good to me. Jeremy Fluhmann wrote: > I'm getting ready to send out a reminder about the Call for > Presentations. Please review the posting below and offer any comments > you might have. Thanks! > > Jeremy > > -------------- > > CFP deadline approaching > > Two weeks remain in the Call For Participation! Visit > http://conferences.mongueurs.net/yn2007 to register as a new user (or > login with your existing account) and submit a talk proposal. If > possible, please indicate (in the comments section) if you consider this > talk to be suitable for a beginner, intermediate, or advanced Perl > user. Some of the comments from last year indicated a desire to know > the level of knowledge expected of talk attendees. > > Official CFP posting at http://conferences.mongueurs.net/yn2007/cfp.html > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers -- Jim Brandt Conferences Chair The Perl Foundation email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo From rdice at pobox.com Mon Mar 26 09:43:21 2007 From: rdice at pobox.com (Richard Dice) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:43:21 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] CFP reminder announcement In-Reply-To: <4607F74F.1050700@buffalo.edu> References: <7f7c2d5e0703260725m73bffed5rd361a41ea6b4bfc@mail.gmail.com> <4607F74F.1050700@buffalo.edu> Message-ID: <5bef4baf0703260943m155ca9f8w961b4dfb99130181@mail.gmail.com> Jeremy, Yeah, I think it looks good. And personally helpful, too. :-) Cheers, Richard On 3/26/07, Jim Brandt wrote: > > Looks good to me. > > > Jeremy Fluhmann wrote: > > I'm getting ready to send out a reminder about the Call for > > Presentations. Please review the posting below and offer any comments > > you might have. Thanks! > > > > Jeremy > > > > -------------- > > > > CFP deadline approaching > > > > Two weeks remain in the Call For Participation! Visit > > http://conferences.mongueurs.net/yn2007 to register as a new user (or > > login with your existing account) and submit a talk proposal. If > > possible, please indicate (in the comments section) if you consider this > > talk to be suitable for a beginner, intermediate, or advanced Perl > > user. Some of the comments from last year indicated a desire to know > > the level of knowledge expected of talk attendees. > > > > Official CFP posting at http://conferences.mongueurs.net/yn2007/cfp.html > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > > -- > Jim Brandt > Conferences Chair > The Perl Foundation > email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org > IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com > perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.pm.org/pipermail/yapc-na-organizers/attachments/20070326/714e06a5/attachment.html From gwadej at anomaly.org Mon Mar 26 19:04:13 2007 From: gwadej at anomaly.org (G. Wade Johnson) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:04:13 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] YAPC::NA 2007 sponsorship doc Message-ID: <20070326210413.44141c2f@sovvan> Based on input from several people on this list (thanks, guys). We've revised the sponsorship document. If no one raises any major concerns with this one, it will be moved to the YAPC wiki and I'll start using it in communications with potential sponsors. Significant changes include restoring the sponsor levels to the one's used by Chicago and clarifying the text around sponsorship benefits. I am still wondering if we shouldn't break up the benefits differently by level, but I'm not real sure of a good breakdown. Looking forward to any input. Thanks again for any help. G. Wade From gwadej at anomaly.org Tue Mar 27 05:12:40 2007 From: gwadej at anomaly.org (G. Wade Johnson) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:12:40 -0500 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] YAPC::NA 2007 sponsorship doc In-Reply-To: <20070326210413.44141c2f@sovvan> References: <20070326210413.44141c2f@sovvan> Message-ID: <20070327071240.06925fdc@sovvan> On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:04:13 -0500 "G. Wade Johnson" wrote: > Based on input from several people on this list (thanks, guys). We've > revised the sponsorship document. I guess the URL would be useful. http://anomaly.org/wade/yapc2007/yapc-2007-sponsorship.pdf Sorry for the delay. G. Wade > > If no one raises any major concerns with this one, it will be moved to > the YAPC wiki and I'll start using it in communications with potential > sponsors. > > Significant changes include restoring the sponsor levels to the one's > used by Chicago and clarifying the text around sponsorship benefits. > > I am still wondering if we shouldn't break up the benefits differently > by level, but I'm not real sure of a good breakdown. > > Looking forward to any input. > > Thanks again for any help. > G. Wade > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers -- The shortest distances between two puns is a straight-line. From cbrandt at buffalo.edu Tue Mar 27 07:05:31 2007 From: cbrandt at buffalo.edu (Jim Brandt) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:05:31 -0400 Subject: [Yapc-na-organizers] YAPC::NA 2007 sponsorship doc In-Reply-To: <20070326210413.44141c2f@sovvan> References: <20070326210413.44141c2f@sovvan> Message-ID: <460924AB.40102@buffalo.edu> From the better-late-than-never department, it might help to check out what O'Reilly does: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2007/prospectus.pdf There are many other conferences out there as well, but our primary attendee pool and sponsor pool is likely familiar with OSCON. Their prospectus might be good for ideas and if there are ways we can make life easy for sponsors, we should. G. Wade Johnson wrote: > Based on input from several people on this list (thanks, guys). We've > revised the sponsorship document. > > If no one raises any major concerns with this one, it will be moved to > the YAPC wiki and I'll start using it in communications with potential > sponsors. > > Significant changes include restoring the sponsor levels to the one's > used by Chicago and clarifying the text around sponsorship benefits. > > I am still wondering if we shouldn't break up the benefits differently > by level, but I'm not real sure of a good breakdown. > > Looking forward to any input. > > Thanks again for any help. > G. Wade > _______________________________________________ > YAPC-NA-organizers mailing list > YAPC-NA-organizers at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/yapc-na-organizers -- Jim Brandt Conferences Chair The Perl Foundation email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org IM: cbrandtbuffalo at mac.com perlmonks: cbrandtbuffalo