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1 Day Open Space Conference for Developers

I am planning on hosting a 1 day open space conference. If you are not familiar with the open space format, its gaining in popularity and is a great format for knowledge sharing. I would like to see participants from all areas and languages come together and share knowledge and learn from each other: Java, Ruby, .Net, Python, PHP, LISP, Fortran, Smalltalk... it doesn't matter what languages you use, we all have something to learn from each other. Find out more about the open space format here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-space_meeting. I would like to gather ideas on a good time to do this: mid-August, Sept, Dec? I am trying to do this with no sponsors except for facility. The conference can only be as successful as we, as a community, make it. I am merely another participant. We are all the organizers. We are all the participants. I will, however, facilitate.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Bugaj on July 3, 2008 at 7:01am: That sounds pretty good. This is something that OKC is missing and hopefully people will pick it up on it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Raymond Lewallen on July 3, 2008 at 7:06am: Greg, I'm fully committed to doing what needs to be done to make it happen. I organized a successful code camp last year but this year want to do something that can be owned by all the developer communities, so that we become more of a single community of polyglots. I think a lot of people will turn out if the timing is right, so that's what I need to know. What is the best time to do this?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Greg Bugaj on July 3, 2008 at 7:26am: I think that mid August might be good, since its before a lot of students go back to school. Last year did you have Code Camp on the weekend or during weekday ?
Also what would be some good topics that could benefits all the developers? Where were you planning on hosting this event and how many people can the place support, also it would be nice if some sponsors picked up the tab.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Raymond Lewallen on July 3, 2008 at 7:33am: Mid-august would be good for me too, just not sure about everybody else. I was planning a weekend date, but if people could take a day from work to attend "training", a weekday would work out much better. I would locate a facility to hold 100 people. I wouldn't expect more than that many to show up. There are 2 minimum requirements for hosting an event: location and insurance. If I can get FT or Rose State or UoP to let us use their facility for free, they would be sponsoring that. Then all I have to do is cover the cost of insurance. Don't want to bother with bringing in food as its a hassle, expensive and very unknown as to what people like and how much to buy because you don't know how many people will show up.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Greg Bugaj on July 3, 2008 at 8:03am: Personaly a weekend date would be probably better for me, but again I think that alot of people would like to have a 'training' day. One problem with weekday I see is that many places really don't want employes going to stuff that is not related to what they do at work, so maybe a little vote would be in order?
How much is insurance for event like this anyway?

PS: My english sucks ja jestem z Polski; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mark on July 3, 2008 at 9:13am: I think that this is a great idea.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mark Smith on July 3, 2008 at 4:20pm: sounds great!!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brian Clubb on July 5, 2008 at 1:35pm: There is a major Ruby conference in early September that I would imagine most local ruby enthusiasts will be going too. http://www.lonestarrubyconf.com/ It is Sept. 4-6.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kristin Ferrier on July 6, 2008 at 12:17pm: Personally, a weekend date would work better for me in the summer. Once fall hits, I'll be at a bunch of college football games, so then a weekday would be better. I agree with Greg, though, that many companies would only want to send their employees if they perceived it directly related to their current positions.

As for event insurance, the insurance for the Heroes Community Launch event was $300 for the day. Ryan Hoegg, however, later found a company willing to sponsor the whole group for a year for only $500, so the price can vary.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Raymond Lewallen on July 7, 2008 at 10:54am: Brian, I wonder if it would be beneficial to bring back from the RubyConf to an event like this, things learned? I'll be at the Ruby group this week, so I will address it there.

Greg, insurance is not very expensive for an event like this.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anthony Towry on July 15, 2008 at 2:45pm: How different is this format from a BarCamp? I've never been to either.

Also, tally another vote for the weekend.

BarCampTulsa.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Raymond Lewallen on July 16, 2008 at 6:28am: BarCamps are a type of open space, but are more limiting than just an "open space" conference. BarCamps have to abide by a defined set of rules and the BarCampLicense. Open space is a much more liberal approach and open-ended when not scoped into a specific type of open space.

Anthony Towry said:
How different is this format from a BarCamp? I've never been to either.

Also, tally another vote for the weekend.

BarCampTulsa.; ▶ Reply to This