[osol-mktg] OpenSolaris Developers Conf

[Keith M Wesolowski]

On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:13:48PM -0400, Laura Ramsey wrote:

> 1--Solaris/OpenSolaris  Developer Conference--BLEEDING EDGE Solaris 
> based technologies from developers, venue aimed at the higher end 
> advanced developer, focus on Solaris / OpenSolaris development issues.   
> 2-3-days--keynotes at a minimum...Tutorials, hands on sessions, and BoFs 
> would be the sweetspot of the agenda. (Like Glynn's example from 
> australia...so cool!)  With this scope, we could expect to draw at least 
> 2,500 attendees, and if we opened the event up to sponsorships and 
> coordinated promotions, we could get as many as 5,000.  Registration 
> fees would be minimal (Cost of event/production)

On what have you based your estimate of 2500-5000 participants?  Even
if admission were free, it seems unlikely that 40% or more of the
people who've registered would spend the travel money needed to
attend.  This is especially true given that the number of people who
have actually contributed code or even posted to mailing lists is a
small fraction of that number.

This format might be useful as a marketing vehicle (if indeed it were
to draw in the numbers you're suggesting), but it would probably have
little impact on development and I'm curious how you would plan to
drive interest among engineers.

> 2--"Open Mic" Developer Conference--venue aimed at Open Source 
> developers only. Showcase all Sun's open source projects, featuring 
> OpenSolaris and Solaris development issues. 2-days--keynotes at a 
> minimum...tutorials, hands on sessions and BoFs would be sweetspot of 
> the agenda. (Like Glynn's example from australia...) With this scope, we 
> could probably expect to draw 1,500 attendees, and if we opened the 
> event up to sponsorships and coordinated promotions, we could get as 
> many as 2,000. NOTE--THIS COULD BE A FREE EVENT TO BE REALLY COMPELLING!
> 
> 2a--hosting the above format as a Solaris kernel "pure oxygen" approach 
> like Jim has suggested  (No Signs, lots of code!)

I'm not sure how (1) and (2) really differ except perhaps for the
inclusion of non-OpenSolaris technologies in (2).  (2a) is completely
different, modeled on the Linux Kernel Summit, or inviting the top 20
or 50 contributors to spend a week in MPK17 - which might be a cheaper
way to accomplish the same goals.  The *maximum* attendance I would
envision for (2a) would be about 100.  (2a) would have no keynotes, no
BOFs (the 6 people who want to talk about smf can go get beer
together), and although there would be sessions, they would be more
interactive than normal - more like technical meetings than
presentations.  The goal is not to pat ourselves on the back, get in
the news, and tell each other how great OpenSolaris is (like most
conferences), but rather to drive technical decisions and talk about
cool technology.

I'd be interested to know whether your organisation would have any
interest in (2a) at all, since it's fundamentally an engineering forum
and would offer little in the way of marketing opportunities (all the
attendees would be existing contributors).

-- 
Keith M Wesolowski		"Sir, we're surrounded!" 
Solaris Kernel Team		"Excellent; we can attack in any direction!" 
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