[Scale-planning] My Thoughts on building a stronger SCALE

Mx Siltanen mrsiltanen at gmail.com
Thu Dec 1 18:52:07 UTC 2016


Hi,

1) Enterprise Class on a Startup budget with Open Source tech.

It has always been implied to me, yet I think we should explicitly state it.
Perhaps as a tag for selected talks, perhaps as a track,..

( I've been working on building out a network on a budget and a consultant
has offered very expensive enterprise class options which imho break the
budget - thus I've been thinking a lot about this topic. )

2)  As all sorts of great talks are available online thus we need to
increase the value of personally attending SCALE.

2A) Networking - people - in person networking
We need to pay more attention to how to increase the value of in-person
interactions at SCALE.

BOFs and Key signing are good for this.

One speaker last year recommended a SCALE lunch option, perhaps an extra
charge for it. ( Thur and Fri tracks often have sponsors for lunch -
perhaps we can find ways to increase the value of lunch sponsors with
banners or a lunch time presentation to increase the chances of sponsored
lunches. )

Selection of speakers - perhaps a little bit of a focus on speakers which
people would like to meet in person for business or other purposes. ( the
idea is to have a good mix of presenters from the larger pro-open source
community )

2B) Prizes - yes they shouldn't be the reason to attend SCALE, yet everyone
likes a reward for doing so.

We should look at various additional options to increase rewarding in
person attendance.

One tactic other conferences I assist with is to give out prizes at the end
of the event to those in attendance, perhaps during a evening reception. I
know we've been doing this with Sat night, and that is good, yet perhaps we
can also do some of it during the last hour of the expo hall on would make
a great opportunity for making it a formal prize give away time from the
vendors ( please see 2c )

2C) Sunday Expo Hall needs to remain strong to increase in person
attendance Sunday as well as reward exhibitor sponsors.

I would like to see a presentation break during the last 60-45min of the
expo hall when prizes will be given away by the exhibitors. This would end
the exhibit hall with a stronger finish imho and give people a good reason
for a final visit on Sunday to drop their cards off to the exhibitors.

We can workout procedural details a bit, perhaps assigning time slots for
exhibitors to give their prizes away to those in attendance, perhaps having
a central stage on the expo floor where the prizes are given away.

I know some of the exhibitors are already giving out prizes at their booths
on the last day, a little coordination I think will make it better - as
some of the good prizes are given out while presentations are in progress
and thus having a presentation break during the last hour of the expo hall
imho would be nice.

The most important is to give value to the exhibitors, speakers, and
attendees for attending SCALE in person. Keeping Sunday strong imho is
critical.

Thank You
Matti
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