1 Most conferences are difficult to organise because it entails lining up attendees and speakers to all be at the same place and time. 2 once venue and programme is set, the other thing would be to justify to management that you are worthy to attend such conferences and if you are lucky get the fee, accomodation and travel paid. 3 There used to be a technical and a management part running in parallel at the Uniforum conference with. In the last few ones there has been no such distinction. I wonder if it is worth while asking if we (nznog) can organise the technical bit. This leaves the organisation of the conference to them and the work is only in organising the presenters etc. (just a suggestion to reduce the organisation workload) 4 what content do you need to see in the programme before you think it is worth your time attending? Perhaps it might be worthwhile looking at the presentation topics of the NANOG meeting or APRICOT and have each of you list what it is you would have attended. I remember one of the Uniforum sessions in Rotorua where someone expected a lot of nznog types to attend his session and not many turned up and so he had to change his talk to a more general one on IP Net (or something like that). 5. Some of you feel that a lot more gets done at the pub. If it is the case, let's not have a conference. Organise regular drinkies or dinners (eg once every 3 or 6 months) and have one or two speakers give a presentation before the drinkies start. Perhaps even say the presenters have to buy a round of drinks. 6. I also feel that some of you won't be too happy sitting listening to presentations all day and perhaps it would be more realistic to have more sessions with hands on things to do at some computer/router/machine and fewer presentations. just my 2c worth Lin The - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog

(Please read the whole of this BEFORE hitting reply). As I organised, (with enormous amounts of help from the rest of the organisation) two Uniforum conferences, which were both profitable, I hope I can add something here. I had to give Uniforum up, as it was not "net-centric" enough. But I think there is room for a technical conference in NZ encompassing Internet/Real Operating Systems/Management/Networks. The dynamics of a conference are. 1/ Organisation is pretty much a 12 month cycle (not to say you can't do a smaller one in less time.) 2/ Guest overseas/celebrity speakers (from 1-3) usually want business-class airfare plus free accomodation. 3/ Organisors, who usually work for nothing, like have their accomodation paid. (But this need not be the case) This collectively comes up to $5-15K, according to how it unfolds. By the time you add the entertainment, meals etc the bill can get up to $35-50K. (The last Uniforum conference I ran had a running cost of a shade under $80K. if 100 contributors, at 40K total cost = $400 conference fees each. By taking a more modest approach, and ensuring that all organisors pay their way as well, you can cut the conference fee to $295, and you are also up for the 2-3 nights hotel, at a preferentail rate of $80-120. Do not overlook the bar bill. I believe most companies would stump up for this. There are severe limitations in the number of establishments that can deal with 50-150 people, and they typically want 12 month notice of bookings. I'm sure Cisco, being the gorilla of the Internet industry would be keen to participate, by providing an overseas speaker, and other companies would no doubt contribute in like fashion. The principle reason for finding a sponsor is to stump up the hotel deposit. I think the technical conference in NZ is a worthy one, but I would put more emphasis on getting managers of Telco's along, simply as it is an opportunity for them to understand a little more of the technical side, and perhaps it is also an opportunity for the techo's to understand the management drivers. /R Martin D Kealey wrote:

On Thu, 10 Jan 2002, Lin Nah wrote:

...

There used to be a technical and a management part running in parallel at the Uniforum conference with. In the last few ones there has been no such distinction. I wonder if it is worth while asking if we (nznog) can organise the technical bit. This leaves the organisation of the conference to them and the work is only in organising the presenters etc. (just a suggestion to reduce the organisation workload)

Strangely enough, I was just talking to Donald Neal about doing exactly this. How would people be set for the June/July study break?

-Martin

-- "War against Terror" is an oxymoron

- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog

-- \_ Roger De Salis rdesalis(a)cisco.com

On Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 10:22:20AM +1300, Roger De Salis wrote:

1/ Organisation is pretty much a 12 month cycle (not to say you can't do a smaller one in less time.)

Damn - my attention span has been clocked at under 10.7 seconds. Seriously though. I don't doubt for a minute that this is a long term job, and as such needs the right sort of person to organise it.

2/ Guest overseas/celebrity speakers (from 1-3) usually want business-class airfare plus free accomodation.

Greedy bastards. S/t I think this could be relaxed. None of the companies they work for will be flying them business class at the moment so why should we.

3/ Organisors, who usually work for nothing, like have their accomodation paid. (But this need not be the case)

One Maui Camper van comming up S/t If you like the idea enough to volenteer to organise it, then you were probably going to come anyway. So then you would have been paying for your accomodation anyway. So no one should mind paying. QED

I believe most companies would stump up for this. There are severe limitations in the number of establishments that can deal with 50-150 people, and they typically want 12 month notice of bookings.

Yep - this I think will be an issue. We might want to look into this as a phase 1. it might effect some of the scaling decisions that Donald is talking about (single vs multiday, independant vs schlepping off uniforum)

I'm sure Cisco, being the gorilla of the Internet industry would be keen to participate, by providing an overseas speaker, and other companies would no doubt contribute in like fashion. The principle reason for finding a sponsor is to stump up the hotel deposit.

One tShirt with a slow knuckle-dragging, hairy, drooling gorilla named Cisco comming up =) S/t I don't think Speakers will be a huge problem. I think that doing them for cheap, and getting companies to just fork out disposable cash might be a bit harder. But who knows.

I think the technical conference in NZ is a worthy one, but I would put more emphasis on getting managers of Telco's along, simply as it is an opportunity for them to understand a little more of the technical side, and perhaps it is also an opportunity for the techo's to understand the management drivers.

<t-i-c> Telco's are some of the most technical and intelligent people that I know. They have recently been shown to make EXCELLENT networking decisions. I think they would be a great asset to any conference audience. </t-i-c> Having said all this I guess the thing that I'm worried about the most is that we start too big and it tanks. We are then left with the "Nah, we tried that once but it didn't work" All good points man. Esp the ones about how expensive and time consuming the organising is. Dean - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog

I'm just wondering if there is the demand there for events on a larger scale

I don't think its scale thats the problem. The problem is relevance. Content needs to be rich, targeted at individuals who are eager to come along. Cost needs to be something the average NZNOGer can spring for without having to go hungry. People should not have to ask their employer to pay for anything, nor should they need lots of time off. We already know people subscribed turn up to get free tee shirts and beers. So the event needs plenty of both. But what else, very specifically do people here want to do at an event where there are lots of us? I think a router smashing competition would be a good drawcard :-) Peter Mott Chief Enthusiast 2DAY INTERNET LIMITED It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney -/- - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog