[wplug] Pittsburgh Code Camp Event

[Bill Moran]

Rob Knapp <myddrin at myddrin.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 2006-03-09 at 16:39 -0500, Drew from Zhrodague wrote:
> > > (Btw, PyCON is a great deal of fun.  If you can get your employer to pay
> > > for it, it is well worth it!)
> > 
> >  	(If you blog, you can get into any tradeshow. Just tell 'em you're 
> > a blogger, and that you want a press pass. This is what I do, and it works 
> > great =_)
> 
> Does that work if you get less than 1,000 visitors a year? :)
> 
> >  	(Too bad not many real conferences are held anywhere near 
> > Pittsburgh.)
> 
> It's funny I was just thinking that.  Has anyone ever looked into what
> it takes to start/run a Con?  Could WPLUG partener with some other
> nearby user groups and do a "Mid-Atlantic Open Source Conference"?
> BiMonSciFiCon errr... MAOSC...
> 
> Obviously the convention center would be FAAAAARRRRR too big, but I'm
> sure that a one of the local hotels would be big enough.  I'm sure that
> the Zope Corporation folks could trek up for Alexandria, and IIRC there
> are a couple OSS companies operating right in PGH.  And I'm sure my
> boss(es) would be thrilled if I re-did my talks from PyCON.  (They both
> opened their code at PyCON.)
> 
> Wouldn't be huge, but might be big enough to make the second year's con
> interesting......  
> 
> In terms of sponsors I know that Google was a heavy presence at PyCON,
> and aren't they opening a PGH office?  (I spent most of the conference
> trying like crazy not to get cornered by their recruiters.)  [MS was
> also a sponsor...could have knocked me over w/ a feather.]

This is something that the movers and shakers of WPLUG have been discussing
for as long as I've been involved.

In fact, I believe that part of the reason the bylaws were rewritten was
to restructure WPLUG in such a way that putting together a big con, or
working with other groups to put together a con, would be easier.  I know
it was something that the bylaws committee considered while writing the
bylaws.

If you ask Beth Lynn, she'll tell you that putting together something like
a con is a LOT of work - she's been instrumental in pulling off Ohio
Linuxfest for the past two years, and is already involved in this year.

Fact is, we need someone to take the lead and focus the effort.  We have
fairly strong ties with the Perlmongers and the group that evolved from
SAGE.  There are undoubtedly other groups that we could team up with.
What we need is someone (of a small group of people) who are willing to
take the lead on this and organize it.  

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com