Fall2012InPerson

We will hold an in-person meeting on Nov 3, 2012, in Columbus Ohio. We will meet at our offices at 470 Olde Worthington Rd, Columbus OH, 43082 at 10 am. We will run until about 5pm and then go off to dinner somewhere.

For non locals: Hampton Inn [1] is across the street. But Red Roof Inn is is less expensive for the budget conscious. In the past some of us have stayed at the Worthington location, but we've had things stolen from us, had our reservations changed out from under us, and other problems. Moose recommends the Westerville RRI instead.

Proposed items for discussion

• Detailed walk-through of the event, from Thursday afternoon
  • What worked, what did not work
• Potential room layouts for next year
• (if time) Discussion of We-Oughtas
• Shirt packaging: All Robots Assemble!

Robot Roll Call

In-person

Are you coming to the meeting? Then sign up here!

• Warner Moore
• Phil Reiche
• Kevin O'Brien
• Rob Ball

• Your name here
• My name there
• Here a name, there a name
• Everywhere a name name
• Old McSchult had a farm - M-i-k-e-S

Live via satellite

Are you participating remotely? This is where your name goes!

• Your name here

Tried in absentia

Not going to participate at all? :-( List your name here and we'll assign you penance.

• Vance Kochenderfer
  • YOUR PENANCE: Editing umpteen hours of audio files
• Your name here

Meeting Minutes

Minutes recorded by Warner.

Attended by Rob, Kevin, Beth-Lynn, MikeS, Moose, Phil, Warner

Survey results not prepared yet.

Agenda

The agenda is to walk through event, review. What worked well, what could go better. The next in person meeting in Spring will include in the agenda to discuss and plan new ideas.

Friday

Rooms and hotels

Talking to Drury, Hilton, and Hyatt.

Entertainment

The entertainment for the after party is in question.

• Question: What will the entertainment be next year?
• Action Item (Moose): Need to track down the invoice for the food and drink at the Three Legged Mare.

Meetings

Monthly Google hangout meeting to replace IRC meeting. First Tuesday of the month.

Pre-event meeting with event staff. Discussed format and scheduling.

Next in-person meeting will tentatively be held in May.

• Decision: we will continue the pre-event meeting next year.

Programs

Quantity and how we ran out having ordered 500. Last year 800 were ordered and there were approximately 300 extra. It was $1000 for the $500.

• Decision: increase quantity of programs next year.

Schedules

Scheduling software for phones. OpenSchedule, closed source software?

• Action Item (Kevin): Ask Dan about iOS compatibility for the application.

At 11:10AM Beth-Lynn and Rob stepped out to run by the bank and get food.

At 11:36AM Scott Merrill (skippy) arrived.

Resumed at 12:13PM.

Registration

Discussed potential solutions for the check-in process being taking too much time at the event. How to change, what solutions we could use. Cost and logistics with registering for the afterparty. We may talk to eEevent about a potential reduced fee from 2.5% and $1 per ticket, since we are a 501.3(c) Reviewed eEvent and discussed. Discussed changing workflow and potential solutions or products for improving the registration process. Bar code reader desirable to speed up registration.

• Action Item (Moose): review eEvent and other event management sites to explore different solutions for the registration process.

Volunteers

Volunteer registration on site. Registration and security volunteers. Volunteers should understand their repsonsibilities in advance and who they report to. Moose is interested in adding a position for a "master volunteer coordination."

• Action Item (Kevin): start recruiting volunteers for the event earlier, such as in January.

• Action Item (Moose): chairpeople for the volunteers have an announce only mailing lists for all volunteers.

Speakers

Challenges with sticking with time slots, introductions and Master of Ceremonies role. ("Toast Master") Wrapping up in time to take questions, encourage to repeat questions. Scott had an idea for a clock or timer to enable speakers to better time their presentation. Moose recorded the ideas discussed for key note speakers. Could also promote raffle and sponsors.

• Action Item (Beth-Lynn): Reach out to ToastMasters to explore options for MC volunteers. Will work for

Beth-Lynn called for lunch orders -- couple of chickens with bacon!

Conference Date

Put in a bid for the weekend of September 13, 2013.

• Decision: Conference theme should be selected by the December 4 meeting.

Rob and Beth-Lynn returned at 1:24PM.

OLFI

Brought in a third of the revenue. We want to get GitHub involved next year. Wireless access reception needs to be improved for the next event. Wireless Internet access is available to all OLFI students and staff on Friday. Saturday access is available to speakers, staff, and sponsors. Discussed tables and chairs, buying versus renting. Scott would like white boards available for the presenters. Lunch was well received but need more seating.

• Decision: Purchase and provide power strips for the students. Rob will store the strips. Prepare the rooms in advance, create inventory checklist.
• Decision: Have the convention center provide projectors for OLFI.

CloudStack

Challenges with separate registration being held, we want to better integrate into the overall conference.

LinuxBasics

Scott and Courtney picked up the laptops. The laptops were supposed to be tested and working. However, many were broken. Discussed potential alternative sources for equipment.

• Question: Can HP provide equipment as a sponsorship?

BoF

New time slot worked well, a good change. With OLFI rented projectors, we can keep them for BoF next year. Pajama party only had two people show up. Have more stuff going on next year. Discussed the possibility of a LAN party but we could do it if we had a volunteer to lead the initiative.

• Decision: Keep the food for BoF next year.

Key-Note Dinner

Speakers and attendees appeared to enjoy the event. One person provided feedback saying that they expected a presentation. Enable an environment for mingling. 25-tickets were sold at $45 and sold out but made a small profit of $400. Discussed different event locations. We want to continue doing the event but have ideas for improvements.

• Decision: Improve the seating with key-notes to better engage the guests. Separate from each other or at separate tables.
• Decision: Locate a different location to be held.

Saturday

Vendor Expo and Conference Space

The separate room for vendors was not received. Discussed parts of the conference area. Banners or other materials to better identify the conference space, where to place them to identify the conference. Need more space for the Career Track and the Meet-the-Penguins track. Rob discussed an idea for promotional activities between sponsor booths.

• Decision: Centralize all booths to a single location.
• Decision: Conference in Upper C-pods and Drupal in the D-pods.
• Decision: Ask for PR contact from sponsors to provide ongoing promotion for sponsors earlier in the year as part of the PR initiatives.

Raffle

The raffle did not generate as much revenue as in the past. Laura will be responsible again for the raffle next year.

Speakers

Feedback in the survey was positive. Revisited and reviewed the topic of a MC role.

Open Source Solutions Stage

Speakers who did not have clear topics had challenges filling the room. Beth-Lynn suggests that we recommend to sponsors who opt in to using the speaking slot to make their topics as appealing as possible. Future vendor swag may need to be vetted to meet the policies of the conference.

Career Track

Some of the educational presentations were SRO. Company presentations were not attended as well, looking for ways to draw more of a crowd in. Want to do a recruiter/HR panel with a set of questions next year. Want to coordinate sponsor ships with the main event with value add such as posting positions on the Web site and promoting in the program as well. Dedicated recruiting room for vendor booths.

Penguin Track

Many presentations SRO.

• Decision: Get a bigger room next year.

Afterparty

Revisited the topic. Party was well received, it did not sell out. Comments that drink tickets would be easier to counterfeit. Roughly 300 people attended. Paid $7500 plus 18% tip for the night from 8PM until closing and the bar was reserved for us with food and drink. Any personal tabs are subtracted from the $7500. Any remaining balance is paid with tip. Total was $5200.

Additional Topics

Discussed the possibility of coordinating with DrupalCamp to run concurrently with OLF.

Discussed different bundling options for conference passes.

Closed at 4:35PM for T-shirt shipping!