PyOhio open space
Notes (mostly questions) jottted down during the PyOhio planning huddle held as an open-space at PyCon 2009.
Location
- Will they allow Wearable Python to come & sell?
- Rooms - enough Open Spaces? Break up main hall? Need a report
- OSU's policy on bringing in pizza, etc.? (I believe I discussed this with John L. earlier and it was OK, but will confirm)
- Microsoft has a large Columbus office - perhaps it would be available for other (pre-conference?) activities
Offices
- Food Coordinator
- Sponsorship Chair
- Publicity - Sarah D.
- Lodging Coordinator - William McVey (will gather hotel info for attendees)
- Photographer
- After-party Coordinator
Publicity
- Hooray to Sarah D.
- Put together a "PR package" with brouchure, blog badge, poster...
- Publicize through ACM and IEEE - both adult and student chapters
- Arrange talks at local meetings of other groups to publicize PyOhio & Python ( a Speakers' Bureau? ). Make a "Python for PHP programmers" talk. Bring Jython to the Java User Groups.
- Make screencasts that include a PyOhio "ad"
- Spread word through EdgeCase, eRubyCon - & get advice from Joe O'Brian
- Tech Columbus
- Arrange a Pylons evangelism sprint
- We already have a Twitter feed. Should we get a LinkedIn group, too?
Sponsorship
- AGI was our primary sponsor last year - hopefully they'll repeat
- Excellent possibility of Microsoft Sponsorship. Could we also make use of MS's large Columbus building?
- Far from certain, but Oracle Technical Network may sponsor
- We need a sponsor prospectus - see those for PyCon, CodeMash for examples
Tasks
- Call For Propoals (generic)
- Later - targeted call for specific talk types
Activities
- A Beginners' Track
- Balance of open-spaces, sprints, traditional talks? A full day of open-spaces? Probably better to mix - give nobody an excuse to skip a day
- After-party - still very undetermined. (What about a trip to the zoo?)
- A GiveCamp? (sprinting to produce product(s) for nonprofit/good cause)
- CREM - Matt Arnold's conference-powering software, useful for scheduling
- Keynotes?
Photography - We should make sure to take & publish photos this year. They're good for reminiscing and for 2010 publicity.
Fluffy, the world's largest python, lives at the Columbus Zoo. How can we capitalize on this? A live FluffyCam? Can she be our mascot?