It's a long way from Florida to Ontario, but it was totally worth it. Spent this weekend in Toronto to attend the Ontario Linux Fest for the first time. It was a smallish show, but the level of enthusiasm was enormous.
The quality of the talks, likewise, was enormous. And I'm not just saying that because I gave one! I caught a couple of talks, and the schedule was chock full of awesome. The hallway where the project tables were set up was relatively full during the interludes, but the rooms filled right up during all of the talks. I spent most of my time talking to folks in the hall about openSUSE or other projects. Had great fun talking to Troy Unrau about KDE and other assorted topics, Jorge Castro about community matters, some good podcasting ideas from Bradley Kuhn, and many others. Really, the quality of attendees at Ontario Linux Fest was just ridiculously high.
Had a chance to do the "remix" of my "Musical Guide to the Future of Linux" talk. Lucky for me, the audience was generally of an age to recognize references to Duran Duran, WKRP, and so forth. And after a full day of other talks, people were really warmed up and ready to have fun -- it was a great time. And a ton of great questions at the end. I hope to have the chance to do this one a few more times before it gets dusty.
Overall, the regional shows like Ontario Linux Fest, Ohio Linuxfest, Linuxfest Northwest, Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE), Utah Open Source Conference, and Southeast Linuxfest tend to be my favorites for so many reasons. As a speaker, I've found that the organizers go above and beyond to take care of speakers. Richard Weait, who invited me to OLF this year, was really responsive and great to work with.
As an attendee, I've found that the vibe at these conferences fits the community quite well. OpenSource World (previously LinuxWorld Expo) was quite impersonal, and really not a conference that left me feeling warm and fuzzy. That's not to say that there isn't good content, but overall... it lacks the personal touch.
As a sponsor, the small regional shows are far more affordable and tend to be easier to work with. If I was trolling for commercial leads, I'm not sure how well the small shows would work -- but for companies looking to work with the FOSS community, your dollars are probably best spent doing several regional shows than one big show.
The one-day conference format works well for smaller shows like OLF. People show up full of energy, there's a ton to do and no "filler," and by the end of the day you're looking forward to next year.
Ontario Linux Fest rocked!
It's a long way from Florida to Ontario, but it was totally worth it. Spent this weekend in Toronto to attend the Ontario Linux Fest for the first time. It was a smallish show, but the level of enthusiasm was enormous.
The quality of the talks, likewise, was enormous. And I'm not just saying that because I gave one! I caught a couple of talks, and the schedule was chock full of awesome. The hallway where the project tables were set up was relatively full during the interludes, but the rooms filled right up during all of the talks. I spent most of my time talking to folks in the hall about openSUSE or other projects. Had great fun talking to Troy Unrau about KDE and other assorted topics, Jorge Castro about community matters, some good podcasting ideas from Bradley Kuhn, and many others. Really, the quality of attendees at Ontario Linux Fest was just ridiculously high.
Had a chance to do the "remix" of my "Musical Guide to the Future of Linux" talk. Lucky for me, the audience was generally of an age to recognize references to Duran Duran, WKRP, and so forth. And after a full day of other talks, people were really warmed up and ready to have fun -- it was a great time. And a ton of great questions at the end. I hope to have the chance to do this one a few more times before it gets dusty.
Overall, the regional shows like Ontario Linux Fest, Ohio Linuxfest, Linuxfest Northwest, Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE), Utah Open Source Conference, and Southeast Linuxfest tend to be my favorites for so many reasons. As a speaker, I've found that the organizers go above and beyond to take care of speakers. Richard Weait, who invited me to OLF this year, was really responsive and great to work with.
As an attendee, I've found that the vibe at these conferences fits the community quite well. OpenSource World (previously LinuxWorld Expo) was quite impersonal, and really not a conference that left me feeling warm and fuzzy. That's not to say that there isn't good content, but overall... it lacks the personal touch.
As a sponsor, the small regional shows are far more affordable and tend to be easier to work with. If I was trolling for commercial leads, I'm not sure how well the small shows would work -- but for companies looking to work with the FOSS community, your dollars are probably best spent doing several regional shows than one big show.
The one-day conference format works well for smaller shows like OLF. People show up full of energy, there's a ton to do and no "filler," and by the end of the day you're looking forward to next year.