I would also suggest bringing in the help of local software development groups and student groups fom the local Universities. This can help secure both help from young and eager CS students who have some free time on their hands and low cost event space at a University. That is what helped get the Ohio Linux Fest off the ground, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_LinuxFest">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_LinuxFest</a><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 2:02 PM, Michael J. Hammel <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mjhammel@graphics-muse.org">mjhammel@graphics-muse.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">On Tue, 2011-05-17 at 13:32 -0600, Matt Dew wrote:<br>
> Mike Bean brought up a really good point a while back. Why are there no<br>
> open source conferences in Denver? Apparently no one is interested<br>
> enough to make it happen. Well, consider this my attempt at helping to<br>
> make Denver a geek hub that would welcome a linux/OSS conference.<br>
<br>
</div>Exactly my sentiment back in '99-2000 when I ran CLIQ. However, it was<br>
more work than I could handle (the second year I ran it from Houston,<br>
after I moved there - I'm back in the Springs now).<br>
<br>
I've said in the past I'm willing to organize it again. But it takes a<br>
dedicated group to get it done. One or two guys alone would be severely<br>
overworked. You have to do a bit of foot work (or phone work) to drum<br>
up the sponsors so that individual entrance fees are kept low enough to<br>
entice the entire Mountain region, not to mention pulling in West<br>
coasters and the Midwest. And finding affordable space may be a problem<br>
these days - CLIQ was at the Marriott Tech Center and 8x10 booths were<br>
something like $400. Entrance fees were about $40, if I remember<br>
correctly. But we managed to get some good speakers. Maddog was here.<br>
So was Rasmus Lerdorf. I'm pretty sure BDale Garbee (ex-Debian honcho)<br>
was here. Didn't Linus come? Someone with better memory than me would<br>
have to remind me. I gave a GIMP talk. Sean did one for Python I<br>
think. Anyway, they were pretty good conferences. Just a looooot of<br>
work.<br>
<br>
FYI - I'm more interested in embedded stuff now. So I'd be more<br>
interested in bringing in BeagleBoard, Arduino, Atmel (AVR), Angstrom,<br>
Yocto, Linaro, kernel dudes, compiler dudes and the Crosstool-NG dude,<br>
Buildroot and Das U-Boot, etc. I just don't think there is a minimum<br>
level of interest to support such a conference here. I'd like to be<br>
proven wrong, however.<br>
<br>
If you do want to try this I recommend collaborating with the leaders of<br>
BLUG, CSOpenSource, NCLUG and any others you can round up. Build on<br>
people who have already shown an existing sense of responsibility to<br>
follow through.<br>
<font color="#888888">--<br>
Michael J. Hammel <<a href="mailto:mjhammel@graphics-muse.org">mjhammel@graphics-muse.org</a>><br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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