All this discussion was getting too difficult to follow. So I thought that a summary of the ideas till date would be nice!
We could take pointers from other Linux Conferences like Banglore Linux 2002 (http://linux-bangalore.org) and LinuxWorld (www.linuxworld.de)
Suggested dates (Timing) 1. End-Feb to Beginning - March: This may however not be suitable because an international level meet is being organized in Kerala by the govt with support from FSF-india. 2. end march to early may is not suitable as most corporates will be busy with accountsand year ending. Plus college / university exams are held around april / may. 3. July seems a better time....year-end is over, collegesabout to open, so students return to town, and generally considered dull period. 4. August: An idea to Couple it with Independence day celebrations has been suggested.
Suggested Places Two places have been suggested so far: 1. IIT Campus, however someone suggested that a Conference held at IIT would be considered too technical to be of interested to the common users.
2. Nehru Science Centre
3. I would like to suggest that the place be as close to the centre of town as possible if we are expecting a large corporate turnout. The Bandra-Reclamation ground could be another option.
Aim...to have the following core interests at heart.
--> Conferences / Workshops/ Tech Presentations/ Competitions for Geeks/Programmers alike.
--> Expo for commercial companies to demo/display their s/w and h/w products based based on FSF/OS tools.
--> Get the Government to notice FSF/OS options. Invite dignitaries/Beureaucrats to be part of some key sessions involving FSF/OS implementations/pilots for the govt.
--> Get major colleges and high schools as well as IIT to participate as they would provide a large audience.
--> Get LUGs from other places to participate. Also find cheap accomodation for participants from outside Mumbai. Suggested places include YMCA and IIT hostels.
--> Some fun events (Geeks vs. Nerds quiz? Geek of the yr. award?) Give away books on OSS by raffle / hourly quizzes. Oreilly/Wrox etc will be interested.
--> A Professional Event Management firm could be used to handle the details. The acceptance of theis idea would ofcourse be based on the available money aand the numberr of volunteers we have. The cost of hiring one will be posted by Saswata some time soon.
The main benefits of hiring an event maagement company would include the following as sugested by Saswata: The advantage would be that there is a strong business support backup. Things like sending out mailers, accepting registrations, collecting cheques and banking them, keeping track of budgets, making sure there are adequate trained personnel at the venue (pretty young girls for registrations, giving out the agenda, cds etc. -- every event has them), coording with the venue owners for seating, arrangements, lighting, OHPs, etc.
If we dont have an event managemnt company doing the above, then we should have enough infrastructure and support system to do that type of work. I think you are talking of workshops and seminars where a large number of people would come over.
(Mind you, I am not saying that volunteers from ILUG cannot do it, what I am saying is that there are hundreds of boring jobs which are to be done and these companies do it all the time, so for them it is child's play)
--> We have to approach sponsors for the event. Also companies with commercial interest in mind (displaying their products) will be charged. Names like IBM, all time favourite RedHat, oracle have been suggested.
--> What I'd really like to see is for the Expo to provide a recruitment office (??) for people who are intrested in contributing to the community in any way. Although the response may be half-hearted or flame out after a while, I think what really needs to be driven in the public consciousness is the fact that *YOU* can contribute. I mean, most people view Free/OSS software as just something to use, written by some ultra-smart geeks you have no hope of matching. A lot of help can be used, especially in non-programming tasks like indian-language localization, distribution, general help, etc. I suspect that there also might be programmers who are searching for a idea/project to contribute to (I know I am) so we could provide some sort of exchange for that... considering the variety of people planning to attend, it could be really useful :-) ( As contributed by Ashish Kulkarni)
There are a few points to be taken care of: 1. The PRC site should be up and running. This would allow us to showcase the best projects. 2. The workshops should get underway. 3. Target audiences and speakers as well as topics have to be taken care of. 4. Hundreds of other things :)
I think the December 8 meeting would be a really long one ... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mûrphy rûñs thè wørld « It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. » -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------