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| 3 | + user groups with lots to say interviews and more no way sharing great ideas in |
| 4 | + the tech community fascinating conversations a plethora of information |
| 5 | + find out for yourself today at uktastic.com hi it's Mike with uktastic |
| 6 | + I'm here at SCNA 2013 right now I'm sitting down with Angelique Martin who |
| 7 | + is the lead organizer for SCNA and you've been doing this for a couple |
| 8 | + years now but well first I know you're really busy so I appreciate you taking |
| 9 | + that time to sit down with me but so 2013 you've been doing this for a few |
| 10 | + years what if what has it that you've learned over the last couple years that |
| 11 | + has affected 2013 and how is 2013 maybe different than what you did in 2012 well |
| 12 | + the differences were actually pretty subtle the the main concept of the |
| 13 | + short talk with the long breaks for networking remained what we did this |
| 14 | + year is that we try to change the schedule a little bit so that the second |
| 15 | + day would start a little bit later so we could have a code and coffee session so |
| 16 | + as to allow for more technical time we've reintroduced the 5k that we had |
| 17 | + three years ago this is actually a Siena's fifth year and we used to go back |
| 18 | + and forth now it's been a scene a site has been organizing it for I would say |
| 19 | + the best three years and then one year before so this is really the fourth time |
| 20 | + that we do this so the the big picture stays the same and is really terrible |
| 21 | + that's the world but the idea is to well hopefully reiterate the conference and |
| 22 | + make it well I think it was really terrible I was like I said well that's |
| 23 | + like to reiterate yeah no no no it is it is a word at least for the sake of this |
| 24 | + conversation we will say the reiterate is work no it is and but I but as far as |
| 25 | + kind of the joke they're really terrible hey there's a lot that goes into these |
| 26 | + these conferences that people might not realize oh absolutely the the big |
| 27 | + challenge this year was to get our speakers right even though we had |
| 28 | + announced our conference dates last year at the end of the conference we had a |
| 29 | + conflict with another major event with which we were competing for our speakers |
| 30 | + so we had a lot of speakers that couldn't make it the other room down in |
| 31 | + the rubric comes down and some other event in Chicago no fluff just stuff no |
| 32 | + function stuff but luckily we were still able to you know have 13 wonderful |
| 33 | + speakers and devote a total session to lightning talks and a panel which |
| 34 | + featured four of our speakers we try to put a certain dose of entertainment so |
| 35 | + we had a couple of kettus and jeopardy game and some other events that we do |
| 36 | + and I think having the introductions by different people absolutely so so |
| 37 | + between sessions when a new speaker was coming up it wouldn't always be the same |
| 38 | + person introducing the speaker and there was one little snag as there always is in |
| 39 | + any anything more one of the speakers had gotten locked outside right and but |
| 40 | + because of having you know a person up there that was comfortable they could |
| 41 | + talk and kind of control the room a little bit and right we |
| 42 | + had a bunch of software jokes and it was winged pretty well and Gary made it |
| 43 | + just what three four minutes late yeah okay we were a little bit on our side as |
| 44 | + well but that's that's what shows a strong organization is being able to be |
| 45 | + resilient through those kinds of hurdles absolutely and but also other things |
| 46 | + that about just like the cost and expensive of doing a conference I |
| 47 | + remember our conversation you and I had before where you mentioned that |
| 48 | + previous years I don't know if it's last year or the year before water bottles |
| 49 | + were ridiculous ridiculously expensive yeah aside the main cost for the |
| 50 | + conference is really food beverages and the venue we've detached ourselves from |
| 51 | + the hotel because a few years ago we had an experience but right there's consumption costs that are |
| 52 | + not necessarily yeah so when you take a ball when you take a bottle of water keep |
| 53 | + it because it might be really expensive and it might affect whether or not |
| 54 | + there's gonna be a conference again next year right and we're always looking for |
| 55 | + sponsors I mean I want to really say clearly that events like this could not |
| 56 | + be produced if it wasn't for the help of the sponsors so that we can I don't know |
| 57 | + if you've noticed but SC&E's price is the same that we've had for for as long |
| 58 | + as I remember putting the conference together |
| 59 | + and it's getting to be a stretch it's going to be difficult to maintain that |
| 60 | + low price with and then competing for sponsors because they're also looking at |
| 61 | + okay if I if they're a ruby company or they provide ruby services they're gonna |
| 62 | + already be pre-allocating for a direct ruby conference and now you're |
| 63 | + competing for those dollars just because you cover a broad spectrum anything that |
| 64 | + if somebody was looking at |
| 65 | + how they could maybe look at starting their own conference in an area what are |
| 66 | + do you have any other little tidbits you might think of that if somebody's |
| 67 | + looking at a conference that they might want to just think about before they get |
| 68 | + into it what are you know you mentioned costs and sponsors but right I think the |
| 69 | + the biggest part is the venue I found the best couple of years we've had this |
| 70 | + venue which is by the way fantastic but it's not a |
| 71 | + hotel venue so we we are able to limit the cost and limit the liability because |
| 72 | + when you do book a conference in a hotel depending on where you do it at least |
| 73 | + that's the experience in Chicago they have some sort of ratio of hotel rooms |
| 74 | + to meeting space but with the technology nowadays it's not uncommon for people to |
| 75 | + find really cheap rate elsewhere leaving you with a liability for hotel rooms that are |
| 76 | + actually not right because they don't seem to be giving you an optimal rates |
| 77 | + they're they're charging sticker price and yeah yeah I definitely can say that I |
| 78 | + am personally myself when I go to a conference I'm looking at hipmunk you |
| 79 | + know and it's you know it's I would love to support the conference but sometimes |
| 80 | + it's just the rates are so high that it's right almost prohibitive to even like go |
| 81 | + as an attendee right exactly so that's why by not by not having a hotel venue |
| 82 | + we're able to leave the choice to the people as to what tools they want to do |
| 83 | + right what they want to use to find the accommodation rates that so much like we |
| 84 | + were trying to write our good software we decouple things I know you're not a |
| 85 | + software person but |
| 86 | + so but anyway I know you're very busy and I'm catching you around the middle I |
| 87 | + appreciate you taking the time to sit down thank you very much thank you user |
| 88 | + groups with lots to say interviews and more no way sharing great ideas in the |
| 89 | + tech community fascinating conversations a plethora of information find out for |
| 90 | + yourself today at ucdastic.com |
| 91 | + you |
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