OpenMedia

On Wednesday 22 October, I had to forfeit my regular LCA committee meeting to attend a dinner being held by Tourism New Zealand. The dinner was to acknowledge the people who had created bids to bring international conferences into the country and encourage more of the same. It turned out that this was a first for them, as they had recognised that the international conferences being brought into NZ are great for the economy, and wanted to recognise the effort involved.

“Your convention raises New Zealand’s international profile, encourages knowledge transfer, and generates opportunities for trade and investment, all of which are invaluable for the future development of New Zealand.”

38 conference organisers were acknowledged in this way, with the awards presented by the Minister for Economic Development, Hon Steven Joyce. It really was a huge honour to be included in this group of people. University Professors, high-powered businessfolk, and me!

So now it’s back to work – on with the conference!

Cherie

It’s been noses to the grindstone again, this time to get registrations for the conference up and running.

It did, it worked and it’s happening – over 20% of our allocated Earlybird tickets sold in under 2 days! These delegates are super keen, I tell you!

Somewhere in that, we also managed a week’s family holiday in Taupo. Such a beautiful spot! We could see Ruapehu and Tongariro from where we were staying, and the view changed each day.

We’re back into it now, sorting out the rats and mice for the website. It’s amazing when you think that you have everything covered then someone asks a question that makes you go “we should have thought of that one!” It keeps us on our toes.

We were told, months ago, that we need 3 things to have a conference: Venue, Presentations, Delegates. Going by that equation – we now have a conference!!

WOOT!!

LCA 2015, LCAuckland, linux.conf.au, linux conference, #linuxconfau – it’s only a name, isn’t it?

• Josh Stewart and Josh Hesketh from Linux Australia visited Auckland as part of the city selection process
• Michael Still and Mike Beattie took part of the Ghost weekend
• Michael Still and Michael Davies were our joint Paper Committee chairs
• Steven Ellis and Steve Shipway, Simon Lyall and Simon Werner, Lin Nah and Lynne Collins are in my team
• Andrew Ruthven and Andrew Sands are in the wider team
• our contacts at the University of Auckland are both called Kate.

Then there are the delegates; just within the people who have registered on the website so far we have multiples of Adam, Andrew, Andy, Angus, Ben, Brandon, Brenda, Brian, Chris, Christopher, Dan, Daniel, Dave, David, Eric, Ian, James, Joel, John, Jonathan, Joshua, Katie, Kevin, Lillian, Luke, Marc, Mark, Martin, Matthew, Michael, Mike, Paul, Peter, Richard, Robert, Ryan, Simon, Steve, Steven, Thomas, Tim, Timothy and Tom.

I can’t even go military and call you all by your last names as we have multiples of Bell, Davies, Ellis, Foster, Gilmore, Jackson, Johnston, Jones, Nah, Olliver, Rowe, Rumsey, Russell, Sharp, Smith, Suehle, Taylor, and Walker.

I ask you – how am I supposed to work in these conditions?

Cherie (the one and only)

This is the long-anticipated Papers Committee weekend and Steven (Ellis) is now en route to Sydney to join our revered Papers Committee for a fun-packed weekend deciding which of the many submitted presentations to choose from for our conference next year.

It’s a very important job, crucial, even! I don’t envy them, trying to foresee what is going to be at the top of everyone’s must-see list, predicting what will be trending in 6 month’s time, and what will have died a sad, lonely death or sputtered out after a brief burst of glory in the meantime.

Then there’s the programme…  Who fits together? Who shouldn’t be opposite whom? And on it goes. It will be hard work! After speaking with the Chairs of the committee (Michael Davies and Michael Still) we’ve learned that this is traditionally a passionately fought process with each and every person focussed intently on ensuring that our delegates have access to the best presentations currently and soon-to-be available.

“The Michaels” know the conference and its audience and the rest of the committee is made up of past organisers, some FOSS celebrities and past presenters – most of whom have done this job many times now. Steve has been sent with some strict instructions about the presentations our team wants to see and the format of the conference itself that has some new, exciting ideas.

To those in the Papers Committee gathering together this weekend to make these important decisions – we wish you all a safe journey there and back again, and we say Stand Your Ground! To those of you who have submitted a presentation we say “Good Luck – you are all wonderful in our eyes!

All the best

The LCA 2015 team

It’s the end of July, and has it been a busy month!

The Call for Presentations produced some amazing papers. Even after extending the cutoff date (for those of you who were too busy to get something in on time) we still had submissions trickling in past the final cutoff date.

You are an amazing bunch indeed.

Our teams have also been busy with our fortnightly working meetings proving very productive. Getting everyone into a room together with no option but to get on with their work is so much better than staring at each other on our monitors with everyone trying to get their piece heard. It’s wonderful to know that there are so many people who care about our community and this conference that they are prepared to give up this much time to ensure its success. Every year the conference organiser gets on stage and says that the event wouldn’t happen without their team and I understand exactly what they mean!

Linux Australia is currently doing a call-out asking for expressions of interest in hosting LCA 2017. If you have been thinking about it at all then I say go for it! It’s a lot of work, but so very rewarding to see good people wanting to do good things for the community. There isn’t much time left to prepare and submit your expression of interest, so think quickly. When we were bidding for this conference it was initially against as many as four other teams. We had to decide that we really wanted it and that we would do everything we could to ensure that we succeeded. (A note for future reference – I don’t like losing!)

I guess that it’s time that I caught up properly, and I promise to try to keep a more regular blog from now on!

It’s been an amazing week for all of us involved in LCA 2015. NetHui was held in Auckland this week with Girl Geek Dinners timed to coincide, then there was also NZGather on Saturday.

Most of the team made it to NetHui at some point or another, and they took great advantage of the time to talk up the conference. I went to GGD where I bumped into Jef Vratney who, it seems, knows absolutely everyone – especially the women. No wonder he and Steve get on – they’re both the same! Not only was Jef was able to make the introductions that I needed to bend arms about LCA, there were also women there who I already know and I was able to discuss the conference with them.

The presentations that night centered around the idea of being lucky enough to be doing the sort of work that you love. They reminded me that I am so very lucky in many ways. I have always held the view that the day you don’t want to go to work is the day that you find another job. I am doing something that I love and that terrifies me, but I am confident that this is something that I can achieve – I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Maybe there will be a path to a real, paid job here somewhere as well.

NZGather is an event that I have been sending Steve off to for years. I even remember one time driving him there, taking Chevelle shopping for the day, then collecting him afterwards. This year I was determined to go along, and with some magic performed by the wonderful organisers I did. I am now a total convert and I expect that I will become a regular at the event from now on. As an ‘un conference’ it actually has a very similar vibe to a real conference, and it certainly isn’t small. I can’t say what the numbers were, but the place was busy!

There were some great presentations, very relaxed styles, and I have to say that I’d happily have any of the presenters at LCA if it were up to me. I certainly told them so whenever I could, so I hope to see some of those names repeated in our final program. When these people asked what I expected of them for LCA the answer was ‘what you have just done’.

Speaking of which, our Call For Papers closes tonight, and yesterday marked 6 months to the day the conference begins. Sometimes it feels as if we aren’t achieving much at all, but then we reach our milestones: website going live, CFP going out, the stuff that I know is happening in the background that will bloom at just the right time – these are what give me my ‘feelgood’ factor.

Only 6 months to go…

Friday, 17th January 2014. 

Let’s go back to Canberra, LCA2013. At some point, Arjen Lentz shoulder-tapped me and asked when we were going to bid to host OSDC in Auckland? I thought for a moment and decided – what the hell! Steve and I had discussed the possibility of hosting OSDC and using the experience as a ‘training ground’ for a linux.conf.au bid in the past – it seemed that now is the time.

Conversations were held and a general plan was formed. An informal meeting for those considering bidding to host LCA was happening that afternoon, so I went along to listen to the voices of experience. That didn’t deter me one bit, and when we got home from Canberra the bid processes for LCA 2015 in Auckland began.

You’ll be aware by now that we were successful in our bid to host OSDC 2013 in Auckland, and we had a great 3-day event at The Langham (highly recommended!).

In the meantime, a bid for LCA 2015 in Auckland was constructed with the assistance of the Auckland Conference Bureau. The two Joshes came to Auckland for a site visit in July and we felt confident in our bid. I did ask, however, that they wouldn’t tell us the outcome one way or another until after OSDC so that I could concentrate in the conference and not let the cat out of the bag!

When I discovered that they had postponed the vote until during OSDC I was touched. I felt that if Linux Australia could show us that much respect at this level of involvement then I most certainly wanted to host a conference for them!

On the evening that OSDC finished Steve and I were informed that we had won the bid to host LCA 2015! Thrilled doesn’t come close to how I felt – a little terrified as well.

Tentative emails went out, and meetings were arranged, all with the understanding that we were now in the Fight Club, and the first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. We have the beginnings of a great team – OSDC was very useful for figuring out how we work together. We have the venues, a structure for the conference and events planned already. We even had the promotional material that you received at the closing of LCA Perth.

So now it’s Auckland’s turn. I have a great team, immense excitement in Auckland from local companies already, and we will be working together to put on a great conference in Auckland for you.

12-16 January 2015 – see you here! – Cherie Ellis

We have the pleasure to announce that linux.conf.au will be know as linux.conf.Auckland for 2015. OpenMedia thanks Linux Australia for their confidence in the Auckland team.

For more details see http://LCAuckland.org.nz and we look forward to seeing you all in Auckland NZ in January 2015.

As well as OSDC 2013 OpenMedia are part of a team bidding to host Linux.conf.au 2015 in Auckland NZ.

We are calling a meeting for anyone who is interested in being involved this the LCA Auckland 2015 bid. It will be held in the cafe area of the Owen G Glen building of Auckland University on Saturday 15th June from 1pm. The cafe will be open until 1:30 for those who want a coffee or lunch.

This session is open to anyone who’d like to get involved in bringing one of the most important Linux and Open Source events in the world to the City of Sails.

The car park has a flat rate of $6/day for Saturday, motorbikes are free, and plenty of buses go past the University.

Both Cherie and Steve from OpenMedia are very please to be part of the team running the Open Source Developers Conference 2013. This year the event will be taking place at the Langham Hotel in Auckland from the 21st – 23rd October. The Call for Papers is already out and Early Bird ticket pricing is also available. For more information see http://osdc.org.nz.

OSDC was one of the first international conferences that the OpenMedia team had the privileged of speaking at back in 2007, and we are very happy to be part of the team bring this event to Auckland for the very first time.