The Particular Finest

Presented by aurynn shaw

A Collected Set of Data

Need

As a business aurynn, I keep finding out about conferences far too late to either submit to them or even attend.

Case in point: NDC in Sydney next week (Aug 1-5) that I found out about on Jul 28.

This. Keeps. Happening.

and it is frustrating.

Overarching Problem

I have not yet found a single point where I can go to discover AU/NZ tech conferences that are upcoming, or have open CFPs, or have opened ticket sales. I have yet to find anything that regularly issues reminders of conferences I may wish to be interested in.

There are a couple of data sources (Lanyrd, for instance) that cover the some of the necessary data, but as they are diverse data sources I don’t often think to go digging.

Even when something crosses my radar, it doesn’t stick the first time, and I will often forget about it.

Solution

A potential solution for this is a curated, human-run website which offers a data feed describing upcoming conferences, conferences with open CFPs, and conferences that have been announced.

There would be no automation around conferences being published to the blog or the mailing list.

The mailing list would be managed via a tool similar to MailChimp.

A human would vet each conference for suitability by the (at least) following criteria:

  1. The conference MUST have a Code of Conduct.
  2. The conference SHOULD be a full resolution process as part of the Code of Conduct.
  3. The conference MUST be applicable to the audience (Technical persons)
  4. The conference MUST have a commitment to outreach to diverse speakers and attendees. Predominately white-men lineups are not acceptable.

Comms strategy

Weekly

A post including:

This post would happen at most once a week.

Monthly

A post including

This post would happen at most once a month.

This places the mailing list or RSS feed at no more than 5-6 posts per month.

Post style

In each section above(New, CFP, ticket sales), a post should only have

to ensure that conference details are all fully up-to-date.

Monetisation

Assuming this hits a point where it needs to have itself paid for (IE it turns into a job and not just an aurynn-is-annoyed-at-the-things), monetisation should happen via a mechanism like The Deck:

We offer up to 4 sponsorships on the mailing list. Each one gets its own weekly post per month dedicated to their conference. This may be included in the normal weekly posting, or, a dedicated post for that conference. (TBD). In the event of an inclusion in the normal weekly, a paragraph dedicated to that conference would be made available.

All paid sponsorships would be included in the monthly post.

Monetisation WOULD NOT be pushed on any conference. It would be a mechanism to provide additional support, not as a means to badger conferences for money in exchange for greater publicity.

So!

Does this sort of data-source/site sound like it’ll be useful? It seems to cover my needs and cover the sorts of conferences I want to attend, as well as excluding conferences which reinforce contempt culture (anti-CoC, for instance).

It also provides a mechanism for regular reminders of conferences, to ensure that they don’t fall off my radar.

So, give me your thoughts and opinions! With, of course, the following caveats: