I would like to expose my thoughts about the last unconference. The event was great and enjoyable. We had a good time to meet again.
But I find this kind of event does not really grow the community. We stay at about 50 attendees each times.
I think the problem is that we are talking (make presentations) for ourselves. It is not bad to share our experiences and tips about Tryton. But we could probably do the same by spending less energy if we did not try to include outsiders.
My point is that I think we should have two kinds of events.
A first kind which will be focused to the active community. I think about code sprint weekend for example. Such event could be done twice a year (B2CK could pledge to organize one per year). They will not require a lot of effort to organize at first as we usually are between, 10 to 20. And I think they will keep up the flow of contributions.
Another kind which will be focused to outsiders. I think they could be just one day of presentation. They would focus on showing Tryton and explaining it. The target audience should be more decision makers. I do not think we should be recurring but on-demand. My idea would be that a company (or a group of companies) requests the Foundation to organize a presentation day. This company will commit to promote and invite local people to attend (probably for free). And the Foundation would “provide” some materials and some people (knowing enough Tryton). The Foundation would cover the traveling expenses for those volunteers (the Foundation may request participation from the organiser).
So we would require to create a standardized material to showcase Tryton and create a pool of volunteers.
Totally agree. Unconference doesn’t attract new users even if talk subjects are various. A “presentation day” with a good promotion campaign could solve this problem and attract new users to Tryton…
Code sprint days are very useful and help us in our developments but we find also very interesting talks about Tryton evolutions, how-to and questions-answers, Tryton customisations and new modules presentations,… So it would be nice to keep some hours during a code sprint weekend to discuss about those subjects that could be interesting for the active community.
That’s what we are Tryton to achieve with Tryton Spanish Days. We expect to publish the schedule soon. I will keep you informed.
I will try to share some results after the event to see if it was a good Idea (I hope so).
Which kind of materials are you thinking about? Some presentation about the Tryton and it’s features?
I plan to give a talk explaining the Tryton features of the the User Point of View. So it seems a good Idea to prepare some generic material that can be resued for other events.
On TSD i’ve prepared a presentation which can be used as introduction of Tryton to users. I prepared it with the idea to be able to be used by anyone.
It will be good to start with a topic which describe the goal, the means etc.
For example, I do not think we should go by listing features. We must find a more attractive way of showing Tryton.
After that we need to have a reviewable format to build the presentation.
Adding to the discussion, sometimes it is not feasible for us to travel more than half the world to attend the unconference. It would be a better idea if forthcoming events can be organised both online and at site simultaneously.
For me, the point of organize meetings is to meet in real life. Because we already communicate every day online.
But a remote developer can easily participate to a code spring remotely as we do not change anything to the current day to day workflow.
And of course, it will be good to change the place of the code sprint to give the opportunity to join us to a larger public.