[EuroPython] Re: business day

[Nicolas Chauvat]

On Mon, Nov 18, 2002 at 03:25:57PM +0100, Jens Thiel wrote:
> > If you are running a business and get a booth at a
> > conference where no one that may buy something from you will show up, it
> > costs money and becomes sponsorship or advertisement
> 
> It is still the responsibility of each individual company to advertise their
> presence on a conference or fair (eg. by mailing or inviting prospective
> customers).

We can decide to do it this way, but what most fairs do is provide you with
an attendance of potential contacts in exchange of the price of your booth.

> EPC can only provide a forum for such activitites by bringing a
> "critical mass" together.

Yes, critical mass is important. And "customers" critical mass is different 
from "hackers" critical mass. I think we reached the latter last year and
my all point in this thread is trying to figure out whether we can also
reach the former next year.

> A "business day" will be most helpful for the "1) company to customer"
> relationship, where 2) and 3) can be integrated with a developer's
> conference quite well.

Agreed.

> Organising a business day in a setting like described
> above would mean to have at least 12 companies with booths, talks, invited
> customers and a substantial budget to cover expenses and justify the effort.

I think we'd need more precise figures than the above "12 and budget" but
in general I agree with the above, althought I'd like to notice the following
differences:

1. having a "business fair" with companies exhibiting in "expensive" booths
that help cover the expenses.

2. having a "real life use case" day, which was my very first suggestion,
during which "users not hackers" could discuss the benefits of using Python
in their project/company/part of the galaxy.

The second is not about inviting business people with check-writing capacity
but about providing a forum for happy Python users to advocate the tools
that made them happy.

> What needs to be done now (before discussing badge design) is:
> 
> 1. Fix conference location and organization teams
> 2. Fix + announce the conference and planned schedule
> 3. (maybe declare day 1 as optional depending on interest)
> 4. Find companies for day 1 at least 3 months before the conference
> 5. Announce the final conference schedule depending on feedback

Sounds like Denis is up for another round and already answered that one.

-- 
Nicolas Chauvat

http://www.logilab.com - "Mais oł est donc Ornicar ?" - LOGILAB, Paris (France)