[PyAR2] PyAr 2011

[Greg Lindstrom]

I'm sending this to both the pyAR and pyAr-Organizers list.  In the future,
we will use the organizers list for planning and the pyar list for
announcements (the same way they do in the civilized world :-).  If you want
to be a part of planning pyAR 2011, please join the organizers list.

I'm starting to think about pyAR 2011 (our 4th year!) and want to get input
from anyone who cares to offer any.  Negative comments are welcome ONLY IF
you are willing to offer suggestions as how to make things better (bonus
points for actually helping us make it better).  Let's keep in mind that
everyone here is volunteering their time and energy.

With that said, what do we want pyAR 2011 to be?  Here are some
suggestions/thoughts from last year.

   - Have it at UCA, if they will have us.  They have given us great support
   over the last 3 years.  In particular, Chenyi Hu -- the CS Department Head
   -- has been nothing but supportive and encouraging.  Bernard Chen (UCA) and
   Carl Burch (Hendrix College) have really come through for us as well.
   - Tutorials.  Is an hour (50 minutes) enough?  I'd like a longer "Intro
   to Python" class, but we also need to make sure we have classes for
   experienced Pythonistas in the morning as well.  It's a very difficult task
   to pull off.
   - We talked about having a room set aside for students (High
   School/College).  Perhaps 15 minute slots for HS students (with 5 minutes
   for Q/A) and 25 minutes for College students (with Q/A).  I'd like to get
   word on this out early so students could prepare.  It would be a great
   experience for High School students to meet some very serious programmers
   and start developing relationships.  I don't want it to be a competition
   (that means having judges, scoring, etc.), but I would like to see if our
   friends at O"Reilly would donate enough ebooks so that everyone presenting
   could walk away with one.  Anyone care to take this on?
   - Web site. Last year we received help from Kelly Emeneker (UARK) --
   don't you just love how I can throw these different College/University names
   around? -- and, I hope, she can help again this year.  We've kept up a web
   site, though I'm not sure anyone has hit it for a while.
   - Funding.  We are a humble little conference; nothing like pyTexas or
   pyOhio (pyOhio, in particular, has become very impressive).  We just don't
   have a critical mass, yet.  It's nice to bring in a speaker or two from the
   Python community to give talks.  It will cost, I estimate, about $3,000 to
   pull off two speakers (flights, hotels, cars, meals and some $$ for the
   effort).  Novasys Health has always come through for us, but someone needs
   to coordinate the effort and ask for donations.  Any takers?
   - Has anyone set up a non-profit?  It's something we need to do, but I
   don't have the time or know-how.  Anyone?
   - Publicity.  We need to get the word out early and often.  Last year we
   had UCA send out the announcement (I figured it carried more weight than a
   letter from yours truly).  We need new ideas on how to get word out.  Would
   it be possible to get a student from whatever department to take this on as
   a school project (that's a total shot in the dark...I don't even know if
   there are "PR" majors).  What about newspapers, radio?
   - Program.  We need to solicit speakers for talks/tutorials.  We need to
   know what topics people want (we have had people begging for GIS for years.
   LET'S GET SOME GIS TALKS!!!).

What else?  Anything different?  Drop any of this?  Ideas, ideas, ideas.
Everything is on the table; I really would like to grow the community and
have a State wide organization, but it all rests on OUR collective
shoulders.

Please let me (us) know what you think!

--greg
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