[PyAR2] PyAr 2011

[Chenyi Hu]

Hi Greg and all,
 
Yes, as always, we very much welcome PyAR 2011 here at UCA. 
 
Best,
 
Chenyi
 
>>> Greg Lindstrom <gslindstrom at gmail.com> 5/7/2011 8:51 AM >>>
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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