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"Don't invite Yehuda Katz to your user group! He takes everything too seriously!" "Don't have parties at your confs! You're not being serious enough!" I somet

"Don't invite Yehuda Katz to your user group! He takes everything too seriously!" "Don't have parties at your confs! You're not being serious enough!" I sometimes skip the parties at confs, but I sometimes go, and I've been to a few which were great. I think attempting to come up with some kind of Canonical Seriousness Level for all developer gatherings is doomed anyway. This is a matter of personal taste. All you can do as a conf organizer is decide what kind of conf you want to run, and make sure people know before they buy their tickets. Or, if you're running a very large conf, set up loud options and quiet options. There's also a flaw in his argument here, one which I hope is not significant: "It's easier for overworked conference organizers to arrange a party than other evening activities which actually require planning." On its own, this sentence is so dementedly off-target that it initially made me wonder what other wildly inaccurate assumptions he might be making. However, later in the blog post, it turns out that he might mean it's easier because all you do is hand it off to some company who wants to organize the party for you. Of course, not doing anything is easier than doing something. Can't argue with that. However, if he really thinks parties require no planning, he either has no experience throwing parties, or the parties he throws are not good.

JBerkus 15y ago
Giles, I've planned quite a few parties. In fact, I used to plan them professionally for the San Francisco Opera, and that's about as high-maintenance as a party gets. I've also helped organize a dozen open source conferences. My point is not that planning parties is easy, but rather that planning a boring party (i.e. hotel ballroom or bar, bad DJ and some free booze) is easier than planning alternative activities. Scheduling BOFs, game nights, or the kind of party at LinuxCon are all significantly more work than that. And, in my experience, the majority of parties at confs are, in fact, bad parties which require little planning.
kscaldef 15y ago
Frankly, the most of the "parties" at most conferences _aren't_ good. Mostly, "party" just means an open bar and, if you're lucky, some light nibbles, either in the exhibit hall of the conference center or in a tacky hotel restaurant.
mattdeboard 15y ago
I propose the Bowkett Constant, the ideal canonical seriousness level for all developer gatherings.

JBerkus 15y ago

Giles, I've planned quite a few parties. In fact, I used to plan them professionally for the San Francisco Opera, and that's about as high-maintenance as a party gets. I've also helped organize a dozen open source conferences. My point is not that planning parties is easy, but rather that planning a boring party (i.e. hotel ballroom or bar, bad DJ and some free booze) is easier than planning alternative activities. Scheduling BOFs, game nights, or the kind of party at LinuxCon are all significantly more work than that. And, in my experience, the majority of parties at confs are, in fact, bad parties which require little planning.

kscaldef 15y ago

Frankly, the most of the "parties" at most conferences _aren't_ good. Mostly, "party" just means an open bar and, if you're lucky, some light nibbles, either in the exhibit hall of the conference center or in a tacky hotel restaurant.

mattdeboard 15y ago

I propose the Bowkett Constant, the ideal canonical seriousness level for all developer gatherings.