Re: [PLUG] May Speakers?

["Eric at Lucii.org" <eric@lucii.org>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

At PLUG Central we discussed the issue of speakers for our PLUG meetings.
We need speakers and we need ideas.

I have two "bigger" ideas.  I propose that we attempt to:

1.  Promote our meetings widely outside of this mailing list.  PLUG Central
meets at USP which is close to both Penn and Drexel.  The bulletin boards of
the CS/Engineering departments should have our announcements every month.
There are lots of other colleges and universities in the area.  Anybody have
any contacts?  I drive by Widener a couple of times a month and could see
about posting a notice there.

Perhaps the math/computer departments in local school districts?  Certainly
our meetings are suitable for high school students.  The after-meeting at
the Best House?  Maybe :-)

2.  Recruit high-profile speakers.
Every year our biggest attendance is for Mark Jason Dominus' December talk.
A few years ago we had a big turn-out for Roger Dingledine.  Both of these
guys are local to our area.  We've had other speakers that drew bigger
crowds (names anyone?)

Does anyone know of other local people we could approach?  Our (non-existent)
treasury does not support travel expense reimbursement or honorarium payments
so the potential list is necessarily limited to local people, those in town
on other business, or those who are just extremely generous with their time.

I've thought of Eric Raymond and Bruce Momjian.  Does anyone know of other
people we could contact to see if we could schedule them?  I'm willing to
contact folks and ask - I just don't know too many and don't know who's a
"local".  Don't limit your thinking to Philadelphia... NYC is "just down
the road and Baltimore is close too.

Should we consider raising a small "honorarium" fund so we can spring for
a $25 or $50 gift card to these speakers?

Those are my bigger ideas.

As for "regular" meetings I think it's a shame that we have so many people
and so much talent in this group and still have a hard time finding speakers.
I've spoken 3 times in the last few years - Code Igniter in 2009, Drupal in
2010, and I did a lightning talk about using and configuring Compiz in 2011.
Others have spoken more frequently that I have.

If you're nervous about public speaking just remember that you're speaking
to your fellow "geeks."  We're a friendly audience and we've never booed
anyone off stage.

Meanwhile, if nobody speaks up for PLUG Central on the 6th of June then I'll
jump in and do a presentation on a web framework I've never used - Laravel...
or maybe Drupal 7.


Eric

On 05/28/2012 09:45 PM, Paul L. Snyder wrote:
> We've got a speaker lined up for PLUG West this month, but nothing for Central on the 6th or North on the 12th.  Any volunteers?
> 
> Paul ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> 
> 

- -- 
#  Eric Lucas
#
#                "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
#                 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
#                                        -- John Gillespie Magee Jr
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAk/E9ToACgkQ2sGpvXQrZ/5tBACeNNGzD2hL4715BFn/3lu23YFu
foUAn2Og+EfDDnD64b074+4wIyCGVQta
=asf3
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug