Please comment to this topic if you’re interested in helping organize or attend a Maui Rails Conference and any ideas you may have.
Here’s some ideas:
We can rent the space at my local country club. The cost per person would be fairly small, and we’d be limited to 100 people.
Maybe we can 2 days of talks.
We plan for next September, 2015, as airfares are super-low and it’s super easy to find great deals on lodging. And that’s when many would go to GoGaRuCo.
While I can take care of the local logistics, I’d want some strong help from a handful of co-organizers.
We’re getting some momentum in this forum. Maybe the conference will work out as a way for folks that contribute to this forum to meet in person on Maui?
Please tell your friends about this forum. Thanks!
@JonahMoses We can definitely make it happen. There was recently a very successful WordCamp in Maui that had over 200 attendees. I know that @maximilien, @dylangrafmyre, and @ben would be very excited. I can take care of the basic logistics such as a room for up to 100 people, but there’s clearly a bit more to do.
I also wonder if it would be useful to have a small conference to gather small consulting firms and freelancers so we could network, trade tips, give each other referrals, etc.
@urbanvikingr and others. Sounds fun! However, we’d probably need a core group of maybe 3-4 people that definitely commit some hours to making this happen. We’ve got lots of chickens, but no pigs, so far in making this one happen.
I could definitely arrange the facilities and a few logistics. If anybody wants to be the lead on making this happen, let me know!
When shall this happen?
How many tracks / presentations are needed?
How many people do we need / want to come?
Anybody have experience with arranging conference?
If we keep to a smaller group, it would be much easier of course.
Perhaps we should create some working groups instead of one person.
We need:
a group to arrange prices for accommodation / flight / food etc.
a group to arrange presentation / speakers etc.
a group to arrange maketing, if we want to invite others than those on this list
a group to range non-coding activities (surfing, sight-seeing etc.)
In terms of small, we limit the total size to 100 participants. ShakaCode can take care of all the basic logistics. We’d have to have a modest participation fee to cover the room, food, setup. I think the date should depend on when the core group would like to come. To be honest, if just @urbanvikingr and 20 of our friends come out, that’s good enough! And if the group is even smaller, then it’s just a bunch of friends that come to Maui to do some hacking and exploring on our gorgeous island! In terms of when, the time including Thanksgiving and the first 2 weeks of December are pretty slow. So is any time up to the end of September. Slow times are easier for finding amazing deals on places to stay, cheap cars, etc.
Once mid-December hits, it’s high season in Maui until April.
Perhaps we should get a count of who must to come and what days are preferred.
I’m starting a new job on October 1st, so I’m would like to come week of Thanksgiving. I assume Conference will run 3-4 days. I likely to stay for a total of 10 days with spouse.
