confplans

Proto.in has been asking people to vote on its next venue city – Pune or Mumbai, and seems to have noted Pune as the popularity vote.

While there have been opinions and requests on the venue city for next Proto.in even before the Jan ‘09 Edition took place (check here for a related blog post and the comments on it), PuneTech has posted a page on ‘Reasons why proto.in should be in Pune’ – a substantial pitch with a number of supporting comments.

No known pitch blog posts for Mumbai yet.

So, Proto.in, where will you be?

confplans mumbai, proto.in, proto6, protodotin, pune

MozillaCamp Delhi was announced today via e-mails to several mailing lists, including BarCampDelhi’s. The event is planned in Delhi on 10 Feb 2009, exact venue still undecided. The mailing list has been setup too, and there’s a marketing brochure posted up here. Seth Bindernagel, Director of Localization efforts at Mozilla, and Arun Ranganathan, Standards Evangelist at Mozilla are expected at the MozillaCamp.

Poster iterations are on in the mailing list, so there’s still time to provide inputs (Hint: do you really like that fox there? Seems to hint at FireFox alone, but Mozilla != FireFox).

The basics are up, and the lookout for venue and sponsors is on.

confplans delhi, mozillacamp, MozillaCampDelhi

Now that Proto.in 5th Edition in Bangalore is over, a quick look at the twitter strategy at the conference. The tag ‘protodotin’ (one of the two recommended tags to tweet at/about the conference – ‘protodotin’ and ‘proto5′) became a hot twitter trend during the two days of the conference. While the reasons include, of course, great conference action, and enthusiastic tweeting crowd, a couple of points to be noted by conference planners:

1. Explicitly call out for people to blog, tweet, or post to flickr. This will only help, and Proto.in did this in the event blog.
2. Make sure people can tweet right from the word Go. If people can’t tweet at the time of the inauguration keynote, the enthusiasm might die down. Although there have been tweets about congested wifi access at Proto.in, the access was nevertheless still there, on time, and enough to tweet well.
3. Let people know their tweets won’t be lost. Proto.in had a big screen outside the hall that showed live tweets posted by the crowd with tags ‘protodotin’ or ‘proto5′. People often stood in front of the screen and read through. A great way to let tweeters know “someone might be looking at your tweet right now.”
4. Incentivise twittering. Proto.in had announced giveaways (iPod Shuffles) for best twitter/blog/flickr coverage (judged by the giveaway sponsors). Such incentives bring the gaming-like fun part to the process, and would itself keep some people interested in twittering long after others have tired down.

Overall, something upcoming (un) conferences can incorporate well, and do one step better.

confplans bangalore, proto5, protodotin, twitter

Proto.in 5th Edition kicks off today in Bangalore. Expect it to have a good presence on the social web, with prizes sponsored for tweeting, liveblogging, and flickring from the event.

Proto.in: 23, 24 Jan 2009

confplans bangalore, proto.in, proto5, protodotin

Naina Redhu is helping WordCamp Delhi India’s first WordCamp (called WordCamp India now, as we see from the logo) with the event logo. Check it out here. The iterations have changed the logo starkly from the first one, and provide an interesting view of the thought process. Anyone up for feedback on that post?

Updated (2009-01-22T23:01:48+00:00): ‘WordCamp Delhi’ -> ‘India’s first WordCamp’

WordCamp India: 21, 22 Feb 2009

confplans delhi, india, logo, wordcamp, wordcampindia

The freed.in blog has an update about the conference today. Among other things, the organizers have requested speakers to arrange for their own travel and accommodation (they’ll try to arrange for accommodation for out-station speakers) due to constraints on resources and sponsorships for the event. There is also a note about 15 talks over 2 days.

The revised Call-for-Papers document lists the talk synopsis submission as 25 Jan 2009 (as against the earlier one of 25 Dec 2008) – a good opportunity if you wanted to talk on something interesting FOSS, but missed the earlier date.

The corresponding mailing list thread is here.

While this announcement might wake up the dormant “I will contribute; I will volunteer” supporters, the more interesting question might be whether it makes it easier for the “I can’t decide” participants to pick between freed.in and WordCamp on 21st Feb (Note: Yes, the two events do have some overlap in audience).

freed.in: 20, 21 Feb 2009
WordCamp Delhi: 21, 22 Feb 2009

confplans delhi, freed.in, wordcamp

RiseCamp mailing list has a thread posted today that hints at an opportunity for people to get involved and contribute. The logo and location are still open for inputs.

The other interesting part in the thread is loud thinking by Aditya Kaul on the purpose of RiseCamp and some clarifications. The list of participants and volunteers isn’t that long yet (hint).

In sponsorship updates, Evoma joins Proto.in as Silver Sponsor, as seen on the website today.

RiseCamp: 11 Apr 2009
Proto.in: 23, 24 Jan 2009

confplans evoma, mumbai, proto.in, risecamp, sponsorships

Jonathan Follett wrote ‘Understanding the Unconference‘ in 2006, and it still remains a useful way to make my friends understand them just by way of the written word.

Crystal Williams has noted 10 Steps to Organizing a BarCamp, and a collection of tips that apply to every type of unconference (and conference). Give it a read if you’re involved in, or planning to get involved in organizing something similar.

That said, does the ‘fun’ aspect of organizing a conference (or un-) slowly fizzle out after a while? It is project management, whether you do it haphazardly or last-moment-run type, or a documented, planned manner (that’s the freed.in 2008 Project Management Plan). For those new to conference management, the lets-make-it-happen phase hints at fun, and lets-go-by-the-plan hints at disciplined effort, and it’s important to keep adding fresh brains into the process for every type of conference.

For the old-timers in a particular conference, it is question of micromanagement v/s delegation. You could either step in every time to handhold the new generation of organizers, or you could just help out with the Action Plan (again, freed.in 2008 example), and then step back.

confplans conference management

WordCamp India

Concept:Conference of Bloggers, with a special focus on everything WordPress, the blogging tool, and the world around it

General Audience:Bloggers, and anyone hosting or utilizing sites or tools based on WordPress

Where: Delhi NCR, India

Venue: Adobe Systems India, I-1A, Sector 25-A, Noida, India

When: 21, 22 February, 2009

Registrations: http://wci.eventbrite.com

Website: http://india.wordcamp.org

conf bloggers, delhi, india, wordcamp, wordcampindia, wordpress

Proto.in sponsorship updates: NRDC (National Research Development Corporation) is Gold Sponsor at Proto.in (Note: Microsoft BizSpark is already one), and Yahoo India, and ZOHO are Silver Sponsors. Interesting movement in the sponsorship logos on the home page, with less than a week to go for the startup conference.

The agenda has been published (albeit a bit too close to the conference days) here, and you can see a good lineup of speakers in addition to the startup showcase and other events. There are keynotes by Bharat Goenka (Tally Software) and Bob Young (Lulu, co-founder of Red Hat), and a number of ‘Proto conversations’ by people who know about startups and running a business.

Proto.in: 23rd, 24th Jan 2009

confplans BizSpark, microsoft, NRDC, proto.in, sponsorships, Yahoo, ZOHO