[Development] Qt Contributors Summit: when and where

[marius.storm-olsen at nokia.com]

On 03/01/2012 11:14, ext Quim Gil wrote:
> After many discussions with many people we seem to agree on the following:
>
> - The first edition was a success and it is out of question that we need
> to keep organizing this event in 2012.

Agreed. Now that we *are* under Open Governance, it's even more 
important to have these events.


> - It's good to keep aiming to get about 200 people as long as it's the
> right people instead of trying to grow just because - losing agility and
> effectiveness in collaboration and getting things done.

Sounds good. But how do you limit that, should interest be larger than 
200 people? Ordered by random, first come - first server, number of 
commits, reviews, IRC chat lines? :)


> - Berlin is a convenient location. There is already a lot of Qt
> contributors nearby and is easily reachable from other countries.

Let's keep Berlin, it was a good location last time.


> - It is good to find a mixture of weekend&  work days e.g. from Friday
> to Sunday.

Last year was Thurday - Saturday. Seemed like a good mix. For people 
with families, taking up a whole weekend might not be too popular.

> - When? There have been different opinions and the trend seems to be
> that it is better to do it after Qt 5 is released, otherwise people will
> be too stuck with bugfixing and pressure to release. But we can't do it
> in the middle of Summer holidays either. This would send us to late
> August - September. This is the critical point, all feedback is welcome.

If we'd follow last year as a template, it would be Thursday June 14th - 
Saturday June 16th.

I have my doubts if doing it then or after summer matters much 
time-wise. Everyone will always have plenty to do anyways.


> - How many rooms, which capacity? No need to get into details but having
> a rough idea would be useful in order to book the right amount of space.
> For you this means what type of event do you want: was the event last
> year good or would you prefer a different distribution? For us booking
> the venue it has clear implications in the contract and the budget.

Last year I got the impression that the number of rooms were fine, but 
the size of (some of) the rooms were not. Some sessions had people 
standing up against the wall, and sitting on the floor, and too little 
ventilation. Lets not do that again.


> PS: speaking of budget, we need to discuss also the organization and
> funding of the event. 100% by Nokia again or do others want to step in?
> This is a discussion for the [marketing] list. Event volunteers and
> potential sponsors: make sure you are subscribed to that list
> http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing

Qt is now, more than ever, a community driven effort; so it would be 
natural for other parties to chip in, IMO. Shouldn't anyone who's 
working on Qt in a corporate function simply ask their employer if they 
can help out with something? After all, Qt is LGPL now, and the 
companies are benefiting from a good and vibrant community.

Helping out at Contributor Summit would be a little gesture, to give 
something back to the hard working community.

-- 
.marius