[BangPypers] Python Day India

[Noufal Ibrahim]

Let me chime in here.

A couple of us in B'lore (Anand C, Senthil and myself) met last
weekend on the bug day (25/April) to talk about Python in general and
the topic of the conference came up. A couple of ideas got thrown
around and I've just finished distilling them into something a little
more concrete (attached below).

I was one of the people who wanted to do the Indian pycon really *big*
but after actually coming up with some numbers and stuff, things look
different. Things not only look different but the whole affair looks
achievable if the aims are modest. I have zero experience with
organising stuff but I'm sure some of the more seasoned Free Software
folks on this list can comment better.

While I think Ramakrishna's suggestion to hold a pycon-lite as a
preparation for the event is a good one, I don't think we should do it
as a pycon. A extra half an hour during one of our user group meetings
to specifically discuss the pycon would be better.

Anand B.'s concern is a valid one too (we don't *really* have an event
in September). However, I don't think it's impossible to have one. Of
course, we need to plan and push for it but I think it's doable.

So, with that preamble, I'm attaching the stuff (which is just a
random bunch of jottings when we talked over the weekend). It makes
the whole thing look a little more down to earth and something we can
aim for.

As for Ramakrishna's idea, I think we should use a slot during one of
our 'regular' user group meetings to discuss the *real* conference.

What do all of you think?
                             pycon-india
                             ===========

Author: Noufal Ibrahim <noufal at sanctuary>
Date: 2009-04-28 22:39:01 IST


Table of Contents
=================
1 PyCon India discussion
    1.1 Items discussed
        1.1.1 Venue
        1.1.2 Format
        1.1.3 Speakers from outside
        1.1.4 Site
        1.1.5 Money matters
        1.1.6 Publicity/sponsorhip
        1.1.7 Approx expenses
    1.2 Things to do
    1.3 Approx timeline


1 PyCon India discussion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1.1 Items discussed
====================

1.1.1 Venue
------------
    - Probably at an academic institution.
    - Anand has contacted some folks at IISc. and come up with this
      - It's possible to get the some lecture halls and
        stuff from the college if *one of the profs is there on the
        conference organising committee*.

1.1.2 Format
-------------
    - We are hoping for roughly  14-16 slots among which 7-8 will be
      newbie topics and 7-8 will be advanced.
    - In order to fill slots and make the event richer, we are
      considering open spaces and BOF events.
    - We are also open to lightning talks which can fill gaps and make
      the event interesting.
    - We are planning this to be a one day event scheduled for
      sometime in last September (approx. timeline is there below).
    - We are currently leaning towards not having a keynote
      speaker. If things change, we might consider one later.
    - We are planning to keep a registration fee of Rs. 200 (early
      bird) and Rs. 300 (spot)

1.1.3 Speakers from outside
----------------------------
    - If we *do* get speakers from outside, we will pay for
      accomodation, food and local transport (not for travel).
    - This will cost us roughly 3000 per per person.

1.1.4 Site
-----------
    - We are planning to ask Kenneth if we can reuse the software
      which he has
    - We are planning to get the pycon domain name from the PSF (in.pycon.org)
    - It might be a good idea to ask Kenneth to take over the web
      details completely.

1.1.5 Money matters
--------------------
    - We need an account to hold the funds we gather/collect.
    - Kenneth might be the person who can arrange for us to use an account.

1.1.6 Publicity/sponsorhip
---------------------------
    - We need to leverage personal contacts (companies where we work,
      people we know) to get information about sponsors as well as the
      news to spread through the hacker crowd.

1.1.7 Approx expenses
----------------------
      Item                       Rough cost   Notes
     --------------------------+------------+----------------------------------------
      Venue                           10000   Anand has positive
feedback from IIsc.
      Projectors/Sound systems        10000   Can the college provide
these?
      Food                            10000   Outsourced to a caterer
      Wifi                                ?   Contact Ramdas for this
      Swag                            20000   T-shirts, pens, notepads
etc.
      External speakers               24000   8 external speakers
     --------------------------+------------+----------------------------------------
      Total                           74000   Approx. 100,000 (with
safety margin)

1.2 Things to do
=================
   - Site + Financial aspects - Ask Kenneth [Noufal]
   - Venue
     - talk to IISc.  [Anand]
     - talk to Ramdas about school [Senthil]
   - Wifi
     - Talk to Ramdas about this [ Senthil]
     - Talk to Ramakrishna about this [ Senthil]
   - Getting Bruce Eckel for the keynote [ Senthil to talk to Anand Pillai]

1.3 Approx timeline
====================
     Date          Activity
    -------------+-----------------------------------------------------
     By 31/April   Fix venue, date and No. of days
     By 7/May      Setup site, registration, logo contest
     Till 30/May   Advertise on blogs, mail lists, twitter, sites etc.
     On 15/Jun     Call for CFP
     On 15/Aug     CFP closed
     30/Aug        Notify selected speakers


-- 
~noufal