We get a dev-room at Fosdem after all. Emergency Call for Papers!

[Wendy G.A. van Dijk]

Hai Duncan,

At 06:44 PM 1/26/2013, Duncan Garland wrote:
 >TPF posted a couple of days ago that it has £100,000 (or dollars or
 >whatever) to distribute, so resources isn't the problem.

Money is not the issue.  If it were, I know 
enough people at TPF, YEF and elsewhere to ask for it.


 >A couple of days ago Perl's official presence at Fosdem was minimal. I
 >assume you didn't try very hard to get sponsorship because there was very
 >little to sponsor.

When something is completely free, indeed, nothing to sponsor.


 >Yesterday things changed and you suddenly needed half a dozen or a dozen
 >good quality speakers to drop everything and head to Brussels at seven days
 >notice.
 >
 >One of those days has now gone. How are you getting on?

We are getting quite a lot of proposals, and tomorrow we'll make a decision.
We are sort of half-way.  So anybody reading 
this: we can still use some help...

By now, this happened:
https://fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/welcome_to_perl_devroom/
We got it official online etc.


 >I mentioned funding from TPF because I thought the speakers might require
 >more funding than usual. They can't get cheap flights at short notice, they
 >can't combine it with a business trip at short notice, they can't combine it
 >with a family holiday at short notice.

At least one family decided to do just that for 
the Dutch Perl Workshop...  Which is on April 19 
this year, so a bit more in the future.  But 
they're adding a couple of days of The 
Netherlands especially for us.  Nice people, huh, Perl people!


 >I assumed that you wouldn't be able to offer funding until you had
 >sponsorship.
 >
 >I thought that if TPF put up £5000 immediately then that would solve the
 >problem. Then if commercial sponsors come forward you can return some or all
 >of the money.

The funny thing about many Perl people is that 
money is not too important for them.  A lot of 
them put a lot of time in working, traveling, 
hacking, discussing...  without any 
payment.  Same for conferences.  I did not yet 
receive one request for money to reimburse for 
travel and/or accomodation costs.  If I get such 
requests, I know where to ask...   My own company 
has done a couple of reimbursements in the past, 
so I know what i'm talking about.


 >I've never been to Fosdem, but it looks important.

Yes and no.  I (and many with me) think it is 
important for Perl to show its face, its finest, its quality.
We haven't been at Fosdem for many years (Fosdem 
exists since 2000).  It is not to be compared 
with Oscon, it is not high-brow, slick, 
classy.  Wanna see a mixture of office type 
people and your average family people with real 
nerds, like they are protrayed in movies, Fosdem 
is your place, much more so than Oscon.  No 
classy lunch or dinner, no shiny handouts.  It's different.

So yes it is important for the image of Perl.  It 
may attract more people. But it also shows "Perl 
is not dead".  And believe me, I heard the opposite way too often...


 >All the best.

Thanks.