[ale] More for the ALS record

[Marc Torres]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 05:01:22PM -0400, tfreeman at intel.digichem.net wrote:
> IIRC, ALS grew to a size where the volunteers couldn't handle the job and
> pay their bills, much less have a life.

This is more or less true.  Some things scale as they are reproduced
year to year and become easier- but others do not.  Backoffice work
like contracts, receipts and accounts receivable just get bigger.  

On the flip side of the scale question, it was also 5 years of effort 
and many just needed to move on to other things in their lives.

> Hence selling out to a larger organization with professional staff.
> Didn't work.

Ok... Flat out... ENOUGH of the Weekly World News version of ALS info.
I will not stand for the slander of hardworking people.

We cooperated with USENIX in 1999, 2000 and 2001.  USENIX is a non-profit
global users assn which has been in existence since 1975 and holds
well known technical conferences for tens of thousands of people every year.
http://www.usenix.com/about/

That cooperation helped us immensely, clearing our decks of administrivia,
marketing and legal paperwork.  This allowed us to focus on the creative
issues like the fund-raiser dinners, D&B parties, Developer Hot-houses,
the showfloor network, BoF's and recruiting the international audience.

Were there some creative differences here and there, you bet.  Welcome to
the world of working with other people- but they added many resources and
helped us improve the quality of presentation in the conferences.

ALS 2001 was a disappointment.  At the end of ALS 2000 we had verbal
commitments for 85% of our vendors for the following year.  The dismal
economy took its toll and by June 2001 we only had 20% of our planned
show floor reserved by vendors and paid for.  Even with most of the
companies local to the show in Silicon Valley- the hits just kept on
coming...  Sponsors dropped out of all of our special events.

Then came 9/11.  That was the final straw, speakers refused to travel
and cancellations took their toll.  Almost every commercial event was
canceled thru the end of 2001 worldwide.

To its immense credit, USENIX (which was backing the event that year)
decided that the show would go on in Novemeber, ate the loss and declared
the conference FREE to any who would be willing to attend.

But given that on the average year 50% of our Conference attendees traveled
by air to the event, and the show floor was so small, and the economy so
bad most people stayed at work or home.

In previous years I've mentioned it takes about 10,000 details to pull a
5 day and night event with the scope of what ALS became.  I have no interest 
in debating with anyone the merits of all of those decisions- but I'm very
happy for all the help we had from everybody- but to try and place blame on 
any group is uncalled for and just lacks character.

> It is possible to put on a major show with almost exclusively volunteer
> labor, check out PitCon next time it comes to Atlanta for an example.

Yup it is, we did it in 1997-1999 :-)

> IMHO, IF ALE wants to sponsor/resume ALS, and want to be more than an
> install-fest, get some sponsor's lined up who will contribute employee
> time.

The name "Atlanta Linux Showcase" is taken and will not be used again.
It made some history and those of us that made it happen are proud we did,
but its time for a new event to write its own chapter :-)

Sign people up to run a new event-- create a name and charter for it, find
a source of funding and you will have cleared your first hurdle.

Best wishes,
Marc Torres
marct at mindspring.com
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