Unfortunate coincidence
by Volker Weber
In April 2007 I wrote a posting called "two conferences". I was comparing two very different events, DNUG in Dresden and ILUG in Dublin. My hope was that it would make things unstuck between IBM and DNUG, but all it did was that it spelled the end of my invitations to DNUG conferences. :-) I had very good intentions when I posted but it was not received as I had expected.
ILUG 2007 was very, very successful and sold out to 275 people within 3 weeks. "Sold out" is an overstatement since the conference was free to attend. The conference was not only very well organized and full of great sessions, it was also a lot of fun. The organizers went out of their way to keep the delegates entertained.
ILUG 2007 was a two day event. For ILUG 2008 the organizers want to create something much bigger. Not only will the conference expand to three full conference days, it will also go to a much bigger venue. Despite expanding the conference, it will still be free (as in free beer). You only have to pay for travel which can be very cheap given that Ryanair is based in Dublin*. The dates have been set to 4-6 June 2008. Mark you calendars.
I am pretty sure that this posting will be misunderstood as well. There is a small problem that ILUG was unaware of until they learned about it a few days ago. On the exact same date there will also be the next DNUG conference in Bremen:
As you can see on the registration form it won't be free. By no means I would insinuate that conferences need to be free. A good conference is worth the fee you pay for it. But good free conferences at interesting places are a very strong competition, especially in spring.
Update: Postings by ILUG organizer Paul Mooney and Ed Brill.
*) Example for Hahn (not near Frankfurt): Arriving in Dublin at 7:40 on the 4th and leaving at 18:45 on the 6th is currently available for 67.21 €. Including fees and taxes.
Comments
Thanks for the post, Volker.... greatly appreciated.
See you at ILUG 2008! Gayle and I will both be attending.
I see that things get telegraphed very quickly into public discussion. Paul only answered my mail about this yesterday.
The situation is a challenge for speakers as well as attendees. I have been unable to be at the last two DNUG events, due mainly to schedule conflicts. I had committed to ILUG, but I had also committed to DNUG.
DNUG is in Bremen, and there aren't exactly frequent flights -- one per day on RyanAir, not even operating all days -- to Bremen, and not much more to Hamburg or Hannover. This presents a real challenge for those who might want to be at both events, and choosing one or the other is a "hobson's choice".
DNUG books their conference dates years in advance. Still, I am sure the ILUG schedule conflict was unintended. In the end it has the possibility to hurt both events, which is quite unfortunate. The issue is not so much for the local-market attendees, but rather for those that might be drawn to either event from the vendor pool and from outside of Ireland or Deutschland.
The scheduling conflict was completely unintentional. As far as I understand, this was the only available slot at the ILUG venue.
As far as attendees are concerned, it provides them with fewer choices. If you are unable to go to a conference in the first week of June you can go to neither. I don't think there would have been many people who wanted to attend both.
It's a completely different story for vendors and speakers. Two conferences at the same time will force some of them to make a choice instead of going to both.
Thanks for posting - I agree that vendors who would show at both conferences have a big choice. It also affects the conferences, as vendor sponsorships can be a big part of a paid conference and really quite important to a free one - neither is short of expenses. Having run conferences with a no-vendor approach, I'm intimately familiar with that part :-)
I'm guessing I'll be in Dublin as I've never been to DNUG, and besides I have a bit of an implied promise to live up to with the beer...
That would be good for ILUG. Not only are you one of the best speakers in this circuit, you also have the best arguments:
:-)
Great shirt Rob. I want one :-)
Hummm ..... Hardly ideal.
I want that shirt!
@eshter,
I asked first :-)
Well, both of you will have to lure Rob into giving it to you since it seems to be gone from the Guinness Store. Last I looked Rob liked women better than men. :-)
One has to make a slight distinction here though: While Bruce wants one (such) shirt, Esther wants that (particular) shirt! ;-)
For Bruce there are options (e.g. eBay Spain, but probably not eBay UK ;-)).
And this thread is already at #14 in a Google search for "Guinness T-Shirt Tall dark handsome" :-)
@Ragnar - and thanks to you, it's #1 in English :-)
As for who can have the shirt...you can all fight Liz for it. I might even pay to see it.
Volker - this is hugely useful information. Thank you. I'm wondering though if the oft-used term 'Collaboration' might be worth looking up in the dictionary. Do we want the Domino users to be split in half a la King Soloman or do we want to work together like grown ups a la Sesame street and sort this out?????
I urge DNUG and ILUG organisers to sit down at the same table. Please.
@Lizzie - Paul has tried to explain the problem on his blog... http://www.pmooney.net/blogsphe.nsf/d6plinks/PMOY-7AHSL8#Comments
