pmooney.net

1 - I remember talking to you about this while we were there, so you know how I feel in general. I have a couple of thoughts that might, possibly, be useful (probably not, but what the heck):

Have you opened up the whole operation to people who ARE trained in this sort of thing and asked them for ways to make it less insane? I think the answer here is yes, but just checking.

Have you considered rotating the conference/UG around a bit, in terms of responsibilities AND geography? We all love coming to Dublin, don't get me wrong. But I was trying to think of ways that other people could do more of the work, and one way would be if you guys could step back and only really run one out of every 2 or 3 of these. I know, it's ILUG, and the I stands for Irish (not iPhone). Consider turning the raving success that is ILUG into a movable feast of a conference, a travelling Lotusphere Europe? That'll probably go over like a lead balloon (c'mon, what are the odds Eileen lets anybody else have The Clipboard?!?), but I'm trying to be creative.

Have you thought of surveying the attendees (formally, with choices and stats) to find out what they got the most value from? Maybe there's something you're spending energy on that really isn't worth doing?

I'm not clear what you mean by "people management" but if it can be fixed by "revamp of the application" and the application in question is software, you'll have no shortage of developers volunteering to help. I'll put my name on that list as well.

Getting out of the financial risk seems like it would help, from the outside looking in, but is that the biggest hurdle? Would having some major sponsors sign onto multi-year contracts make it workable, or is the rest of it still full of issues?

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this, it's an important subject. And as you know, I have an opinion on everything. :D

2 - Greetings, Paul and all rest of the team
( Yo Cuz Rob u wouldn't be a McD if you dinnea have an opinion! )

Firstly let me say this ... ILUG is great but it is not worth the health, well being or the relationships of any of the team! If that is even a likely outcome of ILUG 09 then discretion IS the better part of valour .. quit now no one will think the worse of you for it (anyone that does will have to face me and coatsie!)

That being said it would be a crying shame if ILUG went the way of the DoDo and I for one would miss it greatly. As one of the people who can't make LS for a host of reasons ILUG is the time for learning new stuff, meeting old friends, making new ones and getting infused with the throb of the greater Domino community, for me that is the most important bit. The enthusiasm of the organizers, speakers and other delegates for their subject IS infectious and I am sure I am not alone when I say it is a tremendous personal boost resulting in (dare I say it), more productivity post-ILUG ... but you probably know that already

Here is a thought - there are loads of courses in Hospitality both north and south. I am sure if you approached the tutors they might be able to lend you some hands for some "real life work experience" You could use them for the more mundane tasks?

What about a full time project manager for the 4 months would it be cost effective to look at that both from the $ point of view and your sanity?

I do hope you can find a way out of your predicament - I want to find out all about xpages that and I owe Bill a rematch and I never did get to see Julian in his Speedos.

Like Rob, if you need programmers put my name down. If you need more physical help I am available for just about anything you need me to do. Belfast or Dublin is only down the road so if you need me you only have to ask. Perhaps now is time the community gave back to you ,collectively, what you have given to the community ... I can only speak for myself in that respect. If there is a list of potential helpers put my name on it!

Steve

3 - Paul,
I know how you feel. True I have not made it to ILUG yet, next year for sure so I live in hope it continues.
When in the past I ran similar events or aspects of them, internal training with Lotus, Lotusphere Europe Wireless side or long weekend events and multiple day trainings for as many as 250 attendees(no idea what actually showed up in Berlin).
People management is hard, no one wants to be the bad guy either. But someone or a group of someone must lay down some ruiles, stick to them and really focus.
Not sure how many peopel you had helping/working on it, but maybe it's just more volunteers are needed, or perhaps some items should be farmed out like hospitality, food, travel/lodging, registration(which could include the money too if you deem it necessary).
There comes a time where the event goes from being ones friends to being almost a business, a la Lotusphere. In this case it sounds like you could very easily go the route and make a professional conference, charge something reasonable 100 euros a day or something and make it work out in a better way.
Lots of ways to make it work, but you also need to look at what are you trying to do with it as it grows.
Some people do stop for fear of success, however knowing a few of you working on it, and you are all over achievers, I doubt you are shrinking away from this.

If I can help in any way just ask.

4 -

5 - Well, if it will make a difference, I'll offer to help out. Whatever, let me know.

Another way to look at the problem: What if you outsourced to a professional conference-putter-on'er? There are a few around (ping me for sggestions), even in the Lotus space.

It's such a unique event (and I've been to a bunch o' them in the last 15 years), would be a terrible shame to lose it.

6 - Paul,
As a delegate I need ILUG ! Trust me the company I work for simply wouldn't cough up LS, without ILUG I wouldn't get to see whats going on within Domino, learn new tech etc etc the list goes on ...no pressure but keep up the good work old bean.

7 - I like the idea of rotating ILUG to other places as well. It doesn't mean it'll easier to organize (probably harder) but you'll have the opportunity to visit new places which is great.
On the other hand I agree with the fact that another ILUG isn't worth your health, nerves, friendships and so on.

8 - I really liked Rob's idea of making sure you are not concentrating your energy on things that aren't important.

What about sending out a survey of the major things at ILUG (sessions, food, take-homes, conference materials, coffee breaks, brochures, pre-conference ads, etc.). Now have everyone rank the order of importance of these items. If the majority has declared the same things the least-important, it's probably safe to dump it.

I'll also iterate - health trumps all. Everytime.

9 - I've never been to LS and in the past 2 years I've been fortunate enough to attend ILUG, first time the company paid for my expenses and this year I had to take time off and pay for it myself and I'll keep paying for it, no matter if you keep it a free conference or charge a fee. Even if you charge it people will still end up spending more money on boose than on the conference fee, I know I will.

ILUG is the place to learn, share experiences and make friends, It's what gets me going for the rest of the year. It would be sad to see it end.
Besides all social benefits it has, in my opinion, at least one advantage over LS, all the hype from the January announcements is gone and we can all see more clearly.

There are some good suggestions in the comments already which I agree with. I said this before and I say it again count me in for whatever you need.

One more thing. If it helps you can also scale it down a bit. You're all doing this on you're on time no one should be upset if you make it smaller.

10 - I haven't been to the ILUG, but I have been to Ireland 3 times, and if I would still be in Europe I KNOW I would be attending the ILUG for sure.

I don't know the laws in Ireland and stuff, but have you thought making it a non-for-profit organization and using the benefits of an org like that to get grants, sponsors and maybe cheap volunteers like students...or low paid volunteers....

I know a certain Internet Radio station in Dublin very well which is part run by students from a college there where they take broadcasting/radio classes...

11 - Paul, it's clear that this was a huge undertaking for all the organising team. It's difficult to make suggestions without having been involved, however here are a few points:
>> As a sponsor I think it was a great event.
>> It has to have been beneficial to all Notes users who attended.
>> It must have been beneficial to the overall Lotus & Notes brand
>> I take your point re the financial risks of running the event, and the complications of charging delegates.
>> I would think that the marketing benefits for the Lotus brand would justify a certain 'large sponsor' both underwriting the financial risk, and contributing the shortfall from not charging attendees.
>> Could that 'large sponsor' also contribute a full time marketing body for 4 months to help out!!
>> Extra volunteers: is it possible to identify self contained jobs that need to be done, and to allocate them to sub-project managers (eg. venue booking / sponsor cubicle hiring / catering / sponsor management / etc / etc). I left out organising speakers and publicising the event as yourself and the existing team would be key to this.
>> I would think that the most important thing for attendees is content (speakers).
>> Do you need the bags (how much effort was involved)
>> I'd be happy to volunteer some time (but not 4 months worth!!)

12 - First of all, Dublin is a very good location for this kind of event. English speaking, easy and cheap tp get to, with accommodation on the expensive side. London would be too expensive, many cities in the UK not so easy to get to.

I like the idea of running the organizational part as a student project. They could do everything from registration, publishing conference information, on site registration, collecting and analyzing feedback and so on. They would also need to do much of the setup process like packing bags etc. I have no idea whether (a) you can find a college who would like to do that and (b) if it saves more time than it costs.

What worries me most, is the financial risk you are taking. You budget has become way to high to rest on your shoulders. Your only reasonable change to mitigate this risk is IBM. I don't see who else would want to take over this burden, and I also see how difficult this would be with IBM.

Here are a few other thoughts:

- Scale it down and focus.
- Reduce to the max.
- Less idiots.
- Move to Mon/Tue.

Scaling it down is a chance to keep your sanity. Scale it down to two days, three tracks (admin, dev, sponsor). One party paid by a sponsor. If no sponsor wants to do that, make the party for a fee. Run the event from 10 am the first day to 4 pm the second. People can fly in one day, leave on the second. They only need a room for one night, and the party animals may not need a room at all.

Reduce as much as you can. No bags, no hats, no USB gadgets, no leaflets, nothing. Print large posters with the time table, and make it also available as PDF and iCal. People only get a name tag when they arrive. For food, maybe you can get somebody who sets up shop and SELLS food. Same goes for drinks. Why do they have to be free? Nobody paid for the conference anyway.

Less idiots is probably the most important one. Limit the number of attendees. The idiots are usually slower than the good people. When you are "sold out", that's fine. When you are reducing, there are fewer things to complain about.

Schedule the event on Monday and Tuesday. In contrast to other cities, Dublin is booked solid on Fri/Sat and hotels are more expensive then. It's hard to extend the stay to Fri night. People can arrive on Sunday, some of them can help you set up the conference. The first timers can visit the city.

13 - Dang, a few typos, but you will get it anyway. Forgot to mention that you should also drop the extracurricular activities like bus tour etc. People can take care of that part themselves.

14 - Volker makes excellent points.

15 - Paul,

You'd be hardpressed to find anyone sane who would suggest continue going as is. Maybe consider:
-making it bi-annual(i mean once every two years rather than twice a year), it'll be like glastonbury was this year. Waaaay more buzz sourounding it.
-bring it to another(cheaper) city in ireland: cork would probably be the best served by an airport, cheaper accomidation, (dare i say more insteresting city).
- as already stated, outsource all the admin stuff to students wanting to build a cv.
Some previous suggestions were better than that, but thought i throw my oar in.

Maybe also anyone attending can be advised to make a small deposit donation to paypal of maybe 20 squid to confirm their attendance? Can be refunded once the accounts are in order?

Take a back seat man. maybe at every future ilug event people can canvis giving a presentation to be in charge of the next one?

16 - Hi Paul,

I have been to two ILUGs now and really appreciate the opprotunity that you and your team have provided for me to learn more and to meet others from the Lotus Community.

I do understand some of the difficulties from organising Engineering community stuff years ago

My observations would be :

Its not worth your overall happiness / relationships / careers under any circumstances - but I do understand the buzz and the retrospective satisfaction

I would consider forming a limited company - people hosting festivals and sports events seem to do this sometimes. This will limit your financial exposure ( although it may not feel like it )

I would avoid using students to organise the event - they often have conflicting priorities - particularly in a campaign 4 months long

I would really push for IBM / RIM or similar to provide a young staffer full time for 4 months - it must be a fantastic development opportunity for someone - this would need to be a condition of ILUG2009 even getting started

I would make the whole thing more minimalistic as suggested above, no bags, no gifts, no brochures and people buying their own food in a canteen or stall setting ( as opposed to a hotel )- I think that people are much more appreciative of your efforts than of the gifts - if the sponsors value the gifts let them distribute them

I know you are all very proud of your PA systems and I know that the only failure was in the venue supplied equipment but do you need to put so much effort in ? - ILUG2008 venue was ( I presume ) designed to be used for presentations day on day

I would have Wiki or ask someone to have a Wiki ( I volunteer ) - it may not reduce your workload but it would help with the where to eat and sleep queries

I would limit the numbers more if that helped

I like the idea of mid week and of a condensed 2 days rather than a late start - most people have to stay somewhere so might as well get in the night before

I would let the speakers add their materials to a wiki themselves although I do think that the bios on the main site are a wothwhile feature even though they are probably painful to collect

I would make people print out their own passes and bring them - 80% will manage to do this but it would avoid the registration queue and allow a quicker start - just leave the badge holders by the door - if this is too open go back to the 2007 scheme of laying them all out on a table

I hope that this helps, I would be happy to come over two days early and help out before hand but like many others I value the content so much that I would rather not help out during the actual event ( and I feel crap for saying that )

Thanks again, Sean

17 - Paul,

There does not seem to be an easy solution and of course you need to put your personal and professional life first.

As someone who has been to 3 ILUGs I have enjoyed each one immensely. Each ILUG has been different and worthwhile in its own way.

I am wondering if some of the problems you mentioned are linked to the fact that it has grown exponentially so that every year there is a pressure to come with up with something even bigger/better than last year

Some other thoughts
I am chuffed that you and the ILUG team have put Ireland on the Lotus Notes world map so please keep it here.
If it is getting too much, I would agree with Volker's post and trim the fat. Keep the bits that work and remove the rest.
I also agree with the suggestion to keep it to 2 intensive days on Monday and Tuesday. People could then fly in and socialise on Sunday - taking advantage of cheaper flights.
Regarding the financial risk you may be able to purchase insurance against this.
I would disagree with the suggestion to move it to Cork. Let the Mexicans cross the border and see your new home town of Belfast! I would love to see the Lotus geeks on the razz in Shaftsbury square!


Lastly as I have said before let me know if I can be of assistance - I excel at eating and drinking

18 - Paul, you know that I believe you and the team have done a phenomenal job with ILUG since the first event back in 2005. I was pleased to be part of this year's event and think that every delegate owes you all a gratitude of thanks.

Having said that, you didn't ask for us to blow smoke, so some thoughts:

* Moving it is a very bad idea. Honestly, this is the DNUG trap -- DNUG has held their events in secondary cities the last few years, and the attendance has been down as a result. I've talked with DNUG about this, and they are going to have their spring 09 event in Dusseldorf. Dublin wins because of Ryanair and the competitive airfare market. Volker makes good points regarding how to otherwise make this affordable for delegates (which, frankly, doesn't seem to be the biggest issue when you are attracting 400+ delegates). I guarantee if you move the event, attendance will go down.

* Volker is also right, I was surprised at some of the extras this year. The foam hat, bag, embroidered shirts for the staff...while not necessarily about the cost, these are additional things that need to be brainstormed, designed, acquired, tracked, etc. I also liked his idea of paid-for catering...yes sponsors like to pay for that stuff but it wasn't really enough for "lunch" (at least American-sized?) so put the money elsewhere.

* Try using a wiki or other similar technology to create the conference agenda/guide. There was no need for you to push after all us speakers for that kind of stuff regularly. All you are doing is cutting and pasting, so take yourself out of that loop.

* Get someone outside the core committee to organise geekdinner, geektour, etc. It's a far cry from when we drove up to Newgrange in your Alfa. Even if you do the event on Monday/Tuesday, someone will want to do some tourist stuff on Sunday. You (collectively) could excuse yourself from such duties since you'll be busy finishing the conference. I'll volunteer to help with this for '09.

* Last, and this is my most difficult advice, watch carefully the balance/counter-balance between trying to run a professional event and having fun. The two don't really go together at least to the level that I think you all want them to. When you have this many vendors, speakers, sponsors, and nationalities involved, "fun" is a lowest-common denominator. We all enjoy good craic but we all also have businesses to run. You may have to sacrifice one to get the other (not sure which one is better to sacrifice). But I also think there's an expectation level thing here... delegates are somewhat less-forgiving of a slick professional event than they are of a few people clearly doing volunteer yeoman's work.

19 - Ed - ryanair also fly to/from Cork airport. It's cheaper, it's dare I say it more "Irish" than Dublin. Kerry's on the doorstep. Accents are funnier and more difficult to understand. Anyone who's actually through it will tell you it's a million times better than Dublin Airport anyway. Munster is way more interesting for tourists to visit in terms of spectacular scenary.

I dunno I think second city might be the best bet.

Even Galway, from an Irish point of view it's by far the best irish party city and serviced by Shannon Airport.

Dublin is from being the be all and end all, everything is approx 20 -50 per cent mroe expensive for a start.

People get to see Newgrange(co.meath by the way), which yeah is spectacular, but there are sites in Sligo(beside galway) than are hundreds of years older and altogther more interesting.

Any tourist who comes to Ireland and doesn't go to Munster or Connaught is barely getting a flavour for the country.

Dublin is about as homogenised as Ireland gets.

20 - @19 - The only reason I am not blocking your comments (because you are not leaving a valid name/email address) is because you are not being abusive. Please follow the rules in future. Aside from that, I can track the IP address. If you post again without a valid address, you're blocked!

Cork/Galway would not be a runner - it makes it too difficult for delegates and sponsors to get there. Even Belfast is pushing it (although they have 2 airports that have a lot of destinations). Aside from that, how would moving to another site make our lives easier?

"Dublin is about as homogenised as it gets"

yes it is.. and that is a good thing. So are most other capitols in Europe.

21 - Many valid points above.

Ed's comment regarding RyanAir is absolutely correct. One cheap flight from most places in Europe. Note that 80% of attendees were from outside Ireland.

Dublin is a very good location (apart from the expensive hotels).

Volker's point re the extra-curriculum activities like the toors, geek dinner etc and getting someone else to deal with that is surely the way to go. Also consider how many of the participants took part in that as compared to the overall attendee numbers.

I certainly believe you need someone on board full time for a few months before the conference. You need a project manager type not a marketing type. You certainly do not seem to need more help with marketing. It's a co-ordination role. You may find that not all of that needs to be done in Dublin (at least not all of the time).

I would certainly try and get some sponsored help from "a big vendor" lending you a body. I am sure they have specialists on staff that could be loaned or they could fund getting an outsourced contractor.

The events is valuable. No doubt. useful and fun. Not a combination of words one often finds together.

In addition to us sponsoring and exhibiting and finding it useful doing so in our role as an ISV, in our role as an IBM business partner selling IBM Software licenses and services we took the opportunity to take 5 of our clients to the event. We paid for their costs so they could see for themselves to counter side of Microsoft's "Notes is Dead" message which they keep hearing every 6 months from MS. ILUG was a great opportunity to show them the energy behind the product an energy which IBM seems not to be able to get across to the IT managers and Business Decision makers

22 - There are a lot of good ideas for reducing your exposure and your workload. Add my name to the list of volunteers. I'll help however I can, from development to hounding people for their info and/or slides to just helping with general questions.

If ILUG were a paid-for conference and I had to choose between Lotusphere and ILUG, I would choose ILUG. It's all about the cost/benefit analysis. ILUG would cost less (assuming the registration fee is substantially less than $1900) and it offers content just as good as Lotusphere. It's in a more interesting place.

The best I can figure ILUG cost a grand total of about $2000 for me AND my partner including all the tourist stuff we did (bus trips, museums, etc.). We used SkyMiles for airfare. Lotusphere cost me nearly $4000. I drove to Orlando and the only extra expenses were a few drinks one night at Jelly Rolls.

ILUG is an opportunity to get Lotusphere-class content from many of the same speakers, but with all the IBM rules stripped away. You won't find an IBM'er at Lotusphere showing a daily build of 8.5 to a room full of people, but it happened at ILUG. ILUG is much more willing to take risks with sessions and speakers. That works to the delgates' benefit because they're seeing content and hearing speakers they might not ever see in any other conference. The lack of formality and the unique content at ILUG is one of its biggest assets.

ILUG is the only conference I have spoken at despite having submitted sessions to Lotusphere for years. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity, and I think I made a decent showing of it. Again, the willingness to take risks gave me an opportunity to do something I've wanted to for a long time.

Since I've not done this as much as probably anyone else who was a speaker, I don't know how a typical conference goes. I do know I've never been welcomed as warmly or treated as nicely as I was by the ILUG staff, who also happen to be people I consider friends. I'm not sure if I'd get that same sense of welcome and belonging at another conference.

23 - Nice comments, Charles... ILUG *does* have a different vibe than LS. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. ILUG does tie in a lot of the social aspects of the community, so I find myself much closer to the people. Again, I'm also helping to organize, so that probably matters a bit too. :)

There is a comeraderie among the speakers at LS, or at least I've felt there was. But much of that is probably due to the Best Practices track, and the fact the speakers are the people you virtually hang out with every day. You could probably make the case that ILUG is like Best Practices broken off into it's own conference.

24 - Just to let know that not all the attendees can fly Ryanair, I only have the Aer Lingus option to Dublin, one flight every day and that's it.

I will still row a boat up there if I have to.

25 - Not sure if I should feed the troll, but Ryanair only flies between Cork and other UK/Ireland destinations (and one middle-of-nowhere French airport). I'm as much a fan of the rest of Ireland as the next tourist - Galway, Inishmoor, Belfast, etc. - but let's be realistic, this is a conference, not a holiday. Anyone coming into Dublin has the opportunity to train/bus/drive a few hours and see the rest of the emerald isle.

26 - Ed, not sure if I follow, are you saying Ryanair doesn't fly out of Belfast International to other UK locations?

I think Belfast is the only other viable location for this event in Ireland. Belfast's nowhere near as expensive as Dublin & we kinda speak English here too { Link }

Am sure most folk would find Belfast just as easy to get to as Dublin - { Link } - probably easier what with the 2 airports and all. Would also be a smidgen handier for our celtic bros coming over on the ferry from Bonnie Scotchland

Just a thought but you could always split the conference into 2 locations - Dublin AND Belfast for example... you know the old saying, divide and conquer... but that *might* be making more work, complicating things rather than simplifying them...

Gis a shout if ye need a hand or fancy a few (dozen) bevvies sometime dude

27 - @Vincent, Someone above suggested Cork specifically. Ed was pointing out that Ryan Air doesn't fly to Cork from anywhere BUT the rest of the UK. I don't know if that's true 'cause I haven't checked, but I know Ed's a serious travel wizard, so I trust him.

Main point is that a lot of non-Irish have been attending ILUG from the beginning. I think Paul and crew like that. So choosing a city that isn't very widely available in terms of flights seems unlikely. My opinion only, of course, and I have nothing to do with ILUG other than having spoken a couple of times. Everyone knows Eileen makes all the decisions (which begs the question of why we're talking to Paul - why wasn't this a guest blog, Mooney?!?)...

28 - @27 - Paul lets me THINK I make all the descisions Rob But to put the secondary City idea to rest
1 - I'm from CORK and that Post did not come from me
2 - We have a structure for Venue and Suppliers, moving it to a different city / country would require us to reinvent the logistics
3 - I think the idea of letting someone else organise the GeekDinner and Geektrip is a good one :- )
4 - In fairnees Dublin is the best services airport in Ireland,

29 - @28 - I think that settles it. ILUG2009 is in Dublin, now let's move on and focus on the small details remaining.

30 - Hi guys,

Just to say that I have found ILUG to be a great benefit to me over the last three years for someone that finds it hard to justify Lotusphere.

It would be a huge loss if it didn't happen but that's not reason enough for you to stress yourselves out for four months

I think the Monday Tuesday idea is a good one; the event could be scaled back slightly to 2007 levels maybe (my personal favorite) and you could accept more help!

Getting professional help from a large sponsor would be great too so long as it doesn't take four months to organise the paperwork!

Finally I think someone else mentioned insurance to mitigate the financial risk.

Count me in if you do need additional help with specific things.

31 - As I've said previously on my blog, ILUG definately finds the sweet spot of conference economics to drive an impressive attendance. With that, comes... more work and risk :(

Do go paperless / bagless; very few read that stuff, especially in the web-savvy world. Most of that unfortunately ends up in a landfill. And to the person who asked -- yes, the bags and managing the materials were a LOT of work during a crucial time.

Echo all the points about outsourcing and automating (wiki) more. Now that you have a repeatable structure, hopefully you can employ an event manager and still retain your control and leverage your lessons learned. For week-of labour, "event management" curriculum students (often a certificate program at US colleges, not sure about outside US) are eager to volunteer for onsite needs.

Hope you do it in 2009, and am willing to help again.

PS - am I the only one who liked the sandwiches???

32 - Most everything in terms of suggestions that I'd give has been said, but I'd like to include my voice as one who greatly admires what you have done for ILUG - I know that when I'm asked about events and user group events, it's one that I use as a model of a great success.

I will certainly also volunteer to help in whatever capacity I might be useful, having done some of the conference-organiz-y things for various jobs in the past and present.

33 - Libby is the fastest bag-stuffer in the Lotus Community. Maybe just hire her to do all the bags next year?

34 - "Libby is the fastest bag-stuffer in the Lotus Community"

Oh yeah? That there's fightin' talk. I feel a stuff off a-comin'. (Ooh err!)

35 - As a first time ILUGer this year, and having paid for the trip out of my own pocket, I do want to say that I sincerely hope ILUG2008 is not the last!

There have already been many great ideas, so just a comment that IMO trimming the fat wouldn't detract from the quality of the conference. Thats not to say that the swag wasn't cool either!

That said, things like the hats do add an element of fun to proceedings, yet I would have thought this community is more than capable of coming up with its own ILUG "memes". Just look at Theo's great idea with the "Read my blog" badges (though I'm not sure Bill's green hairdo would catch on!! ). Why not outsource that in some way to the community, maybe adding a healthy dose of competion - a prize for "best ILUG swag!"

But seriously, there was so much I got out of attending, over and above the sessions and social aspect. Seeing first-time presenters doing such a great job was extremely motivating, and a question from Stuart "what would you speedgeek about?" keeps nagging in the back of my mind!!

Whatever changes are necessary, make them. But keeping the essence of the informal, but fundamentally "open" nature of the event would be a priority for me. The richness that this added was simply fantastic.

Crowdsourcing the organisation wouldn't help much I'm sure, but as others have mentioned, if there are specific areas or tasks where volunteers could assist, be sure to ask!

PS: @Vitor, No way am I rowing, but we could sail up there!!