MangoCon 2016 NYS
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@Minion-Queen said:
@jenuinecase and I will be starting to taking a look at venues next week. We are starting with Buffalo, Niagara Falls and working our way out from there.
The debate we have is do we go with something that will only have the location as a place to be nothing outside to get to or do? (no night life or bar scene). Or do we find something where you all can leave and go do the bar scene?
I'm surprised Syracuse isn't on the list. I really enjoy visiting that city.
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I will have to take a look at that.... honestly didn't even consider Syracuse.
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Rochester has several large venues as well.
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The problem with Rochester is there are LARGE venues and Small Venues we need in between.
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Which sucks because I am closer to Rochester than anywhere else!
That reminds me @DustinB3403 we need to get together for lunch or coffee sometime!
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I'm game for lunch on Friday
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How many people have you planned for @Minion-Queen ?
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We are planning on no more than 500 but closer to 250 for our first time out.
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@Minion-Queen said:
The problem with Rochester is there are LARGE venues and Small Venues we need in between.
Although, pretty small. What's the likely attendance? Seems like 50 tops, right?
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We will always keep the conference small. I would happily do more conferences across the US and out of the country to keep the intimacy in place. Once you get too much over 500 you get the clicks and the separations that I don't want to see.
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The Double Tree Hotel in Rochester has a reasonable rate on their venue renting.
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@Minion-Queen said:
We are planning on no more than 500 but closer to 250 for our first time out.
That seems unrealistic. SW 2008 was like 100 and they had a product that they were supporting it through.
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Vendors are actually going to help with this and send invites themselves due to the deep dive trainings that they will be offering. So an organic way for them to get some of their customers in
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500 would be about the size of the first year that SW was at the Austin Convention Center, 2013. I'm not sure we even want it that size let alone have the ability to get it there. Without the huge "newbie culture" thing of people looking to attend the conference just to see what the product is about I don't see it easily getting there for a long time.
My guess is shooting for 50 to start and a long term target of more like 350 people seems more realistic.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Vendors are actually going to help with this and send invites themselves due to the deep dive trainings that they will be offering. So an organic way for them to get some of their customers in
Okay, that makes sense. So part ML Social Conference and part "little vendor conference" for the individual vendors? Will take some special organizing around that but I see how that could be an interesting take on it.
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Might get some more ML'ers out of it too.
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The more people that attend etc. the cheaper this gets over all. And vendors willing to teach deep dives on their products and inviting their own customers is a great way to support them. And it grows our reach
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@Minion-Queen said:
The more people that attend etc. the cheaper this gets over all. And vendors willing to teach deep dives on their products and inviting their own customers is a great way to support them. And it grows our reach
It does, it can be very good and it can be very bad. We'll need to manage it carefully. I'll post another thread specifically about addressing that issue as it is a topic on its own.
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There's such a big difference between planning for 50 and 250, that I'm not sure it's reasonable to do for our first time trying this. It seems like it might be a better idea to pick a maximum number of people for the first conference (on the lower side like 100 max) and limit attendance to that number. The choice of venues is drastically different for 100 vs. 250 people.
