class: center, middle background-image: url(london_from_the_air.jpg) # Organising An LPW (Hit P for the notes) ??? I've been to quite a number of Perl workshops and conferences in the last ten years And I've been involved in the organising of a few of them, since 2017, or helping out with the recordings. And this seems to be something that rarely gets talked about So this talk is to uncover some of the mystery there And it's also for transparency --- # Where Have We Been? -- * COVID (2020 - ????) ??? I mean... that stopped pretty much everything -- * Change in organising team (2023 / 2024) ??? ++ People come and go, which is understandable, but that can break continuity and momentum -- * Change in venue (After 2019) ??? ++ We didn't want to go back to the University of Westminster And David Game College became a boarding school so we couldn't use that again (safeguarding) So Finding a venue was a big blocker (which I'll explain in a bit) -- * Closure of EPO (2023) ??? ++ We had nobody to hold or manage our funds, which is a *big* blocker -- * I was asked "Will there be another LPW?" (2023/2024) ??? ++ In Toronto last year, at FOSDEM this year, at GPW this year So was determined to make something happen. This year --- class: center, middle <font size="500%">^Z</a> ??? Essentially at the end of 2022 we had a fractured organising team We didn't have a venue We didn't have anywhere to keep funds And we were not really sure if people were keen to start attending events again after COVID So in 2023 we halted because too much needed to happen to get it to happen This year we started early, roughly this time last year. --- # What Do We Need [To Hold A Workshop]? ??? I'm going to cover each of these in more detail -- # Organisers / Volunteers / Venue / A Date (or, dates) / Speakers / Attendees / Money, and somewhere to put that / Sponsors / Some sort of web portal / Marketing / Time --- # Venue -- * Probably the number one concern ??? Once you have this the rest will follow This workshop is always well attended, even if numbers are down from a decade ago. -- * The right size * 2004 to 2006: ??? Average Registrations * 2007 to 2011: 210 ... * 2012 to 2016: 258 ... * 2017 to 2024: 120 ... ??? ++ 2006 predates ACT, so i can't find the numbers Approx 100 registrations now per year, resulting in about 80 to 100 attendees. In other words - enough that we need a dedicated venue, with multiple rooms. Much bigger than a tech meet Bigger than a room at a company kind enough to host us, essentially --- # Venue * The right location ??? Central London I guess. Easy on public transport Ideally zone 1, maybe zone 2 at a push? -- * The right price ??? ++ HOLY CRAP venues in central London are expensive -- * The right policies and/or contract ??? ++ Which I'll cover shortly... --- # Venue * Shortlisted fourteen venues -- * Six we didn't end up contacting * Perhaps look at in the future? -- * Three were too expensive ??? Way too expensive Some had reasonable rates but required a minimum [large] spend on catering -- * Three were not possible ??? ++ No availability or catering on the weekends -- * One had too restrictive contract/policies ??? ++ This was unfortunate, a *great* looking venue suggested by an attendee That was central and very cheap But they wanted to know all speaker names in advance before agreeing any contract Which I *can* understand why but find incredibly annoying -- * This one ticked all the boxes ??? ++ The cost with catering is approx 6.5k For reference the UoW used to cost approx 5k with catering (six years ago) David Game College was a bargain: it cost 2k with catering, so it's a shame it's no longer available --- # Sponsors [And Donations] -- * Absolutely Required ??? This event would not happen otherwise A smaller event we could run on a shoestring budget -- * Those... * ...who have sponsored recent events * ...we know to be using Perl/Raku * ...we know used to use Perl/Raku * ...who we suspect are using Perl/Raku * ...who just want to give us money ??? ++ When looking for potential sponsors this is generally how we compile a list This year that lead to... --- # Sponsors [And Donations] * Shortlisted 70 sponsors -- * Contacted 29 * Contacted us: 3 ??? 2 of the "contacted us" were not on our list --- # Sponsors [And Donations] * Yes: 4 * Asking our companies: 2 * Total: 9 ??? In other words, roughly 10% of those we contacted said yes. -- * "No" from 3 ??? I'm quoting "No" because it's more that... -- * No response from 20 ??? ++ This is the bit I want to highlight We don't get any response from the majority, it's like speaking to /dev/null Or we had a response but the communication channel ran out of steam I only really chase these once - I don't want to annoy anyone. If you want to say no, then say no - that's fine. Or "we don't have the budget, maybe next year" Or "we've already allocated our sponsorship budget this year" Or "we only support job fair attendance" These are all fine as reasons well. We're not going to call you out. But if you don't respond at all then that's pretty frustrating. I understand the issues around sending unsolicted emails, but I believe we're acting in good faith here. --- # Sponsors [And Donations] * We need your help with this -- * If you: * work * contract * freelance * advise * know of * used to work... * etc * [for] a company using Perl/Raku then please ask them to sponsor us ??? The amounts we're asking for are a drop in the ocean for most companies But any amount is appreciated as it all adds up To reiterate - this workshop would not happen with our sponsors --- class: center, middle  --- class: center, middle  <br />  --- class: center, middle  <br />  --- class: center, middle  <br />  --- class: center, middle  <br />  --- # Money + Bank Account ??? Sponsors give us money, so we need to put it somewhere -- * EPO closure ??? The Enlightened Perl Organisation were kindly handling the accounts for us When they closed down last year this was no longer possible -- * YEF sort of closure ??? ++ YAPC Europe Foundation Sort of? Still open but there hasn't been any movement there since late 2018 They were handling some payments out of ACT -- * Added Stripe to ACT ??? ++ This was trivial. It was used by some sponsors and donations. Thank you very much to anyone that donated - these accounted for 10% of the funding this year. So were has the money been going? -- * Swiss Perl Verein account ??? ++ I ended up as president of the Swiss Perl Verein a few years ago, for various reasons, so suggested this. My Swiss colleagues agreed but we cannot use this next year. So we need to sort out some sort of non-profit account to hold the funds - I can't do this, or at least I think I can't do this, again for various reasons, so someone needs to do this. --- # Money + Bank Account Income: **£10,650** -- * £1,850 - Carried over from 2019 * £7,500 - Sponsors * £1,300 - Donations ??? Here's the key - this is all in the bank right now. I sent invoices as soon as sponsors said they would like to be involved. And chased quickly. --- # Money + Bank Account Outgoings: **£9,656** -- * £5,160 - Venue hire * £1,948 - Catering * £958 - Scarves * £550 - Pre/Post socials * £350 - Organiser expenses (Lee's hotel) * £232 - Organiser/Volunteer T-shirts * £138 - Banderolls * £200 - New wireless mics * £80 - Hand truck * £40 - Labels for name badges ??? We have some spare scarves and T-shirts If you want one (or more) we're happy to sell them to you at cost --- # Speakers ??? Again, this event would not happen without them I'm well aware how much effort it takes to prepare and present --- ## Andrew O'Neil / Andrew Solomon / Chris Carline / Dave Cross / Dave Lambley / Dimitrios Kechagias / Fernando Oliveira / H.Merijn Brand / Habere Et Dispertire / Ian Boddison / James Green / José Joaquín Atria / Leon Timmermans / Max Maischein / Mike Whitaker / Mohammad Anwar / Nana Insaidoo / Paul Cochrane / Paul Evans / Richard Hainsworth / Rolf Langsdorf / Saif Ahmed / Salve J Nilsen / Steve Roe / Stuart Mackintosh / Su Mu / Thibault Duponchelle / Yujia Zhai ??? So please thank all our speakers. Especially those who presented for the first time. --- # Attendees ??? Thanks to you -- * Regulars * Less frequent attendees ??? ++ But importantly -- * First timers ??? ++ Don't disappear --- # Some Sort of Web Portal -- * Outside of a walled garden ??? Walled ghost towns seems more appropriate for some of them -- * ACT (A Conference Toolkit) ??? ++ Merci a Les Mongueurs de Perl for helping out with my occasional request around ACT Generally it works ok for our needs I believe it's just LPW, GPW, and PTS using it now We'd likely use it for SPW but we likely won't have another SPW -- * There are issues ??? ++ Email delivery (SPF headers and such) Occasional unavailability (you may have noticed i created a static backup this year) I don't know if these will be fixed --- # A Date (or, Dates) -- * Typically this time of year ??? I think it's about right It happens around now to fall between other events -- * But there aren't really many other events now... -- * Perhaps something in the summer would be better? --- # Marketing ??? The hardest part? -- * MetaCPAN banner with link ??? ++ added on the site (who found us through that?) -- * Perlmonks - ditto ??? (who found us through that?) -- * Mailing List (london.pm & Perl Weekly) -- * IRC / Telegram [bridge] -- * Meetup ??? ++ Subscription price went up considerably, hence stopped using it --- # Marketing * blogs.perl.org * Reddit * Hacker News * Facebook * LinkedIn * Discord * Slack * Instagram (? Threads?) * Twitter (X) * Mastodon * TikTok? * YouTube? ??? Social Media is a fractured mess I use the top three here, the rest I pretty much don't By some miracle I managed to stay logged into blogs.perl.org throughout. But made an effort to post information on most of these platforms. Aggregation sites it's near impossible to get noticed (reddit, hacker news) A post on Reddit or HackerNews about the workshop is never going to hit the front page --- # Volunteers -- * On the day -- * But also throughout ??? someone posting something on social media could be considered volunteering or adding a link to an existing site (like MetaCPAN and PerlMonks mentioned) --- # Organisers [& Time] -- * Two organisers for a workshop of this size ??? Minimum. Mark (mdk) ran this event on his own for a decade, when it was twice to three times as big. We owe him a debt of gratitude for that -- * Two to three hours per week -- * Anyone can do this ??? ++ if you're thinking "i don't live or work in London, i can't help organise this" i don't live or work in London i don't even live or work in the UK i live and work in Switzerland and have done for over a decade -- * Someone "on the ground" is very helpful ??? ++ Julien! --- # This Event -- * There's still demand ??? i think it's clear there's still demand for this event in fact, we have more attendees here than were at the main Perl & Raku conference in Las Vegas this year (?) -- * It's important ??? ++ The language and the community continues to exist There are people here who have been using Perl for thirty years But there are also people here who had not worked with Perl or Raku until just a couple of years ago And people here who are just starting with Perl or Raku So we need an event to discuss, in person, things that will affect the language and the community Salve and Stuart's talks covered examples of the kind of issues we need to meetup to discuss. So this workshop needs to happen -- * It demonstrates we're still here ??? ++ To other languages, communites, and companies. Perl will still be around long after you or I retire. Programming languages do not die, they just stop being talked about. So let's keep talking about them. --- # The Future? * Annual, biennial, or triennial? ??? I'm happy to help out if it's biennial or triennial event I won't have the time to do this annually If you want to run it annually then you'll need to put together an organising team. -- * Not in London? ??? ++ How many people here actually work or live in London? Remote work has changed the distribution But London is probably the easiest in terms of logistics? -- * In the summer? -- * Still a single day? ??? ++ I think this is optimal, but if it were in the summer...? --- # Actions ??? Here's what you need to do if you want LPW to continue -- * Create a team of two or three organisers ??? ++ As I said, you don't need to be in London -- * Open a non-profit account for handling funds ??? ++ I believe I cannot do this as I am not a UK resident -- * Figure out if you're happy with this venue ??? ++ Or look for other options -- * Contact me for help and information ??? ++ About ACT, recordings, sponsor lists, etc --- class: center # Thank You!  ??? the pub is around the corner keep your name badge, or ask for another if you don't have one or lost it we are putting 500 quid behind the bar, you'll need the name badge to take advantage of that the page contains a link to a feedback form all questions are optional and anonymous it'll take you about 5min to do, so please fill it in if you'd like to speak about anything in person we will be at the social afterwards