There's been a lot of opinions posted today about ways that @linuxconfau, and specifically #lca2020 could improve.

As a two-time LCA core team member ( #lca2012 and #lca2016), and having spent 5 years on @linuxaustralia Council, in Executive roles, here's my take.

1/16

Firstly, I want to thank @joeladdison and the #lca2020 team for their incredible efforts. I know what it takes to run a @linuxconfau. Thank you.

Secondly, running a conference the size of LCA is hard. It's usually 600-800 people over 5 days. It's run by volunteers.

2/16

This is often lost in what I believe is a genuine desire for continuous improvement of our community, and the events run by our community.

Improvement takes effort - to strategise, reach consensus, design plans and implement them. Negotiation and "people work" is work.

3/16

This is on top of the huge workload that is running an LCA. Session Selection Committee, arranging venues and catering, child care, communications and marketing, organising keynotes, Safety Team, Diversity Grants and so on. LCA is a huge project.

4/16

LCA teams over the years have been getting smaller. Core Teams are often smaller. This means more work on fewer shoulders. We work around this by outsourcing where we can, but some things cannot be outsourced.

5/16

Outsourcing also costs money. The key reason LCA is so cheap (it's INCREDIBLY cheap) is that the ticket price is offset by dozens of hours of volunteer labour.

And here is the heart of the issue. LCA is a complex system. Changes trigger inter-dependencies.

6/16

Let's say we gave Miniconf Speakers a ticket to LCA. Back of the envelope, there's usually 10-12 Miniconfs, and they have b/w 4-8 Speakers. Conservatively, 10 x 5 = 50 Speakers. Some will already have a ticket, let's say 40 Speakers. That's roughly $40k in the budget.

7/16

What do we add or cut to make that up? Diversity Grants are usually in the $10k range. Most folx wouldn't want to cut that, and neither would I. Get more sponsorship? Sponsorship is hard and takes a lot of time, that LCA organisers don't have.

8/16

We could cut some catering, but at a convention centre, your catering is usually baked in (pun not intended) to the venue hire cost. We use convention centres more now, because it's less work for conference organisers.

9/16

LA could also allow Miniconf organisers to raise their own sponsorship. But this would jeopardise the sponsorship agreements that LCA has, particularly with bigger sponsors. This is also more work for Miniconf organisers. Less sponsorship, less money, less "niceities".

10/16

LCA could also sell Day Tickets to Miniconfs, which has been done a few times in the past. They're usually priced at around $100. This barely covers costs, and in some cases, runs at a loss. Giving a Miniconf Speaker a day ticket means less of a budget hit though.

11/16

LA could also hire an XO type role that could assist _all_ LA events in various aspects - sponsorship, media, comms, contracts. But at say 38 hours a week, and a salary poor for this industry, you're looking at well over $AUD 100k p/a. LA doesn't make that much profit.

12/16

And of course that opens the 'what labour is paid for' debate. If an XO gets paid for their labour, and a Conf Organiser does not, that's not equitable. Conf Orgs, LA Council all put in dozens of hours of free labour. Is that fair? No, but the alternative is ++ $ tickets

13/16

Now let's add into the mix the heavily contended market that is technical events in Australia and NZ that are not auspiced by LA. LA events compete with these events for paying attendees. YOW, DDD etc. Increased ticket prices make LA events less attractive.

14/16

The point that I'm getting to is that running LCA is a complex task, with a huge number of moving parts. Changing one of those parts has flow on effects. Some decisions "lock in" other decisions, especially when you're 52 days out.

15/16

What we, as a community, dedicated to improving ourselves and our events should be doing now, is having this debate on-list, NOT laying consternation at the feet of volunteer, incredible, dedicated conf organisers who are 7 weeks' out.

Thx for listening.

16/16