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La Book Chapters and FAQs
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La Book Chapters and FAQs

[[TOC]]

So, you want to host an LCA in your city?

History of LCA

It all started in Melbourne back in 1999, with CALU: Conference of Australian Linux Users which was held at Monash University over 3 days in July 1999

Renamed to linux.conf.au in 2001, it has grown to become one of the world's best technical Linux conferences. It continues to be run by community volunteers for the community volunteers that have made Linux and Free and Open Source Software the phenomenon it is today.

Bid process

You want to host LCA in your city/town? Here is all the information that you need to create a winning bid document

The timeline for the LCA bid (eg: 2022)

  • Earlier this year: Linux Australia Council seeks Expressions of Interest in running linux.conf.au 2022

    • You may contact Council to register your Expression of Interest at any time

  • August - formal Bids are requested to host linux.conf.au 2022

  • October - Submission of formal bids closes

    • Have your Bid document prepared and submitted

  • November / December - Council clarifies any questions regarding the bids and reviews them

  • Quarter 1 2020 - Council conducts Site Inspections with shortlisted Bid Teams

  • Early 2020 - Council decides on the winning city and informs the Bid Teams

  • January 2021 - Winning bid is announced at linux.conf.au in $CITY_FOR_LCA2022

Create a bid to host an LCA

Once you've put up your hand, the council will send you the linux.conf.au template budget documents. Teams are expected to submit a bid document and a confidential budget. The council expects a team to be able to put in a decent and good looking bid. The council can provide "best practice" examples of such documents for you.

Your first stop should be your local Council or Tourism Board backed Conference Bureau. These are teams of people dedicated to helping you to create a winning bid to host an event in your city.

In Australia, there is now an organisation called the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux https://aacb.org.au/ New Zealand has the NZ Tourism Board https://businessevents.newzealand.com/en/conferences/. They provide free advice, show you around all of your city's suitable venues and will create your bid document on your behalf. Utilise these services - LCA can bring in around $2m total revenue

If you want to host your LCA at a University and you can't go directly to the Universities then the Conference Bureau will assist you, and the University should have an Events team onsite who can help you with planning your conference and your bid information.

Your bid document should include:

  • Information on travel to and from the host city

  • Information on the suggested linux.conf.au venue

  • Information on accommodation

  • Information on catering and facilities nearby

  • Tourism related information about the city and surrounding attractions

  • Something about the bid crew and their suitability to the task

Venue

This is the very first thing the organisers will need to nail down: this determines the date. In the past LCA have used universities as they are generally large enough and provide access to lecture theatres, catering and accommodation all in a small area. Usually price concerns prevent LCA from using large hotels and formal conference venues, however feel free to check and compare prices, as things do change.

Probably the most important detail is the size of the largest lecture theatre, or room with chairs etc. As keynote speakers attract a large majority of the delegates, consideration needs to be given to the size of the room in which the keynotes will be presented. The venue needs to hold at least all the delegates, and possibly extra people such as organisers, media, sponsors etc. This number will limit the number of registrations you can accept.

Other considerations include the available network access (or the ability to set it up, if there none currently available), and the AV equipment available. Most speakers expect at least a data projector and microphone. Other venue considerations also include the ability to record sound and / or video proceedings, as well as catering companies or provisions available. These may change depending on university holidays too, so be sure to check ALL details thoroughly before booking a venue.

It has become expected that the conference will provide networking for the conference venue. It adds to the LCA atmosphere for delegates to be able to sit around, outside of the lecture theatres and hack. Quite a large amount of work is actually produced this way! (As is a lot of time wasted, but cest la vie). It is up to organisers whether this network access extends to the lecture theatres. Some speakers don't mind delegates listening with half an ear, and hacking at the same time, others consider it rude and in bad form.

Programme

This needs to be decided early in the process. It is important to know how may talks / presentations slots there are available. In the past there has been a "tutorial day", followed by 3 days of "papers". The length of tutorials and papers is up to the organisers. Previously tutorials have run for 3 hour morning sessions, or 6 hour, all day sessions, and papers have been between 45 - 60 minutes long, plus time for questions and change-over. organisers can decide how many streams of papers / tutorials they wish to hold. This will depend upon the topics and types of papers submitted. They may group neatly into streams, or not fit into groups at all.

Organisers will need to decide roughly how many talk "slots" there are, plan the key-note sessions (see Keynote Speakers) and then work out how many papers they can accept.

Budget

Sample budgets etc

Site visit

Schedule, what is expected

You've won the bid, hurrah! Now the hard work begins...

Announcement

At the end of each LCA, the following +1 year's location is announced. This can be in any format: video, monologue etc but will need to include a brief introduction to the city and venue of the conference.

The winning team will be aware they have been approved to organise the conference some time prior to this. This notice is given to the successful group so that they are able to prepare advertising and a presentation in advance. Advertising may be in any form the group chooses. For example, postcards or other hard-copy advertising may be handed out at the door at the close of the conference. Organisers should be aware it can take up to 6 weeks to have print media printed, so a logo and design of the advertising should be considered and prepared well in advance of the official announcement.

Your team - You will need one!

Many hands make light work and it is very true for LCA. It takes many people with many different skills to put on a successful conference.

The core team (organising committee) is generally made up of people who are keen to be involved. A leader is required to keep everything running smoothly. The lead organiser should not have too many "jobs" allocated to him / her, as this person will be keeping all the details and various groups straight and should have a general overview of details at all times.

It is important to keep the core team small somewhere from 5-7 individuals who hold responsibilities for the core conference requirements; speakers, volunteers, venue, treasury, events etc

Several smaller committees may be formed to deal with various areas, for example, a AV team, a papers committees, sysops etc. Someone on the core team should either run each committee or be the main point of contact with the person that does. This should NEVER be the core team leader.

Here are some examples of the jobs you will need to fill:

Blahllalalalal

Blahllalalalal

Some key points about your volunteers:

  • Once you understand the fluid nature of volunteering it will be easier to maintain your expectations of your helpers

  • Your volunteers have home lives and other responsibilities. It is usually easier to ask for a volunteer for a job, than to allocate a job. People who are interested or passionate about a role are more likely to complete tasks.

  • Many of the people who begin your journey will not be with you at the end of it. Likewise, you will have people join along the way who will be awesome

  • They are all there for the same reason as you - they want to see this amazing conference in your town

  • They will be looking to you for leadership and assistance. Be honest and fair

  • you will grow to learn which members of the team are reliable and may need to shuffle job allocations as appropriate

The team leader needs to be able to make tough decisions when it comes to volunteers, especially those who are not pulling their weight. If a member of the team is not pulling their weight or not coming to meetings then it is important to address the issue as early as possible. If necessary replace the core team member with someone who can make the commitment. This has happened almost every year and no on should feel shame in having to drop to a less loaded roll or out all together, circumstances change.

Reimbursement

Linux Australia (LA) does not pay conference organisers. However, it is fair to reimburse the organising committee for costs involved in the conference. Most people are happy to volunteer their time and energy, but covering items such as car-parking during the conference is appreciated. Other "payments" for time given may include free conference registration, conference dinner tickets for spouses etc. The head organiser and the committee should keep in mind that most conference organisers will NOT get to attend many (or any) sessions at the conference, as there is always something to be done during the week of the conference.

Meetings and Communicating

LCA committee meetings are usually held regularly, with increasing frequency as the conference draws nearer. Initially these can be monthly to fortnightly but in the last 3-6 months leading up to the conference they should be weekly.

It is best to find a venue, either someone's work or home which is always available when the meetings are on. Even if half the team can't make it the rest can just turn up to work on things.

Committees have also set up mailing lists and wikis for sharing of information and discussion between meetings. Each years organisers are free to hold meetings / forums in which ever way works best for them.

Ghosts

The ghosts of Conferences Past and the Conferences Sub-Committee are here to help you. How can you get the best advice from them?

Conference Timeline

Failure to plan = plan to fail

Call for Papers

Suggested Call for Papers timeline:

Call for papers and tutorials (CFP) should be advertised and announced approximately six months prior to the start of the conference. This gives potential speakers time to plan and put together their abstracts. CFP should close approximately 3 - 4 months prior to the conference. A built-in grace period is recommended. For example, you may advertise CFP closes 12 weeks prior to the conference, then at that time, announce an extension of 2 weeks. This allows the "last minute" abstracts to filter in, whilst still allowing the conference organisers as much time as is required to assess papers.

The CFP submission process is usually described in detail on the current year's website (www.linux.conf.au). CFP submission is almost always via email. Following is a description of the general CFP guidelines. These are subject to change by each year's organisers but give a guide.

Presentations should be primarily of a technical nature. Commercial advertisements or sales pitches are not appropriate for this conference. Reports on legal, educational, organisational or similar aspects of open source software are also welcome.

Papers on the following topics are encouraged:

  • The Linux kernel, filesystems and networking

  • Databases and storage

  • Programming languages and tools

  • Linux on the desktop: productivity, groupware and GUIs

  • Multimedia, audio, video, music and games

  • Security

  • Linux deployments, practical experience and war stories

  • Linux on unusual platforms: embedded systems, virtual systems, handhelds and very large systems

  • Distributions, management and standardization

  • Other open source projects

We are open to a broader range of topics as well, even non-Linux based projects. However all presentations must be based on 'open source' software and projects.

We have two very different presentation formats: 150-minute interactive tutorials and 50-minute seminars. You might also want to participate in a BOF session, lightning talk, miniconf or to present a poster.

Budget

The real thing

A treasurer will need to be selected from the organising team. This person will work closely with LA (mostly the LA Treasurer) to prepare a budget for the conference. Some experience in account keeping will be an advantage, but support is available from LA at all times. Previous years budgets are also available to assist in this process. The LCA treasurer's role will include:

  • Preparing a budget

  • setting up signatories to the bank accounts

  • record keeping

  • paying invoices

  • reporting to the LA treasurer

  • tracking payments in (sponsors, delegates etc)

  • balancing the bank accounts

Sponsors

Sponsorship Committee

Firstly, sponsors are NOT essential to the conference. However, sponsorship ensures keeping the prices down for attendees, and ensures futureproofing of the conference. A budget can be planned that does not include sponsorship money, however it is nice to have them on board, and particularly where both large and small sponsors can be engaged to ensure local industry also benefits from the conference.

Initially you may wish to consider who is eligible to become a sponsor of LCA. You may wish to draft a policy for acceptance as a sponsor. Consideration may be given to the following:

  • Is the company supportive of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)?

  • Does the company use or distribute FOSS software?

  • Does the company employ FOSS programmers?

Sponsorship contracts should be entered into with all sponsors. A written contract ensures everyone involved is aware of their responsibilities, and provides a support should disputes occur. Templates of previous sponsorship contracts are available. Sponsorship deals are made year to year, and therefore are subject to change. The following is a list of considerations regarding sponsorship packages:

  • levels of sponsorship

  • cost of packages (at different levels of sponsorship)

  • inclusive of x amount of tickets or not (usually NOT, but make this VERY clear)

  • advertising and signage

  • bag inserts

  • sponsor responsibilities (due dates for payments, inserts to arrive etc)

  • conference responsibilities (advertising space, time for announcements at PDNS, conference dinner etc)

Small sponsors are sometimes the hardest to manage, so clear levels of sponsorship, with responsibilities and expectations clearly set out are important to ensure stress levels are kept as low as possible.

It is very important that the sponsors feel the money spent is worthwhile, so ensuring the sponsors get feedback, can show their ROI, and are engaged with during and after the conference is very important.

Ultimately this process is very flexible, but keeping sponsors happy if we engage with them is very important to ensuring they will participate in future conferences.

Marketing & Comms

Planning announcements, press releases, social media etc...

Media

A single point of contact should be established early and advertised widely. This person will be responsible for media enquiries, writing press releases, looking after media reps during the conference and any other media related issues.

LA has assisted with Media training for LCA organisers that will be dealing with the media. LCA and LA should work closely to ensure a consistent message to the media, and as such any press releases should be sent to the other party. Where possible, LA will defer all comments on LCA to the LCA sub-ctte to ensure up-to-date information is being passed on.

Press Releases

Shortly after the previous conference the next years organisers should be prepared to issue a press release setting out the pertinent details, such as location, dates and venue. The LCA press team should engage with the LA press team who can assist with putting together PR as well as use the LA press contacts which are quite good. It also means again some consistency in the LCA and LA messages to the media.

The organisers will need to issue regular press releases to maintain interest and impetus in the lead up to the conference. Examples of times to issue press releases include (but are not limited to):

  • Announcement of conference location, venue and dates

  • Keynote speakers confirmed

  • "Penguin" sponsor signed on

  • Other sponsors signed on

  • CFP opening

  • CFP close

  • Early Bird registration opening

  • Early Bird registration closing

  • Speakers confirmed

  • Regional Delegates Program submissions

  • Regional Delegates Program winners

  • As you near maximum registration numbers

  • Any other reactive press which might be useful

Be aware that press releases take to time to write, plus you may need to get various approvals (especially from sponsors). Press releases are issued through LA's media channels, so again, there may be a lag between when the organisers have prepared the release and when it actually hits the paper or Internet news site. At the time of writing the IT news section in the Australian closes for articles / advertising for the Tuesday on the Friday prior. LA has a designated Press Contact ( [email protected] ) who can be used as a resource for polishing and issuing press releases. It is the LA Press Contact who the LCA media contact always sends press releases to for issuing.

Website

Wiki

Database

Registration

Call for Volunteers

SWAG

It is also advised that printers quite often take longer than expected, and this slack should be built into your time-line. For example, you may have ordered x amount of t-shirts, plus printing, but the t-shirt maker may run out a specific size, so the printer has to do a smaller print run. If the printer has to do a 500+plus run for you to get the cheapest rate, you may lose money if you have to pay for a smaller run later, when that final size becomes available. It cannot be stressed strongly enough to plan ahead, and have these kinds of issues organised well in advance.

Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Papers Committee

Call for Papers

Who, where, what, how?

Your conference

A/V

Pack in/out