Integrating RustConf

[aturon]

RustConf started out four years ago as RustCamp, before we had many of the team structures we have today. Initially it was overseen directly by the core team, but for 2018 we started to move toward an independent team, while continuing to work with Tilde for much of the physical logistics. However, I don't believe there was much coordination with the event team in this past iteration.

I'm trying to help get together a small (2-3 person) general organization team to work with Tilde and the events team on RustConf 2019, though the folks I've reached out to so far are, unfortunately, too busy to take on this work.

For the events team, I'm wondering:

• What kind of coordination/setuip makes the most sense to achieve better integration with the events team?

• Do you have suggestions for people to participate in organization?

• Any other general commentary re: RustConf / organization?

[aturon]

cc @Manishearth

[Manishearth]

I think regular check ins with the event team would be nice to hold for us. This year I forgot to do a bunch of things and it's nice to have a support structure (growing the RustConf team itself is also part of the solution here)

[Manishearth]

And yeah, this year we had almost no coordination which is mostly my fault :smile:

[skade]

Hi @aturon, Hi @Manishearth!

First of all: I'd be very happy about RustConf organisation joining our effort and would be quite happy to see new faces. The events team is currently (by virtue of @mattgathu moving) now completely based in Europe and I would love to see that change. I guess I can speak for the group that we would also love to help make RustConf a better event and I assume that RustConf people also have a lot to share for the other events.

So, from my perspective, the main thing to do is to come to an initial agreement of what the relationship between the RustConf organisation and the events team is. Also, how we can effectively come to agreements and fulfil them. That sounds heavier then it is, RustConf was created at a time when thinking about fitting the event into a large community wasn't a thing to care about, which we should now do. RustConf also has a special position that we need to come to terms with, as it is perceived as the event not to miss if you are a true Rustacean :).

From my perspective, I would not like to move any of the actual planning into the events team - I think events work best as an independent cluster, but aligning common goals, sharing action, talking about communication and also managing public perception helps a lot. There's still tons to share: text, experiences, tweets ;). Also, helping in growing the events teams will help a lot. I think this year has shown that there are some things to manage together (and I mean that in a positive way). I would love the events team to be a place of sharing experience and solving interesting organisational problems.

Much of the current team is currently entangled in getting the FOSS events planner up and running through Mozillas Open Tech Leadership program. The concern was voiced today from all members that they want to help in planning events, as opposed to helping people recreating the team members events. Speaking for me specifically, I don't want to teach people how to run RustFest. I want to support people in "The Rust conferences are nice, but I would love to have a Rust conference on two busses driving over the Irish landscape[1], but can someone tell me how ticket calculation works?".

But there's also so much stuff we can build on top of all these events and I would love to have more people sparing their time and ideas. Diversity and assistance programs and I think helping other projects to be present at the confs.

Finally, I would like to mention that my current goal for the team is still getting new events up and running and making sure newcomers have the chance to talk to people that already did make a lot of mistakes once ;). Or help them out with text and material.

I hope that somewhat covers the notion. Maybe let's set up a quick call over the next week and make sure we see each others faces again. Also, meetings are every other week Wednesday, next one this week :).

[1]: Don't, it's worse than it sounds.

[skade]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for no communication for the past 2 weeks. I would like to start working on this by the end of October.

Reasons are simple: I'm going on holiday on the 1st and would not like to start new things before.

I would like to invite you all on our regular meeting already, though: https://github.com/rust-community/events-team/issues/45. I also added a bullet point to replan the meeting time, to not force a new appointment on new team members.

I'd be happy to see you around!

[Manishearth]

I'm in a thing all day, I really can't make any meeting today. Can we shift this to tomorrow?

[sebasmagri]

Hey folks, please add your preference for an initial meeting to discuss this after October 23th at https://doodle.com/poll/f3eq47rkk8dufk77

Regards,

[flaki]

Hey All,

I generally would like to echo Florian's notions.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot is something that the JSConf-family has, which is a "JSConf Family Slack", that is a community of JSConf (JavaScript conferences with separate organizing teams but shared vision and mutual coordination and mentoring) organizers. A shared channel for coordinating planning, dates, asking for help or advice based in previous experience.

I've filled out the Doodle and looking forward to see this conversation evolve in the future as I believe bringing RustConf closer to the events team and other events would be a net win for all parties involved.

[aturon]

Filled out the poll, looking forward to chatting!

cc @mgattozzi, can you also fill out the doodle?

[mgattozzi]

@aturon ah just saw this sorry! Filling out now

[skade]

I have picked Thursday, Nov 1st. Looking forward to seeing you there.

[aturon]

@skade do you mind sending a calendar invite to all of us with details?

[skade]

@aturon I'll draft an agenda and send around an invite, yes.

[skade]

@aturon @mgattozzi @rust-community/events-team @Manishearth Agenda here: https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/Integrating-RustConf-Meeting--AQfAAAyKOHNUwJ61LuXZ7wfLAg-fW51Undwz6tyLSFvmPPvl