On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 14:05, Kaplan, Deborah <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> The tricky part for the old guard to do is how do you manage preserving as much of the original vibe as you can while not putting up a wall that keeps out scary strangers. It's hard work, but not impossible. People have proposed lots of potential solutions in this conversation: say there is no problem and we like it the way it is; lottery for a single conference; different registration times for a single conference; one large and many regional conferences; shrink the current conference even further. All of them have pros and cons. As long as people are willing to talk through them and be willing to change, the conference will probably be the stronger for it.
>

Well said, Deborah.

I'd love if we had one or more hosting proposals for #c4l13 that
suggest tinkering with, or scrapping, the formula.  Otherwise this
thread will end the way many of our threads do, by fading into a
series of bacon and OCLC jokes, which are then rehashed year after
year.

Though I've thoroughly enjoyed all six code4lib conferences, I can
appreciate folks' arguments for change.  I will say that I think we've
done a decent job at not putting up a wall that keeps out scary
strangers -- it's unscientific, but the opening show of hands the past
few years has shown that we continue to attract many dozens of
newcomers every year.

-Mike