[openbeos] Re: way to go on waltercon ... linuxworld

Michael S wrote:
There aren't word to describe what I'm feeling, but I'll try anyhow. The way 
you just pulled the rug out from under me just mere hours after I bought
non-refundable tickets is simply infuriating. I'm out over 400 dollars. It
seems pretty clear that with priceline and name your own price, you can't
get a refund, although there might be a way buried in the fine print. If all else fails I might call the credit card company. I know *I* was going. Brayn 
Varner, Michael Phipps, and probably Isaac Yonemoto would've attended as
well. I would think Jonathan Thompson, Darkwyrm and Gabe would have gone
too. Isaac suggested to me that a trip to Menlo Park might be in order.
Menlo Park being the former home of Be Inc, not to be confused with the
Menlo Park in New Jersey where Thomas Edison worked.


Michael -

There really aren't words to say how I/we feel, either.



Just because Haiku is a non-profit run by volunteers doesn't mean it has to
feel like amateur hour. The phrase fly-by-night springs to mind. I feel I
could've done a better job and I'm scatter-brained most of the time.



Firstly, more notice beforehand would be nice. Specifically, the when and
where, not just some unspecified date in August in some region of the
country. Three months would be good. This wasn't a huge problem for me, but
for some other people I'm sure it played a role.
Sure, we know this. Unfortunately, SF was *MUCH* harder to work with than any other part of the country. Both Vegas and Orlando were a lot easier - they nearly BEGGED me to come. They contacted every hotel in sight, they organized their responses; their chambers of commerce were awesome. In comparison, SF said "we could talk to up to three hotels; anything after that and you are on your own". So we had to do hours and hours of footwork that was done for us by people on the ground in years past. 

This isn't an excuse, mind you, but some insight into what happened.


Secondly, OSNews didn't pick it up as far as I know. You need to spread the
word. Send an e-mail, write a business-style press release.
You are assuming that we didn't. It was certainly on the website and the mailing list, both of which are monitored by OSNews staff; if they wanted to post it, they certainly could have.
Thirdly, communication is key. I sent an e-mail to Darkwyrm at gmail dot com 
on the 14th of July with my t-shirt size and date of arrival, as requested
on the waltercon site. I said I'd pay in a week or two. I didn't get
anything back. A simple "I received your e-mail," would suffice. How about a 
we-need-more-people-to-attend-or-we-cancel news posting ? That would've
helped a week ago.
More clues - the hotel/meeting place (don't remember which) emailed us and said that we had 3 days to pay up or they would cancel. We looked at the existing signups and decided that it wasn't worth it. 


Fourth, what else is there to do ? I think Bryan was bringing his wife.
Maybe Czeslaw would decide to drag his wife and child to San Francisco. I've 
heard it said, that being with someone you love and watching as they enjoy
themself gives the other person equal enjoyment. What I haven't heard said
is that this only goes so far and is going to wear off.
Anyway, there needs to be a list of other things to do on a traveler's
budget.



Free samples and a walking tour anyone ?
http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/visitors.php

I'm not talking about everything there is to see and do, but a list of
public transportation e.g.bus stops and shuttle services and the fare and
pick up schedules would be helpful. Also a list of other things to do would
be nice. Historical sites, night clubs, live music, book stores, libraries,
unique architectural curiosities, shopping malls and movie theaters would
all be nice. I'm sure the local visitor's bureau would send out dozens of
pamphlets for free.


You'd be surprised how unhelpful they were to us. :-/
I started off really angry. Most of that is gone, but what's left isn't much 
better. I'm reminded of the "7 Ps," or a variation of the alliterative
phrase. "Poor Prior Planning Produces Piss Poor Performance."
We started, by the way, planning 2 months before. Which is about what we did for 2004-2006. Sooner would have been better, sure. But we never had this sort of trouble before. Also, by the way, the prices of meeting rooms and hotels were RADICALLY higher in SF than anywhere else. Something else we tried to work around. 


Do I blame Michael Phipps, Darkwyrm, the establishment (MacOS, Windows,
Linux) the man (Bill Gates, Linus, Steve Jobs) or the system (osnews,
slashdot) ? I'm reminded of Koki, but let's not start the European Waltercon 
debate; this failure is due to not spreading the word , and not getting the
announcement out early and basically the apathetic "it'll take care of
itself" attitude.
In fairness, we posted on this mailing list, the Haiku website and the Waltercon website. Would a slashdot post really attract more people? Would they be the sort of people that we would likely want (as opposed to people who check the Haiku website)? 


Is this the same LinuxWorld that Koki canceled ?
http://www.elliottsamazing.com/lrh.html
Yes. I am speaking there on 8/8. Actually, the whole story on that is that they were never going to provide us a booth - they didn't have space in the OSS pavilion. But we always had a space with the birds of a feather conversations. 


Did I mention that I e-mailed just about everyone with an idg.com e-mail
address on the 24th of May ? I think Michael said they were out of room for
the no cost section ? What changed ?


Explained above.


Lastly, what am I going to do with this ?
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?52dad963ec.gif
If I remember my WalterCon history, you would be far more appropriate to place with the questionable woman than I would. :-)
I am absolutely miserable about this. I *never* wanted to not have a WC. But it would have been a disaster with 4 people (Gabe, Bryan, Issac, MikeS) there. We did a survey to find out what people wanted in a WalterCon. We hit every point - geography, date, content, etc. Yes, earlier announcement would have been better. But it is sort of hard to announce something when the hotels and meeting places won't get back to you. Over and over and over again. We (DW) made dozens of calls to get things set up. We fought against the WalterCon website - a beta install of software that gave us a ton of trouble. We really did do our best. People I consider to be personal friends are taking a bath on this (including you, MikeS). I really hate that. We had a very poor set of options this past Monday. Hold an event for 4 people where Haiku would take a HUGE financial bath, no one would come away with their goals met (i.e. learning more, fraternizing with other devs, etc) or canceling it now while the most people have the chance to recoup their losses. I think that we did the right thing. I don't like it - it was the best of no good choices.
I have a request for folks out there - if the *ONLY* reason that you didn't sign up for WC07 was the lateness of the posting, please, respond to this and say so. If money, flight, the date would have made a difference, that's different. But if we had posted exact time, place and cost in May, would it have made a difference? I don't think so, but I am willing to hear about it publicly if it would have. 

Michael

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