Planning MangoCon
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Well I talked to two vendors today they are unwilling to do anything at least for our first one outside of the US. So for the first one we are doing it here in the states. Vendors are who make it possible. Now those that aren't in the Us can get together just for fun
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Mango Vacations!
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Seriously. What if we promoted the "social" aspect of the conference more and encouraged people to bring families with them to be part of the festivities? Not the conference itself, but had things for them to do during the day (tours, shopping, etc.) in groups and they could join for stuff in the evenings like the heavy social time? I wonder if that would be a different take on the conference situation. And I wonder if it would be good or bad. Lots of people go to these conferences to escape. But lots miss their families too.
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It might be... for the first one I don't want to take too much on but is certainly something I would be willing to do next year or even as a mid year social only thing. A lot of people can only afford these things because work pays for it too so something we need to keep in mind I think. I am really lucky as my family is in IT so they come with
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@Minion-Queen said:
It might be... for the first one I don't want to take too much on but is certainly something I would be willing to do next year or even as a mid year social only thing. A lot of people can only afford these things because work pays for it too so something we need to keep in mind I think. I am really lucky as my family is in IT so they come with
That's why the low cost, I think, is of big interest. Flights might not be as cheap as most US locations for Americans but they are equal or lower, I think, for most people around the world and even for the US they are not very high compared to locations like Austin or Buffalo which are not primary flight cities. Outside of the flight, though, which is normally the secondary cost, the cost of the conference center, rooms, food, drinks and everything else associated with it could be less than half which might dramatically offset the cost of the flights.
And because the rooms are paid for, bringing a spouse would only be the cost of tickets and since it would be a real vacation destination for essentially everyone it might be an added enticement.
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I like the flip-flop idea of an event every other year in Buffalo or the Finger Lakes (can't decide which is better) and one in some place like Nicaragua. Some people could only do every other year, but it would add variety without causing a "split" between people going to one location or another.
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I have a thought.... what about a "vendor theater"? A room or set of rooms or something where vendors do time-boxed presentations. Like maybe each vendor gets 20 minutes and they rotate. So you can just stop in anytime to see a live demo going on. Something "bigger" than a booth could do so there is just a designated space for it but one that all of the vendors get to use. A place to go and hang when you aren't busy doing other things. Grab a coffee and a snack and go relax and watch a "show" about a new product.
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I haven't read all the posts, but if this is about having a Mango conference out of the US, I'm not sure. I'm not against it, but trying to get work to pay for a trip out of the US, even if it seems less costly, may be an issue for a lot of people. On the other hand, what if there was a World Wide Mango event and it was planned once every 5 years or so? That would be a special event and may make it more plausible to get people to go to. My 2 cents.
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I'm on my phone so I'm keeping this short until tomorrow morning, but I would love to have a session on a PKI deep dive. I think a lot of smaller shops (mine included) could benefit from this. Like it isn't something only for big companies. Simple two tier infrastructure could work for most applications at our size quite nicely. Just a first idea.;-)
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MangoCon: Where Real Tech Gets Real Social
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Flights are surprisingly low cost from Chicago to Nicaragua.
I threw a bunch of dates at Kayak and it comes back similar anytime from the middle of October through February.
Spirit is the low cost flight here. After that is is Delta at $376, still low cost IMO. I am so used to the prices to fly to Japan this was a shock to me.
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Not bad at all, and we found the best prices for us were Spirit (which we avoided) and United (which we took.) I think that AeroMexico is good too, which might be the partner providing the Delta prices that you see.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Not bad at all, and we found the best prices for us were Spirit (which we avoided) and United (which we took.) I think that AeroMexico is good too, which might be the partner providing the Delta prices that you see.
I did not look that close. I was just interested in the rate as an academic exercise.
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Wow, I just looked from Minneapolis to Nicaragua for that time frame on United and came up with $250.
This makes me sad because the three tickets I just picked up for Orlando were $650 each.
Why does airfare have to be so crazy?
To keep on topic, I would travel outside the US for a good conference.
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@donaldlandru said:
Wow, I just looked from Minneapolis to Nicaragua for that time frame on United and came up with $250.
Woot. I'm telling everyone, this could make a conference VERY affordable if we plan well.
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@scottalanmiller said:
if we plan well.
And that is the hard part. Certainly not a smart idea, IMO, to plan extreme distances from home.
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@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
if we plan well.
And that is the hard part. Certainly not a smart idea, IMO, to plan extreme distances from home.
Do you mean planning far from everyone's homes or far from the planner's home? Both have merit, just wondering which you are thinking. The event will be far for most people no matter where it is. Sadly even stuff in Buffalo is far for Danielle. The upside to this one is that it is near for Dominica who is trying to do some of the planning and actually might be one of the logistically easier options overall.
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Again if we want vendors for our first time out it will be in the US for the first one in 2016. I am all for doing it outside the US every other year, as long as Vendors agree. But we have to prove we can give value to Vendors first especially since the cost of something like this rests mostly on them.
So @jenuinecase and I are starting to scope out places that are appropriate next week in the Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Rochester and Fingerlakes region.
I can also scope out room arrangements for those that might want to bring family.
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Would people like to bring family? I highly doubt we will be planning this for summer months (as they are the most expensive to book anything) so it would be during normal school time for anyone with school age children.
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@AVI-NetworkGuy said:
I'm on my phone so I'm keeping this short until tomorrow morning, but I would love to have a session on a PKI deep dive. I think a lot of smaller shops (mine included) could benefit from this. Like it isn't something only for big companies. Simple two tier infrastructure could work for most applications at our size quite nicely. Just a first idea.;-)
I love this! and this brought along another idea - how to setup enterprise WiFi (Windows centric), deployed via GPO using RADIUS, etc.
