I was asked the other day “What do you expect from the openSUSE Conference?” The simple answer is I only expect to have fun. Seriously, I expect nothing more, nothing less. I hope for a whole lot more, but I certainly don’t expect it.
This may sound somewhat silly, but in all honesty that’s how I feel. This conference (as are most others) is a great way to meet the people you interact with online, there’s something satisfying to be able to replace the digital person with a real flesh and blood person. You can thank someone in a real sincere way with a gift (could be a pint or something else) or slap them and let your anger out. Digital is pretty good, but having the physical is always better once in a while :-D
So if I take the original question and rephrase it to “What do you hope for from the openSUSE Conference?” then my answer at least for this year would be something along these lines:
Learn more about some of the technology that powers openSUSE and that openSUSE provides – for me this is predominantly the sessions on Packaging and KVM but there are so many I’m not sure I’ll be able to get to them all
Make some new friends. This might sound a bit sad, but let’s be honest these events beat the crap out of any social network whether it’s Facebook, Google or Twitter.
As this year includes the SUSE Labs guys & gals, I’m hoping to speak to several SUSE folk about ways to expand SUSE within my employer. We have numerous new initiatives that hopefully can be of benefit to both parties
I’ve got a published session on the 5Ws of openSUSE contribution, which I’m looking forward to seeing the audience get involved with. I’m also going to hold a BoF on Bongo’s WebUI and as I’m about as artistic as a fart in a space suit I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out of it.
At the end of the day the conference is what you make of it, so if you want a great conference come along and in the words of some futuristic Frenchman “Make it so!”