The Perl Community is fortunate to have a strong foundation of volunteers for organizing events. We're called "The Perl Mongers", and you can find us all over the world. But those of us who have organized things may have realized that it isn't as easy as one might wish. Everyone seems to learn the same things the hard way, again and again. Let's make it easier!

1. Perl Community Backchannels
YAPC::Europe::2015
September 2-4
Granada, Spain
Salve J. Nilsen
@sjoshuan

2. About me
● Salve J. Nilsen
● Active in Perl community since 2002
● Organized lots of events with Oslo.pm
● Likes beer
● Twitter: @sjoshuan
● Website: http://code.foo.no/

3. Who is this talk for?
● Want to create some activity
– Hackathon
– Workshop
– YAPC
● New to the community
– Value networking
– Appreciates learning & teaching
– Curious about who's who

4. “Backchannels”
● Where and how to get help?
● Which resources are available?
● How to get in touch with resourceful or
experienced people?
● Some “public secrets”
● Almost all is public knowledge

5. Opinions or Facts?
● I'll mix facts and opinion!
● Caveat: this talk is an outsider's view
– Not complete or thorough
– I am not involved in any of these organizations or
projects
– Tuits found may or may not be real
● Also, this talk is a conversation
● Please offer comments, rebuttals and/or new info! :)

6. But first….

7. sjn (it's me!)

8. The Perl Foundation
● USA-based non-profit
● Legal entity for many community resources
– Owns the onion logo & other trademarks
– Runs lots of community websites, the TPF grants
– Deciding where YAPC::NA will be next year
● http://perlfoundation.org
● Can help with advice, tips and experience
● But little direct help for organizing things in Europe
● Curtis “Ovid” Poe is member of Board of Directors
● Tuits: very few

9. Ovid

10. The Perl Foundation
● What's the most useful TPC committee?
● Marketing (mark@perlfoundation.org or
pr@perlfoundation.org, Mark Keating)
– Can offer flyers and other promotional material
– Great sounding-board if you want to promote Perl
– Tuits: very few

11. mdk

12. The Perl Foundation
● Offers grants for projects, worldwide
– Max USD 6,000 per grant, anyone can apply
– Grants given every 2 months
– See website for proposal guidelines and application rules
● Grant managers include Elizabeth “lizmat” Mattijsen
and Alberto “ambs” Simões
– http://perlfoundation.org/grants_committee
– http://perlfoundation.org/how_to_write_a_proposal
● Tuits: barely enough, it seems

13. ambs

14. The Perl NOC
● Ask Bjørn Hansen & Robert Spier
● Can help with perl.org and pm.org DNS, email, mailing
lists, websites
● Sysadmins for
– pm.org
– perl.org, perl.com, search.cpan.org and many more
● http://noc.perl.org – Main website
● http://log.perl.org – Blog & news
● Tuits: very, very few

15. Mailing lists
● http://lists.perl.org
– conferences@perl.org (very little activity)
– nordic-workshop@perl.org (very little activity)
● http://lists.yapceurope.org/mailman/listinfo
– organizers@yapceurope.org (some activity)
– conferences@yapceurope.org (some activity)
● http://mongueurs.net/services/listes.html
● http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo
– Many more || less active Perl Mongers
– Some other lists (e.g. yapc@pm.org)
– Note-worthies? – London.pm, definitely; Others?

16. Perl Jam
● http://perljam.info
● “How to organize a conference … and live to tell the
tale”
● Written by Barbie (w/community help)
● A book filled with experiences and great tips
● Work in progress (read it, give feedback!)
● Get it here: https://github.com/barbie/perl-jam
● Tuits: practically none

17. Conference survey system
● http://yapc-surveys.org
● Fantastic resource for getting feedback to
organizers and speakers
● Managed by Barbie of Birmingham.pm (UK)
● Want to use it for your event?
– barbie@cpan.org
● Tuits: low

18. Barbie

19. YAPC Europe Foundation
● Dutch organization w/French bank account
● http://yapc.eu
● Help Perl events in Europe (and other places)
– Banking/payment infrastructure
– Conference management website (Act)
● Decides who gets to organize YAPC::EU
● Largely inactive, currently discussing it's own future (New
organization? New board?). Needs donations.
● Tuits available: very, very few

20. lizmat

21. A Conference Toolkit
● Made and maintained by the French Perl Mongers
● http://act.mongueurs.net/
● Most Perl events use it
● Some non-Perl events too!
● There are some forks out there, and several have tried
to re-implement it
– Latest attempt: http://act-voyager.org/
– MCT, YACT, ACT2, xsawyerx/Act and others
– None are as feature-rich as Act

22. A Conference Toolkit
● Act maintainance & support
– Act Users <act@mongueurs.net> (much activity)
– Act Devs <act-dev@mongueurs.net> (almost no activity)
– Subscribe: http://listes.mongueurs.net/mailman/listinfo
– #act on irc.perl.org
– Sébastien “Maddingue” Aperghis-Tramoni = Act sysadmin
● Many have experience with making websites.
– Copy templates from another site and improve it
– Act is getting old, complex and crufty. Expect some pain
● Tuits available: very few

23. Maddingue

24. Act payment backend
● Act payment backends
– Dummy (test), Paypal and YEF
– Contact YEF and Philippe “BooK” Bruhat (Lyon.pm)
● Free banking services for Perl events! (YEF
covers expenses). Yay!
● It's crufty, but works.
● Requires a signed contract with YEF
● Tuits available: very few

25. YEF Cashflow page
● YAPC Europe Foundation keeps track of ticket
cashflow for events using Act
● http://yapceurope.org/finance/cashflow.html
● Very useful for getting an idea how much an
event may bring in!
● Managed and kept up-to-date by BooK
● Tuits: barely enough

26. BooK

27. Perl Community Calendar
● Great overview of events in the Perl sphere
● Managed by brian d foy (Chicago.pm) and
Renée Bäcker (Frankfurt.pm).
● http://theperlreview.com/community_calendar
● To add your event, send mail to brian
– brian.d.foy@gmail.com

28. “Secret resources”
● Seasoned YAPC organizers
– Can give lots of advice and ask good questions
– A fantastic resource!
● “Cloud Orga”
– Unofficial emergency conference aid
– Gathers in #yapceu and #yapc
– Volunteers help with conferences schedule, finding speakers and
sponsors
– $(Perl Community)++ # Awesomeness
– BUT: Remember to keep them informed! (bi-weekly status meetings
might be enough)

29. HotaHota (JJMerelo)

30. Awesome People
● Josette Garcia
– Formerly O'Reilly community manager, now
2ndQuadrant
– Has still a fantastic community network
– can help you find people
– Be nice & polite with her. She deserves our respect!
– josetteorama@gmail.com

31. Awesome People
● YAPC Organizers!
– All mentioned have organized major events
– YAPC::EU::2008 (Copenhagen) – Anton “Grrrr” Berezin
– YAPC::EU::2010 (Lisbon) – Alberto “ambs” Simões
– YAPC::EU::2014 (Sofia) – Hackman
– YAPC::EU::2015 (Granada) – JJMerelo
● And many more!
– Just be nice when you ask :)

32. Grrrr

33. Awesome People
● News channels and fora where we can reach
out to other Perl people
– Perlmonks (Max “corion” Maischein)
● http://perlmonks.org/
– perlbuzz.com (Andy Lester)
● editors@perlbuzz.com
● Twitter: @perlbuzz

34. corion

35. Awesome People
● Liz & Wendy
– They can bring their Perl booth to your event!
– Send them a mail if you want stickers, tuits, buttons
or other marketing material!
– wendy@wendy.org
● Gabor “szabgab” Szabo
– Can help with visibility and much useful advice!
– gabor@szabgab.com

36. Wendy

37. External Resources
– Perl Meetup groups
● http://perl.meetup.com/
● Brilliant for reaching outside the Perl bubble
– Hackerspaces
● http://hackerspaces.org/
● Very accepting places where anyone can come to show
& tell about anything interesting!

38. More? Let's discuss!

39. Thanks for coming!

40. Oh, and this wouldn't be possible without….

41. TimToady & Gloria

42. BECAUSE WE'RE JAPANESE!