As some have reported, OS Summit Asia has been postponed. What hasn’t been so clear is why? The simple reason is that not enough people had registered for the conference. Hosting a conference that no one attends, is just not a good way to host a conference.
The reason why no one registered is a bit more complex and difficult to answer. The program and speakers were top-notched. I also thought partnering with Apache was perfect for this type of conference.
So why the lack of interest? A couple of thoughts:
- We, the people helping to organize the conference, including myself, have little or no experience organizing events in China. Therefore, we have limited experience on what motivated developers to attend conferences.
- It didn’t feel like we were taping into the developer community in China. Finding the right forums, magazines, user groups to promote the conference was a challenge.
- There was some concern about the price of the conference being too high.
- Some people have mentioned that Hong Kong might not be the best location.
We are going to try again next year. China and greater Asia are important to the Eclipse, and I am sure Apache, communities. If you have any thoughts on organizing a developer event in China, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment. Better yet, if you would like to help organize the event let me know.
