Mastodawn

@amsterdam First I heard about workshops where the presenter has to pay! Usually it's the other way around, no?

I personally would be a bit shy to attend a workshop that someone was paying to have me listen to.

Have these been popular? Am I reading this all wrong?

@purpleidea Have you seen how many "community" workshops are thinly veiled product pitches anyway? At least here everyone knows the deal upfront. And it nudges sponsors to focus on actually teaching something valuable. An honest sponsor beats a sneaky one every time. 😄

@amsterdam I guess I don't go to many very corporate conferences these days. You got me thinking anyways, thanks for that! I genuinely would like to hear about how it goes. (Eg: have you done this model in the past? Did it work well?)

@purpleidea We've had consistent requests for workshops over the years, so we know there's appetite. And sponsors don't get a captive audience without effort, the workshop runs in parallel with talks, so attendees actively choose to be there. If the content isn't worth their time, they'll vote with their feet. Just like Open Spaces.

@amsterdam What would happen if the sponsor paid the money, showed up prepared, and nobody came to the workshop?

@purpleidea They'd have a very quiet room and time to contemplate a valuable lesson in product-market fit? 😅 No guarantees, which is exactly what keeps the quality bar where it needs to be.

@purpleidea
But truly, this will be edition 13, we know the audience and we can guide and assist in what makes a room not-empty. I dare say our team of volunteers is quite good at it.

James Just James

@amsterdam Oh no doubts here. I just didn't realize you were doing paid workshops all this time!

@purpleidea
Why not become a member of the audience and judge for yourself? Got plans for June 19? I hear Amsterdam is really nice and friendly and devops-y/cfgmgmt-y around that time! 😉