NEScala 2023 Call to Action

[jducoeur]

It's time to see if we can get the NEScala conference restarted. This message is a serious call to action for everyone who cares about the conference; whether it proves to be viable going forward will mostly depend on the response we get here.

tl;dr: We need volunteers who are willing to put in some real effort to work together and make NEScala 2023 happen. Spread the word!

Background

This section is mostly for those who don't have much experience with NEScala. If you do, just skip this.

NEScala is an annual conference that has been running for a number of years now. It's a somewhat unusual conference:

• It is focused on and held in the northeastern US -- traditionally a co-production of the Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City Scala Meetups.
• It's entirely non-profit, run by volunteers.
• It's relatively small and friendly, usually capped at around 300 attendees.
• It is intentionally run very cheap: we try to keep tickets for attendees under $100.

Above all of that, it is really three conferences in one, run on three successive days:

• The Typelevel Summit: a curated set of talks by members of the TL community.
• NEScala proper, whose lineup is guided by voting from the attendees.
• The Unconference: a free-form day where folks can present on whatever Scala-related topics interest them.

For a long time, the conference rotated between the three host cities. But COVID threw a huge spanner in the works. NEScala 2020 was supposed to run in Brooklyn NY, just as the pandemic was taking hold there: on just a couple of days' notice we switched that to being an online conference, one of the first to do so.

The past couple of years have been chaotic, with the pandemic interfering with my attempts to restart things, making it harder to run the local meetups that traditionally run it, and just generally being kind of depressing.

Let's See If We Can Get This Going Again

Frankly, I miss the conference, and I'd like to make a serious attempt at restarting it. But realistically, that's only going to happen if we have enough staff to do so.

Here's a partial list of the responsibilities involved in running the conference:

• Running the CFP for NE Scala.
• Managing the voting for those proposals.
• On the Typelevel side, organizing a slate of presenters.
• Prepping and running the Unconference.
• Ticketing.
• Build and run the 2023 website.
• Money: a treasurer tracking the income and outgo.
• Soliciting and working with sponsors. (Part of how we keep things cheap is by having a few companies sponsoring it.)
• Safety. (We need to be prepared for any bullying or harassment that might happen.)
• Post-processing and posting of recordings from the talks.

If the conference is in-person (or hybrid):

• Finding a site. (Or two: the Unconference sometimes happens somewhere else.)
• Running A/V for the talks.
• Swag. (Not required, but folks tend to like t-shirts.)
• Organizing breakfasts and lunches for attendees.

If the conference is online (or hybrid):

• Organizing the online space(s) -- Discord, SpatialChat, things like that

That's not everything, but it gives you a sense of the scope: running a good conference is a serious project. Realistically, this is only going to happen if we have a team of folks working on it. That doesn't have to be an army, but I consider half a dozen seriously-involved folks to be the bare minimum, and a dozen would be better.

Call for Volunteers

Which brings us to the point: We Need You. I'm looking for folks who are willing and able to take on a measure of responsibility: particularly people willing to run one or two of the above areas, or at least to work on them. (People who just want to help are also welcome, but some leaders are necessary.)

If we get a reasonable number of people, this shouldn't be too onerous for anyone, but I'm particularly looking for folks who are willing to commit at least ten, up to a few tens, of hours between now and the conference, including occasional meetings. (We'll also need more folks during the conference itself, but right now the focus is on making it feasible in the first place.)

I probably need some folks who are in the Boston region to help with the on-the-ground problems like site and food (if we decide to run an in-person conference), but many of these jobs could be handled by folks anywhere.

This is pure volunteer work, with no money involved and not much glory, but some good camaraderie and knowing that you're helping to keep the Scala and Typelevel communities healthy.

If you're interested in helping out, please either comment below or drop me a line directly (jducoeur everywhere: Gmail, the Scala or TL Discords, the NEScala Slack, etc), with the following info:

• Name
• Contact info (preferably at least email)
• Where are you? (In particular, which time zone?)
• (Optional) Which areas you'd potentially be interested in working on, and what level of responsibility

This doesn't hard-commit you to anything -- life will happen, and there will be turnover -- but please only reply if you think you are likely to put in some real time on this.

Thanks!

FAQ

Is NEScala 2023 going to be in-person or online?

I honestly don't know yet. I would prefer in-person myself -- being able to hang out with folks, go out to dinner, and stuff like that is part of the appeal to me. But I don't know whether it'll be sensible to do that next year, and the tradeoffs are complex. If we seem to have enough people to pull this off, I expect us to have a serious conversation with the community about which way to go.

If we do go in-person, it is likely that we'll try to make it at least somewhat hybrid, but that's enough additional labor that I don't think we can say that too casually. Recording and broadcasting the speakers is table stakes, but not really "hybrid" - a true hybrid conference includes the online participants in meaningful and fun ways, and that's a lot more effort. Hopefully it proves feasible.

Where would the conference be held?

If it is in-person, it will be somewhere in the Boston region: that's where I am, and it's Boston's turn in the rotation. Beyond that, it'll be a matter for us to discuss.

When would NEScala 2023 happen?

Sometime in Spring 2023 probably, but I'm intentionally not nailing that down too precisely yet. I lean towards April or May, but we will need to see when other conferences are happening, and think about things like school schedules.

Do I need previous experience in order to help?

Just a bit of energy and enthusiasm! Think of this like a real-world version of an open source project: every little bit helps, but it can only thrive if there are enough people to be a community.

Who are you, anyway?

I'm Justin du Coeur. I've been a Scala geek since 2008, and involved with NEScala since 2015. I'm on the NEScala Board, and am a member of the Typelevel Steering Committee. I'm notionally the head of the Boston Scala Meetup, if I can figure out how to get that going again.