Yocto Conference Production

Producing a Yocto Project Conference

This page is intended to be a guide on how Yocto Project conferences (e.g. ELC and ELCE), Developer Days, and Summits are designed and executed.

High Level Calendar

• Three months out
  • Set the tentative dates
  • Make arrangements with the conference for booth and DevDay/Summit registration
  • Set up a preliminary budget, get tentative approval
  • Setup flights and hotels
• Two months out
  • Advertise event
  • Announce the Call for Papers (CFP)
  • Gather/order booth swag and collateral
  • Setup conference page at Yocto home page
• One month out
  • Announce presenters for DevDay/Summit
  • Insure that conference registration is fully up
• One week out
  • Confirm that presenter papers are coming together
  • Confirm booth host schedule

Conference

• Conferences are ideal ways to:
  • Have an anchor for the booth, DevDay/Summit
  • Advertise the project
  • Connect with our community
  • Connect between each other
  • Advertise the DevDay/Summit
  • Manage the DevDay/Summit registration and money

We have been working primarily with the Embedded Linux Conference, sponsored by the project's parent organization The Linux Foundation. We have typically sponsored both a booth and a Yocto Project DevDay/Summit in conjunction, given its high synergy.

Physical Conference

• Yocto Project must sign up for a booth
  • Typically we join at the Bronze level, which provides a basic booth at a reasonable cost
  • The contract must be negotiated several months ahead
  • There is typically no penalty for later registration, but it could result in a late posting of the DevDay/Summit advertising and registration page, which can potentially affect attendance
• The Yocto Project booth pop-up
  • Local the booth pop-up (currently with David)
  • The booth travels as normal luggage, about 30-40 pounds
  • The booth takes about 20 minutes to assemble and disassemble
• Booth posters
  • If possible it is good to bring a collapsible stand, so that posters of the daily schedule of Yocto Project related talks can be advertised, in addition to the DevDay/Summit
  • If no stand is present, then posters hanging in front the the booth pop-up and stand-up displays on the booth itself can be used
  • There is a requirement to display the primary Yocto Project members (e.g. Platinum) at the booth
• Booth Content
  • There should be handouts on the booth, for example:
    • Cards
    • Yocti
    • Swag (USB battery packs, spinners, pens, T-shirts
  • T-Shirts are great giveaways and great live conference advertisements, but do require cost, transportation, and size distribution considerations
  • Hand outs
    • It is good to have brochures that provide technical content about the project
    • We currently have a short form (~ 4 pages, and an older long form ~ pages with testimonials)
  • Display computer
    • We often have a display running from a laptop of NUC. This can provide live browsing of the Yocto Project home page, documentation, Layer Index, DevDay/Summit home page. Visitors sometimes suggest web pages of their own as part of their questions.
  • Demos
    • We try to have live demos at the booth, to attract visitors and stimulate conversations
    • Examples include Software Defined Radio, routers, robots, and once a race car