TL;DR: What events should we go to? Tell me at https://goo.gl/forms/kLZ2y1H1jRSy4NdC3
Looking at the coming 12 months, I need some feedback as I select events that need to have a CentOS presence of some kind. While I have already committed to some of these events (See below), starting around July we haven't really signed on for much, and I would like to hear from the community what events you feel we should be at, and why.
The why is, by far, the more important half of the question. Why, as in, what story do we want to tell there; who are we trying to tell that story to; what would be a positive outcome from being there.
First, here are the events that I am already committed to:
May 8-10: Red Hat Summit - https://www.redhat.com/en/summit/2018
June 25-28: ISC-HPC (SuperComputing) Frankfurt - https://www.isc-hpc.com/
October 1-3: cPanel, Houston - https://conference.cpanel.com/
November 12-15: SuperComputing 18, Dallas - https://sc18.supercomputing.org/
February 2-3 (assumed): FOSDEM, Brussels - http://fosdem.org
The story at Red Hat Summit is that CentOS (and, specifically, our SIGs) is the platform for innovation, and the source of all of Red Hat's products, as well as projects and products that continue to invent the industry.
The story at the SuperComputing events is what I have been tweeting "SuperComputing is #PoweredByCentOS" - which is incontrovertibly true. The top 500 supercomputers in the world are overwhelmingly CentOS.
We attend cPanel because the web hosting business, and in particular cPanel-backed sites, are overwhelmingly running on CentOS.
FOSDEM - because it's FOSDEM.
Events where we could have a presence are, of course, legion. We can continue to do the events that we did last year, and the year before, and that would be fine. Or we can try to visit some other industry segment where we'd like to shine brighter.
I've made a Google Form at https://goo.gl/forms/kLZ2y1H1jRSy4NdC3 listing the events that I'm currently considering, but also providing space for you to tell me what events I'm not thinking about yet.
Finally, please note that I'm not just talking about me going to stuff, but, rather, identifying the right people that should be at these events, and sending them to represent us - CentOS Ambassadors, if you will.