EMWCon Spring 2018

The Enterprise MediaWiki Conference Spring 2018, or EMWCon Spring 2018, will be held March 21-23 in Houston, TX. EMWCon is a three-day conference featuring discussions of topics related to "Enterprise MediaWiki", i.e. the usage of MediaWiki software by and within companies, non-profits, governments, and other organizations. The intended audience of EMWCon Spring 2018 is anyone who uses, or would like to learn more about, MediaWiki within organizations.

This is the third EMWCon, EMWCon began as a spinoff of the Semantic MediaWiki Conference, or SMWCon, which is an annual conference held each fall in Europe. EMWCon and SMWCon are both three-day conferences with similar topics of discussion. EMWCon has a broader scope.

Event details

 * Dates: March 21-23 2018
 * Times:
 * Location: Currently planning towards using the Houston Technology Center (HTC).

Organizers
The organizers of EMWCon Spring 2018 are:
 * General Chair: Mark Hershberger
 * Local Chair: Frank Taylor
 * Registration Chair: Yaron Koren
 * Program Chair: Ginger Hershberger
 * Create Camp Chair:

2 tracks
We are considering having a 2-track conferenceː one focused on newer users and the other on advanced users. If we do that, starting the newer users at the easiest concepts and working up is the only logical method. For the advanced track, it makes sense to work backwardsː start on the most complex topics and proceed towards simpler ones. At some point those complexity levels would likely cross, making it easier for people to jump between tracks. Additionally, we may consider doing a mini-hackathon or hackathon-planning thing very early on, such that people can be working on and talking about their ideas prior to the final day (See hackathon section below).

New user tutorials
We'll need people to teach the tutorials. Below are some rough ideas for what tutorials may exists. Please add your name if you're interested in teaching.
 * Basic intro to wiki
 * Why SMW (or Cargo)? (people don't understand that data is being queried into a page)
 * How to make Templates & Forms

Advanced track

 * Something about meza (User:Jamesmontalvo3 and User:Darenwelsh)

Hackathon / Create camp
For the final day, Friday, we're considering having a hackathon. Currently we're considering having this near JSC, perhaps at the ISS Conference Center on Space Park Drive. Past hackathons at the end of conferences have not given much time to work on anything. They've seemed like an afterthought tacked onto the end of several days of presentations.

Registration
(in progress)

Sign-up
Also, feel free to add your name to the informal registration signup, below:
 * Peter J. Woudsma, NATO
 * Lex Sulzer, dataspects
 * Wolfgang Fahl, BITPlan/ProfiWiki
 * Yaron Koren
 * Bryan Hilderbrand

Local accommodations
Like the social event, there should be hotels within walking distance. Near HTC there appear to be some.
 * Holiday Inn (directions to HTC, 11 minute walk)
 * Best Western (directions to HTC, 10 minute walk)
 * Hyatt (directions to HTC, 11 minute walk)
 * Doubletree (directions to HTC, 14 minute walk)

Social activities

 * TBD (something close to HTC)

Audio/Video support
EMWCon 2017 budgeted $2500 for AV support
 * Need to have good projectors for presentations
 * Need microphones for questions
 * Need to live-stream
 * Need to record video for later YouTube upload

Social Event
EMWCon 2017 spent $1500 on appetizers and drinks at a restaurant one night. HTC is in midtown. We'd like a social event within walking distance.

Food
EMWCon 2017 spent $3200 for lunches and breakfasts each day

Swag
EMWCon 2017 budgeted $1500 for swag

Misc notes

 * Expect 30-100 people based upon the last few SMW/EMWCons. Though the Enterprise Knowledge Management conference we held a couple years ago drew a large crowd.
 * EMWCon 2017 tickets were ~$400, or ~$125 for students and non-profits.
 * Want to include something unconference-y ... something that might draw in more people who typically wouldn't go to such an event.
 * Different tracks for different audiences? Maybe these would be split by day so people only attend the days that interest them. But as an initial hack, something like a day (or two) for developers, a day (or two) for new user training, a day for power user training, and maybe even a day for managers. The point here is that developers like to look at code and implementation specifics instead of just talking meta about wikis. Or at least I do. Whereas managers might be more interested in meta discussions, more focused on how these wikis will benefit their enterprise. Then for new users, a conference would provide a day away from the job where they could learn all the ways of wikitext, templates, etc.