The Curious Case of ClojuTRE 2016
ClojuTRE 2016 is almost here! Mostly everything has been taken care of and we are eagerly looking for the event on Saturday. Original 200 tickets were sold out already in June, even before the speakers were announced. Thanks to the sponsors, we managed to push out new tickets and currently we are waiting for 300 people to show up to Pakkahuone. Besides the actual conference day there is also an intermediate Clojure training and a pre-conference Sauna for the speakers and ClojureBridge alumni and organizers on Friday.
Making Everyone HappyLink to Making Everyone Happy
Our primary goal has been to organize an awesome event for those interested in functional programming and Clojure. We have been trying to get an interesting and diverse speaker lineup, from both local and international Clojure community
- and targetting both Clojure newbies and the more seasoned functional programmers. Also, it is important for us to have a safe and relaxed atmosphere and an after-party for networking and making new friends. There are free food & refresments for all (we’ve grown too big to host the after-party in a sauna, though).
SpeakersLink to Speakers
To have great talks, we need good speakers with interesting topics. Every year we have received more and more great talk proposals from all over the world. Thanks to all, who submitted proposals this year! We tried to fit in as many talks as possible, but still had to drop so many great proposals out due to the strict schedule.
SponsorsLink to Sponsors
ClojuTRE has always been a free conference, which is sort of a miracle considering the size and budget. The budget of the event is over 20 000 euros this year and it includes only direct 3rd party costs like venue, videos, catering and such. We at Metosin put a lot of time and effort to organize the event, and we also pay the sponsor package like everyone else. That said, without our sponsors it would simply not be possible for us to make an event of this size happen. Once again, huge thanks to all of the sponsors!
Survey Results (AKA Fixing Things That Are Not Broken)Link to Survey Results (AKA Fixing Things That Are Not Broken)
Earlier this year, we published a mini-survey about some specific things regarding ClojuTRE. Here is a summary of the interesting results:
- Fridays are a little more popular day than Saturdays.
- 93% of the respondents took part in ClojuTRE 2015, but only 17% took part in the first ClojuTRE at 2012. Our visitor base has grown fast, and people tend to attend year after year. Thanks for that!
- 53% of the respondents would rather start the conference early in the morning and listen more talks.
- 66% think it's a good idea to only have a single track
Previous years the event has taken place on Friday, but we decided to try out Saturday this year. Mostly because of the issues with the venue, but also logistics. Pakkahuone is a really great place with a lot of history, located next to hotels and the train station and it has enough space no matter how big we wanted to scale the event.
About the late start: having lunch before the conference and arriving at the venue in small batches has worked well in previous years. Having a lunch break for 300 people in middle of the conference would have it's own challenges. Thus, the late start.
The last bullet in the list needs no further explanation. Having a single track is a good idea, and our survey supports that. Having to choose makes people miserable. There's even a TED talk about that.
FutureLink to Future
ClojuTRE 2016 is the fifth annual Clojure conference we have organized and by far the biggest one. Next year, we might do something bit different. One thing we would like to change is a more diverse speaker lineup. Despite our efforts, there were no talk proposals from women. Hopefully the ClojureBridgeFinland-events will also impact on that.
Also, could someone build a Sauna to Tampere that would accommodate three hundred or more people? We would certainly have use for that.
See you at ClojuTRE 2016!
The ClojuTRE team
