diff --git a/content/english/about/index.md b/content/english/about/index.md index b53cd96..1a5d1e9 100644 --- a/content/english/about/index.md +++ b/content/english/about/index.md @@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ features: start_dark_color: "black" bg_color: "#060610" content_class: "mt-4" - content: "[Abner](https://abner.page) is founder of Handmade Cities and the sole organizer for our conferences.

At a young age he was mentored by Kennedy Space Center on how they make software. After winning NASA’s Intern of the Year, Abner penned an essay on their programming philosophy: featured in the [news](https://observer.com/2017/07/a-look-into-nasa-coding-philosophy-kennedy-space-center-programming/). He was subsequently promoted to launch control engineer.

Abner started the [Handmade Network](https://handmade.network/), an online community learning to make quality software. He went on to work under Jonathan Blow for several years and finally Cyan Worlds to ship the [Myst remake](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1255560/Myst/).

Now in his early thirties, Abner's mounting concern of declining software standards—both ethical and technical—pushed him to run conferences and grow local meetups full-time. (He still loves [programming](https://terminal.click) though.)" + content: "[Abner](https://abner.page) is founder of Handmade Cities and the sole organizer for our conferences.

At a young age he was mentored by Kennedy Space Center on how they make software. After winning NASA’s Intern of the Year, Abner penned an essay on their programming philosophy: featured in the [news](https://observer.com/2017/07/a-look-into-nasa-coding-philosophy-kennedy-space-center-programming/). He was subsequently promoted to launch control engineer.

Abner started the [Handmade Network](https://handmade.network/), an online community learning to make quality software. He went on to work under Jonathan Blow for several years and finally Cyan Worlds to ship the [Myst remake](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1255560/Myst/).

Now in his early thirties, Abner's mounting concern of declining software standards—both ethical and technical—pushed him to run conferences and grow meetups full-time. (He still loves [programming](https://terminal.click) though.)" - title: "Our Advisory Board" title_class: "mb-20 text-center text-white" diff --git a/content/english/board/index.md b/content/english/board/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c00ad9 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/english/board/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Advisory Board" +meta_title: "Advisory Board" +layout: "single" +description: "The Handmade Cities Advisory Board" +draft: false +--- +The Handmade Cities Advisory Board is the board appointed to advise the [founder](/about). They supervise the founder's general affairs as he: +1. Organizes our two annual conferences: [Boston](/boston) in the summer, [Seattle](/seattle) in the fall +2. Supports and grows our local meetups around the world +3. Decides which talks, demos, interviews or similar content are given at Handmade Cities + +The board has voting power over talk and demo submissions from the community. The founder may override the board, but such a decision must be made public through the meeting notes below. + +The board meets once a month. Meet the members in the [About](/about) page. + +**MEETING NOTES (TIMES IN US/PACIFIC)** +- [18 March 2025 16:00](/board/meeting/20250318) diff --git a/content/english/board/meeting/20250318/index.md b/content/english/board/meeting/20250318/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9ef286 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/english/board/meeting/20250318/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ +--- +title: "Advisory Board Meeting" +meta_title: "Board's Meeting Notes" +layout: "single" +description: "Advisory Board Meeting Notes - 18 Mar 2025" +draft: false +--- +#### Meeting Notes - 18 Mar 2025 + +**AGENDA**: + +No agenda set, first meeting + +--- + +**DISCUSSION ITEMS** + +1. **Handmade Boston (HMB): Aug 1-2 (Fri-Sat)** + +- Sister conference to Seattle +- Return to original technical lectures format +- No more online track: No more online tickets or Twitch stream for Boston +- We still plan to record in-person lectures for archival +- Boston should have job booth rentals just like Seattle + +**2025 Target:** Two-hundred in-person attendees. We're still in the growth and experimentation stage + +2. **Handmade Seattle (HMS): Dec 5-7 (Fri-Sun)** + +- Flagship Conference +- Fully-Hybrid: Physical track and online track like always +- The formula is already perfected, just need to focus on selling out current venue again + +**2025 Target:** Four-hundred in-person attendees. The closest we got to selling all in-person tickets was Fall 2023, with 97% of all tickets sold (right before mass layoffs hit hard.) + +**Founder's note:** A general phenomenon is that once you finally pack a venue (typically a 400-seat theater), you'll see exponential growth the following year, exploding to say one thousand ticket holders and then an order of magnitude after that. See PyCon, VidCon, etc. + +3. **Ticket Sales** +- Early bird sale begins sometime in the Spring (with 20% discount) +- Once we start ticket sales we will use the [newsletter](/news) to request community submissions + +**Q: Are board members allowed to submit their own talks or demos?** + +*A: We've decided no, but we'll revisit the question (and its ethics) next year.* + +4. **Weekend Conferences** + +Board agreed hosting conferences over the weekend gives attendance a massive boost (even though venue rental is more expensive. Risk is worth it.) + +5. **Revolt Chat** + +- Board agreed [Revolt](https://revolt.chat) is a substantial improvement over Element/Matrix for the conference live chat +- Board wondered whether we should support Discord as another private chat server, in a bid to expand audience +- Founder noted a third of our ticket holders are anti-Discord and privacy-conscious + +Finally, the board recommended a survey to previous ticket holders. + +6. **Voting on Talk/Demo Submissions** + +- Matt Nite simply used a Google Form for Software You Can Love +- It's best if the founder says "please read these submissions by the next meeting, and add your own notes" +- Source speaker candidates from meetup hosts too + +We've agreed to create a dedicated email address for receiving submissions + +7. **Hard Deadlines to Commit to Present at HMB/HMS** + +- Gradually add penalties if deadlines are not met +- Ensure all speakers sign agreement. No exceptions + +8. **Conference Agendas** +- Get the agendas up as early as possible +- It's okay to massage the schedule around throughout the year +- It's okay to let speakers massage their talk title and description even if it's already on the website + +--- + +**ACTION ITEMS** + +- Create HMC email address for community submissions +- Create dedicated webpage explaining how to enter submissions. WITH DEADLINES +- Discord integration for submissions: allows live thread discussions among board members +- Make sure Jim (1st speaker for HMB) is on our website by the next meeting +- Make sure Taylor (1st speaker for HMS) is on our website by the next meeting +- Determine how many open slots we have for each conference + +**Founder's note:** The last item depends on the venue and the available hours the rental affords us, which is being negotiated. I will, however, present figures from previous years so we can estimate. + +--- + +**NEXT MEETING** + +Date: 16 April 2025 1600-0500 (US/Pacific)