Interview: Spike Ilacqua (Organizer)

Transcript:

1 00:00:01.169 –> 00:00:02.442 Travis Dockter: Okay, so

2 00:00:03.569 –> 00:00:12.069 Travis Dockter: this is pretty casual 1st off. Thank you so much. For making the time. I

3 00:00:12.259 –> 00:00:22.523 Travis Dockter: I think I heard you your interview. I think it was last year. With remote ruby

4 00:00:23.599 –> 00:00:35.139 Travis Dockter: you know, leading up to Rocky Mountain Ruby. And yeah reached out, because, to give a little background, I

5 00:00:35.309 –> 00:00:37.288 Travis Dockter: was kind of going to

6 00:00:38.859 –> 00:00:57.595 Travis Dockter: Sin City ruby and rails comp every year. Those were kind of the main conferences that I started going to every year. And this year is the last year for both of those. So I was trying to think this year of like, okay, what do I? Wanna go to next? And

7 00:00:58.209 –> 00:01:09.268 Travis Dockter: hopefully, Rocky Mountain Ruby will be will be one of those. But it also kind of got me thinking, what if I organized my own? And so

8 00:01:09.569 –> 00:01:27.569 Travis Dockter: this is very early kind of exploring that I’m you know, 95%. Sure, I’m gonna do it. But still just kind of exploring. I wanna talk to as many people as I can that have organized their own conferences. And

9 00:01:28.269 –> 00:01:48.179 Travis Dockter: I also would like to kind of document this whole process as well and hopefully. Other people that are W. You know, looking to organize a conference in the future could use this information try to, you know.

10 00:01:48.219 –> 00:01:58.675 Travis Dockter: record all the interviews that I do kind of document my process as I go through it, and hopefully, that’ll be useful to the community as well.

11 00:01:59.049 –> 00:01:59.699 Spike Ilacqua: Think so.

12 00:02:00.719 –> 00:02:06.288 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah, ruby Central has talked about having some kind of guide, and you know, so this can be.

13 00:02:06.289 –> 00:02:06.929 Spike Ilacqua: yeah.

14 00:02:07.619 –> 00:02:09.849 Travis Dockter: Yeah, it would be really cool if

15 00:02:10.239 –> 00:02:12.809 Travis Dockter: maybe I could work with them to.

16 00:02:13.319 –> 00:02:14.579 Spike Ilacqua: Kind of make this.

17 00:02:14.859 –> 00:02:21.968 Travis Dockter: More official. But in the meantime it’s very early on, and it’s very kind of

18 00:02:22.797 –> 00:02:29.908 Travis Dockter: impromptu and and casual. But to to get started. I know that you

19 00:02:30.719 –> 00:02:41.078 Travis Dockter: kind of restarted Rocky Mountain ruby back in 2023. But did you have any conference organizing experience before that? Or was that the 1st time.

20 00:02:41.339 –> 00:02:42.599 Spike Ilacqua: It was the 1st time.

21 00:02:42.789 –> 00:02:43.199 Travis Dockter: Okay.

22 00:02:43.199 –> 00:02:45.899 Spike Ilacqua: I had volunteered at Rocky Mountain, Ruby

23 00:02:46.424 –> 00:02:59.968 Spike Ilacqua: back when Marty and Stefan were running it to do the Internet the Wi-fi back then it was unusual for venues to have Wi-fi, so we would have to bring in our own. I was running an Internet service provider.

24 00:03:00.460 –> 00:03:07.788 Spike Ilacqua: So I had the the tech and the the know how to get in there and do it but that was pretty much the extent of it

25 00:03:08.229 –> 00:03:17.099 Spike Ilacqua: that said I, ran a company for about 20 years, so running things with something that experienced with, you know, but conferences specifically not at all.

26 00:03:17.399 –> 00:03:21.468 Travis Dockter: Gotcha? And how did that 1st one go? Did you?

27 00:03:22.059 –> 00:03:27.558 Travis Dockter: Did it catch you off guard, or did you feel like you know? How did you feel that 1st year.

28 00:03:27.839 –> 00:03:30.668 Spike Ilacqua: It actually went really well, better than I expected it to.

29 00:03:30.809 –> 00:03:31.219 Travis Dockter: Oh, good!

30 00:03:31.529 –> 00:03:36.489 Spike Ilacqua: I mean, I had the advantage of being able to talk to Marty, who had specific.

31 00:03:36.949 –> 00:03:38.329 Spike Ilacqua: Experience with

32 00:03:39.819 –> 00:04:02.868 Spike Ilacqua: with Rocky Mount Ruby, and also I was getting advice from Jeremy Smith, who was running the 1st year of Blue Ridge ruby. And that was really great, because he was like 6, 8 weeks ahead of me. And like. So his conference was gonna happen before me. So he would hit milestones before I did, and I could say, Hey, what did you do when it came time to find insurance like who knew you need insurance.

33 00:04:03.413 –> 00:04:17.828 Spike Ilacqua: He knew that. And he’s like, Oh, you know, this is what I did, and I could do the same thing. So that was super helpful. I also talked to Andy Kroll a bunch and he was very helpful. He’s been running Brighton Ruby forever, so he has lots of advice.

34 00:04:18.699 –> 00:04:19.594 Travis Dockter: Gotcha

35 00:04:20.489 –> 00:04:21.788 Spike Ilacqua: That was super helpful.

36 00:04:22.229 –> 00:04:28.049 Travis Dockter: Yeah, what was the hardest part would you say about organizing a conference.

37 00:04:30.099 –> 00:04:30.899 Spike Ilacqua: For

38 00:04:31.469 –> 00:04:38.290 Spike Ilacqua: well, I speak specifically to 2023, and then in general, 2023. My problem was a venue

39 00:04:39.559 –> 00:04:42.859 Spike Ilacqua: Rocky Mountain. Rivie had traditionally been in a

40 00:04:43.599 –> 00:04:48.719 Spike Ilacqua: place called Boulder Theater, which is an old movie theater that’s been converted to a conference venue

41 00:04:48.859 –> 00:04:55.139 Spike Ilacqua: and back when it was previously running. They were very happy to have us in there.

42 00:04:56.739 –> 00:05:03.899 Spike Ilacqua: because it fills up the theater during the day, and we could be there till 5 or 6, and you know it’s almost always available.

43 00:05:03.989 –> 00:05:32.948 Spike Ilacqua: And when I talked to them this time they’re like sorry bands load in at 2 o’clock now, because concerts. Starter post Covid, you know. Concerts started 8. Everybody goes home by 10, so you know we don’t have it, you know, unless you want to be out by noon we can’t do it. And then then there was a big scramble to just kind of find someone someplace that would take us, or during the school year, so we couldn’t use. The university. Hotels are very expensive. There aren’t a lot of other venues in Boulder that are

44 00:05:33.149 –> 00:05:38.498 Spike Ilacqua: about the size we were looking for, so that was very difficult. And then we landed on E-town

45 00:05:39.109 –> 00:05:42.809 Spike Ilacqua: Hall, and that turned out to be perfect, and

46 00:05:42.909 –> 00:05:53.928 Spike Ilacqua: I hadn’t even considered them, because somebody told me they were just super expensive, which turned out not to be true. And they’ve been great to work with, and we could talk about choosing a venue, because I think that’s definitely

47 00:05:55.419 –> 00:06:00.648 Spike Ilacqua: a there are a lot of choices there, and a lot of trade-offs.

48 00:06:01.147 –> 00:06:05.018 Spike Ilacqua: But, generally speaking, you know the way I like to describe it is. It’s not

49 00:06:05.559 –> 00:06:13.959 Spike Ilacqua: difficult, but it is hard like. What you have to do is a Kanban board, right? You know you need to do this, and then this and then this, and make sure you’ve done that.

50 00:06:14.739 –> 00:06:29.029 Spike Ilacqua: But it’s it’s straightforward, it. It’s easy enough to put it into a checklist, or a board or something, but it’s the amount of work that’s hard like you really, you know, there’s a lot of nights and weekends and and just getting stuff.

51 00:06:29.892 –> 00:06:42.788 Spike Ilacqua: You know, there’s always a deadline coming up, and then, as you get closer, there’s just a lot of wrangling and last minute stuff and changes. And so that’s that’s the the thing. I think that’s hard about running conferences. The time commitment.

52 00:06:43.609 –> 00:06:44.409 Travis Dockter: Gotcha.

53 00:06:45.939 –> 00:06:54.057 Travis Dockter: So on the I guess the business side of it.

54 00:06:55.639 –> 00:07:04.378 Travis Dockter: did you? I I’m assuming that maybe Rocky Mountain ruby already had some sort of business organization or entity, or didn’t.

55 00:07:04.379 –> 00:07:18.419 Spike Ilacqua: No, I’ve had it, whatever it existed, it kind of gone away. So so I created. So yeah, so this is I mean, there’s a obviously different ways. You can do it. My recommendation is set up a Llc.

56 00:07:18.819 –> 00:07:31.000 Spike Ilacqua: And have that run the conference. It just, you know, keeps all the finances separate from whatever else I think back when Marty ran it, he actually ran it under his his consulting business.

57 00:07:31.846 –> 00:07:43.279 Spike Ilacqua: But I think if it’s just a distinct entity. Then. You know, with its own bank account, all the money is in its own place, you know. It’s just simpler for taxes and all that.

58 00:07:45.189 –> 00:08:04.575 Spike Ilacqua: we are not currently a nonprofit, but we, because of just a ton of paperwork, was something we’d like to do in the future and something that Ruby Central has talked about being able to help with, because I know, like the Python Foundation helps with that, just like filing all the paperwork that you have to do to be a nonprofit for, like

59 00:08:05.785 –> 00:08:14.328 Spike Ilacqua: for the same sort of thing for conferences that run the pipeline conferences. And you know, various types of user groups and things like that. So that’s something we’d like to do

60 00:08:14.881 –> 00:08:18.148 Spike Ilacqua: in Colorado. I think it was 10 bucks to do an Llc.

61 00:08:18.669 –> 00:08:24.378 Spike Ilacqua: Then I opened a bank account. Just let. I basically lent money to the Llc. To open a bank account

62 00:08:25.158 –> 00:08:37.349 Spike Ilacqua: and with that. Then I could start paying people. I could get a a stripe account for the tickets and for getting money from sponsors, and just ran it that way.

63 00:08:37.909 –> 00:08:38.819 Travis Dockter: Alright!

64 00:08:40.739 –> 00:08:42.139 Travis Dockter: Was that?

65 00:08:47.929 –> 00:08:51.228 Travis Dockter: Well, does that does becoming a nonprofit

66 00:08:52.029 –> 00:08:55.158 Travis Dockter: like simplify or help the taxes cause? I mean.

67 00:08:55.159 –> 00:08:55.549 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah.

68 00:08:55.549 –> 00:09:04.158 Travis Dockter: Most of the time. You’re not making a lot of money on conferences, anyway. So you might as well be a nonprofit. Is that kind of why, you’re moving.

69 00:09:04.159 –> 00:09:08.818 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah, I mean, it’s well, yeah. Cause if you have money left over, you have to pay taxes on it, and.

70 00:09:08.819 –> 00:09:09.199 Travis Dockter: And.

71 00:09:09.484 –> 00:09:23.733 Spike Ilacqua: That’s and and I don’t mind doing that except it just seems like a waste. It’s like money we could put back in next year or money we could donate to Ruby Central or the Boulder Ruby Group, or something like that, instead of just paying it on taxes.

72 00:09:25.569 –> 00:09:32.669 Spike Ilacqua: so that’s the main main reason. It does make it easier for people to give us money as well. If you know, if somebody wanted to donate.

73 00:09:32.969 –> 00:09:33.349 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

74 00:09:33.349 –> 00:09:38.208 Spike Ilacqua: Really can’t donate to an Llc. So it’s not tax deductible for them.

75 00:09:38.823 –> 00:09:49.869 Spike Ilacqua: So there! There’s some advantages to it. But at the moment. It’s not worth the headache that it would. You know, you basically need an accountant who specializes in nonprofits at that point.

76 00:09:50.329 –> 00:09:53.284 Travis Dockter: Gotcha. Okay, okay.

77 00:09:54.599 –> 00:09:56.189 Travis Dockter: How did you?

78 00:09:56.759 –> 00:10:01.738 Travis Dockter: Assuming you had one, I guess. How did you determine the the budget for your 1st one.

79 00:10:04.889 –> 00:10:11.869 Spike Ilacqua: Very kind of back of the napkin. I just had a big spreadsheet and just kept

80 00:10:12.019 –> 00:10:19.058 Spike Ilacqua: you know, where I could tweak the ticket prices, and guess at how many I would sell and that kind of thing. So

81 00:10:23.119 –> 00:10:32.418 Spike Ilacqua: Let me back up a little bit and talk about picking the venue and the process. And that kind of leads to everything financially. So first, st I need to find a date.

82 00:10:32.529 –> 00:10:34.270 Spike Ilacqua: and this is something that

83 00:10:35.409 –> 00:10:46.199 Spike Ilacqua: you really need to do carefully, because that 1st year we overlapped with a marathon and it there was like a ironman or something, and it drove up the hotel prices.

84 00:10:46.659 –> 00:10:47.119 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

85 00:10:47.279 –> 00:10:50.979 Spike Ilacqua: And I didn’t know that I did know. So

86 00:10:51.419 –> 00:11:14.572 Spike Ilacqua: Boulder is where the University of Colorado is. Their football program is kind of popular and a lot more popular now that they have Deon Sanders as a coach. So it’s just like you cannot get a hotel room if they’re playing a game, so I can’t pick those weekends. Boulder is a big outdoor activity time town. So you gotta avoid things like iron man’s. And so finding a

87 00:11:15.259 –> 00:11:26.289 Spike Ilacqua: a weekend where there’s nothing big going on, and because we’re at the end of September, beginning of October period, there’s also the Jewish high holidays, and you don’t. Wanna.

88 00:11:26.709 –> 00:11:31.928 Spike Ilacqua: I don’t wanna have my conference on those days and then have people not be able to come because

89 00:11:32.069 –> 00:11:32.929 Spike Ilacqua: right?

90 00:11:33.681 –> 00:11:37.669 Spike Ilacqua: So gotta nail a date, and then you gotta find a venue

91 00:11:39.289 –> 00:11:42.849 Spike Ilacqua: and that’s gonna be your biggest expense. So that

92 00:11:43.503 –> 00:11:49.098 Spike Ilacqua: I want I did before I started dialing in the the budget was all right. Where can we be.

93 00:11:49.099 –> 00:11:49.499 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

94 00:11:50.559 –> 00:12:12.774 Spike Ilacqua: And then for the 1st year, and I got this idea from Jeremy Smith. We we went with sort of stretch goals like if we sell these many tickets we will have T-shirts, and if we sell these many tickets we will have breakfast, and and if we have cell we really go all the way and sell all the tickets we will have. We will record the conference and post the videos. And that was a

95 00:12:13.999 –> 00:12:18.572 Spike Ilacqua: a good way to not overextend right?

96 00:12:20.639 –> 00:12:25.719 Spike Ilacqua: And it was still a bit of a nail biter at the end, because I really wanted to do the videos. I think that

97 00:12:26.819 –> 00:12:29.538 Spike Ilacqua: that is super valuable

98 00:12:29.699 –> 00:12:36.599 Spike Ilacqua: to the people who are speaking, because now, when they, you know, wanna speak at a bigger conference or get a job. They can point to this video.

99 00:12:37.849 –> 00:12:45.086 Spike Ilacqua: And it’s also great promotion, right? For future years. So

100 00:12:46.179 –> 00:12:49.509 Spike Ilacqua: that was important to me. But that was tough

101 00:12:49.649 –> 00:12:54.919 Spike Ilacqua: and really came down to some last minute sponsorship we got, and you know.

102 00:12:56.229 –> 00:13:02.238 Spike Ilacqua: on freaks who we use, and I highly recommend being only to kind of work on a payment plan with us.

103 00:13:02.909 –> 00:13:04.746 Travis Dockter: Right is that?

104 00:13:05.569 –> 00:13:16.679 Travis Dockter: I I have no idea what what prices are. I haven’t dug into a lot of this stuff down to like, you know, I need to look into what venues in in Albuquerque.

105 00:13:17.049 –> 00:13:20.428 Travis Dockter: Are like. That’s where I am planning on having it right now. That’s.

106 00:13:20.429 –> 00:13:22.418 Spike Ilacqua: I was guessing from the big map behind you.

107 00:13:22.419 –> 00:13:27.919 Travis Dockter: Yeah. But what is like.

108 00:13:28.029 –> 00:13:33.599 Travis Dockter: general for for recording? Is that like to the tune of thousands of dollars? Do you have to.

109 00:13:33.599 –> 00:13:35.988 Travis Dockter: Yes, buy them out, and.

110 00:13:35.989 –> 00:13:39.618 Spike Ilacqua: They take care of. So this is, I’m speaking, specifically of con freaks who I highly.

111 00:13:39.619 –> 00:13:39.939 Travis Dockter: And.

112 00:13:39.939 –> 00:13:48.908 Spike Ilacqua: And they take care of like travel and hotel, but you have to pay for their time, so I would say they’re the second biggest expense.

113 00:13:49.339 –> 00:13:52.348 Spike Ilacqua: Let me budget behind venue.

114 00:13:52.349 –> 00:13:52.718 Travis Dockter: Okay.

115 00:13:53.928 –> 00:13:56.928 Spike Ilacqua: But I think it’s worth it, because.

116 00:13:56.929 –> 00:13:57.369 Travis Dockter: No.

117 00:14:01.248 –> 00:14:11.399 Spike Ilacqua: So, for example, one conference I won’t mention. They hired it. So so recording a conference is difficult, right? Because you need to get. Obviously you get the speakers and their audio.

118 00:14:11.619 –> 00:14:26.478 Spike Ilacqua: and you need to get the slides without the slides. Most talks are just useless. So someone I know, hired a wedding photographer, friend of a friend seemed like a great deal, but they didn’t know how to capture the slides, and

119 00:14:26.749 –> 00:14:30.099 Spike Ilacqua: the audio wasn’t great, and it took

120 00:14:30.389 –> 00:14:46.238 Spike Ilacqua: like 6 months to get the videos out, because basically, what they had to do is ask everybody for their slide decks and then kind of manually create a video of the slide deck to go with it. And it’s just so if you hire somebody who knows how to do this.

121 00:14:47.509 –> 00:14:48.578 Travis Dockter: Goes a lot, smoother.

122 00:14:48.579 –> 00:14:50.599 Spike Ilacqua: It goes a lot smoother, you know, and

123 00:14:51.056 –> 00:14:56.419 Spike Ilacqua: in the case of confrees. We just you know they she records Cindy is the owner of that

124 00:14:57.013 –> 00:14:59.144 Spike Ilacqua: she actually did a lightning talk at

125 00:15:01.099 –> 00:15:17.878 Spike Ilacqua: Rocky Mount Mary! She did talk at the last ruby conference, because she’s been, you know one. Her brother started this, and they’ve been involved in the ruby community forever. But they just know what they’re doing. So you they record the video. You give them Logos. You give them all the sponsored information. And then boom videos turn up on Youtube. I mean, it’s.

126 00:15:17.879 –> 00:15:18.539 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

127 00:15:20.289 –> 00:15:22.284 Spike Ilacqua: That one last thing to think about.

128 00:15:22.569 –> 00:15:23.269 Travis Dockter: Right.

129 00:15:23.519 –> 00:15:35.868 Spike Ilacqua: And so I recommend, I specifically recommend conflicts. But I definitely recommend working with somebody who’s done this before. And if you take like a hotel as a venue. They’ll often have

130 00:15:36.219 –> 00:15:38.128 Spike Ilacqua: somebody who does this.

131 00:15:38.969 –> 00:15:39.499 Travis Dockter: No.

132 00:15:39.499 –> 00:15:40.249 Travis Dockter: Okay.

133 00:15:40.249 –> 00:15:41.009 Spike Ilacqua: So.

134 00:15:42.300 –> 00:15:51.958 Spike Ilacqua: So that was how I handled the finances of the 1st year. The second year was a little easier, because I had a sense of how many tickets we would sell. One thing that’s really weird with

135 00:15:52.079 –> 00:15:57.199 Spike Ilacqua: selling tickets is, you would think people would buy tickets in advance.

136 00:15:57.299 –> 00:16:14.338 Spike Ilacqua: but they really don’t. The 1st year we cut off ticket sales like a week out, because we just didn’t want to deal with like, oh, no, we need more badges. We need more T-shirts, whatever. And we people just started complaining. I ended up selling like 30 odd tickets in the last week, and a con, you know, that was like

137 00:16:14.879 –> 00:16:20.638 Spike Ilacqua: like 20% of the ticket sales happened like a week before the conference. And I think this.

138 00:16:20.639 –> 00:16:21.948 Travis Dockter: Those are probably locals.

139 00:16:22.189 –> 00:16:30.968 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah, that’s exactly what I was. Gonna say, I think this is like, if your rails Comp or Rubicop, you probably don’t have this problem, because there’s far less locals. But I would say

140 00:16:32.159 –> 00:16:42.079 Spike Ilacqua: half to, you know, 2 thirds to half of our people are are local. So and they just wait at the last minute, see if their boss will let them go, or whatever you know that kind of thing.

141 00:16:42.079 –> 00:16:43.029 Travis Dockter: Yeah, yeah.

142 00:16:43.386 –> 00:16:45.529 Spike Ilacqua: So that was kind of surprising.

143 00:16:47.989 –> 00:17:01.848 Spike Ilacqua: But the second year was a little easier, because I knew to expect that. I knew, you know, by then I’ve all dialed in all the catering and everything. So I know what everything’s gonna cost, you know, plus or minus inflation.

144 00:17:02.129 –> 00:17:16.949 Spike Ilacqua: And it was much easier to get sponsors the second year, because we had. We could point to the videos of the you know, everything that had gone well with the previous year. So I had

145 00:17:17.459 –> 00:17:19.729 Spike Ilacqua: more sponsors in

146 00:17:20.969 –> 00:17:29.448 Spike Ilacqua: 2024, I think we’ll do fine in 2025, with sponsorship, and that’s a big, you know, like one sponsor can pay for the videos or the venue, or whatever.

147 00:17:30.249 –> 00:17:33.478 Travis Dockter: How did you go about getting sponsors

148 00:17:33.699 –> 00:17:39.319 Travis Dockter: the 1st year? Was it pretty much just like people in your network? Or how did you go work.

149 00:17:39.319 –> 00:17:42.748 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah, it was. It was people in our network. So I just reached out to

150 00:17:43.209 –> 00:17:47.349 Spike Ilacqua: people I know at big companies who are

151 00:17:47.819 –> 00:17:50.788 Spike Ilacqua: who I thought might be able to come up with some

152 00:17:52.919 –> 00:17:55.701 Spike Ilacqua: looking at my sponsor list from that year.

153 00:17:56.519 –> 00:18:03.429 Spike Ilacqua: So I knew people at gusto and fusion off. And

154 00:18:03.989 –> 00:18:05.938 Spike Ilacqua: they gave us some money.

155 00:18:06.783 –> 00:18:14.069 Spike Ilacqua: And that was kind of enough that year. And we also like. So

156 00:18:14.589 –> 00:18:17.258 Spike Ilacqua: when it comes to who’s listed as a sponsor?

157 00:18:19.629 –> 00:18:25.008 Spike Ilacqua: Anyone who paid for their own travel. So we were we were. We were. So we’re

158 00:18:25.529 –> 00:18:29.262 Spike Ilacqua: we offer a little stipend to speakers

159 00:18:30.299 –> 00:18:46.628 Spike Ilacqua: $500 to, you know. Help with their trial. We can’t afford. We’re not, you know. We’re not a conference that can afford to fly people out, but we offer that people turn turn who turned it down. We would then put their company as a sponsor, and basically, you know, the company’s paying for travel.

160 00:18:46.759 –> 00:18:47.259 Travis Dockter: Okay. Cool.

161 00:18:47.589 –> 00:18:48.119 Travis Dockter: Okay.

162 00:18:48.419 –> 00:18:49.199 Spike Ilacqua: So

163 00:18:49.329 –> 00:18:58.848 Spike Ilacqua: if you look, you know, 2024 we had, like Podia and a few others, and it was just because, you know, they sent their own people out. Then in 2024

164 00:19:01.289 –> 00:19:04.149 Spike Ilacqua: I think all of our sponsors reached out to me.

165 00:19:04.721 –> 00:19:18.189 Spike Ilacqua: Once we announced the we opened the Cfp. They’re like, Hey, can we sponsor you? And they were all people, I think 2 of the 3, and I can’t remember who was who now but the big sponsors were honey, badger, App signal, and Dn. Simple.

166 00:19:18.559 –> 00:19:27.918 Spike Ilacqua: 2 of them, 2 of the founders, had actually spoken at Rocky Mountain Review in the past, and the 3rd had attended like a bunch of times. So they had a they had that connection.

167 00:19:28.329 –> 00:19:28.759 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

168 00:19:29.789 –> 00:19:33.439 Spike Ilacqua: And that was definitely nice.

169 00:19:33.809 –> 00:19:43.399 Travis Dockter: Yeah, is that when kind of from a timeline perspective, I was thinking or an order, maybe

170 00:19:43.669 –> 00:19:52.939 Travis Dockter: I’m trying to start a year out. So I am shooting for something in May or June of next year. And I was thinking.

171 00:19:53.799 –> 00:19:58.148 Travis Dockter: probably doing venue and sponsors first.st

172 00:20:00.149 –> 00:20:07.059 Travis Dockter: Sponsors for me specifically is going to be really hard because I don’t have a wide network

173 00:20:08.399 –> 00:20:14.818 Travis Dockter: and I guess I was thinking, maybe start that earlier because it’s gonna be hard. But at the same time

174 00:20:15.069 –> 00:20:17.488 Travis Dockter: it’s gonna be even harder. Because.

175 00:20:18.308 –> 00:20:26.929 Travis Dockter: I don’t know people. And I’m reaching out. And I’m saying like, Hey, this is my 1st conference. Never done this before. No idea how this is. Gonna go! Do you want to give me money?

176 00:20:26.929 –> 00:20:27.409 Spike Ilacqua: Thank you.

177 00:20:27.409 –> 00:20:32.268 Travis Dockter: But do were you getting sponsors like later in the process, or.

178 00:20:32.269 –> 00:20:35.914 Spike Ilacqua: It was. That was a little later in the process.

179 00:20:37.669 –> 00:20:42.148 Spike Ilacqua: you know, I started trying pretty pretty much as soon as I had the website and the.

180 00:20:42.689 –> 00:20:43.299 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

181 00:20:43.299 –> 00:20:52.309 Spike Ilacqua: And the sponsor reach heat up, and we should talk about that in a sec. But it did take a little while, and a little poking, and and that kind of thing.

182 00:20:52.649 –> 00:20:54.199 Spike Ilacqua: I think you know

183 00:20:54.479 –> 00:21:09.078 Spike Ilacqua: one of the things that Ruby Central wants to do post Rails conference help, and they’re already doing this with meetups where they’re connecting meetups with potential sponsors. So like the boulder ruby group has had a pizza sponsor

184 00:21:10.869 –> 00:21:15.279 Spike Ilacqua: for the last few months through Ruby central

185 00:21:15.940 –> 00:21:31.028 Spike Ilacqua: and so I think, you know, talking to Ali and all they can get you in front of people. Now, will they give you money? That’s a harder thing. But one of the things Ruby Central is really trying to do with, you know, especially with the bigger

186 00:21:33.109 –> 00:21:35.042 Spike Ilacqua: rail shops, is like, Hey, you know.

187 00:21:35.729 –> 00:21:37.668 Spike Ilacqua: we’re not doing rose comp anymore.

188 00:21:39.579 –> 00:21:41.999 Spike Ilacqua: But you can get we can get you in front of.

189 00:21:42.279 –> 00:21:46.598 Spike Ilacqua: you know, 30 ruby groups, 50 ruby groups and 10 conferences. So

190 00:21:47.509 –> 00:21:51.509 Spike Ilacqua: work together on that. So I think that’s, you know, working that network

191 00:21:53.009 –> 00:22:12.218 Spike Ilacqua: and not necessarily going directly to the sponsors, you know, beyond Ruby Central like. But if you’re friends with you know Jason Sweat, who who can he connect you with right? Because that personal connection, I think, works better than just like, you know, reaching out cold to Cisco, or something like that. Right? So that’s definitely my advice there.

192 00:22:14.139 –> 00:22:15.089 Spike Ilacqua: So

193 00:22:15.489 –> 00:22:35.599 Spike Ilacqua: yeah, I mean, I think, like, in terms of timeline, I said. You know, pick a date, get a venue cause. Venues are the thing you have to book out the furthest. Build a website and put up your sponsor sheet right? I just copied mine for blue, red, ruby. You could copy mine, you know you could copy somebody else’s and be flexible on it.

194 00:22:35.789 –> 00:22:45.009 Spike Ilacqua: So you know ours. As I think we’ve got what we’ve got. We went into the jewel theme because Rocky Mountain past, we have, like emerald.

195 00:22:45.329 –> 00:22:58.400 Spike Ilacqua: a 2,000 sapphire at 4,000, and Rumi at 5,000, and then, you know, you get recognition. There’s some stuff everybody gets to get their logo on the site. They get their recognition, and then it’s like, Well, where are you on the page? And

196 00:22:59.397 –> 00:23:05.131 Spike Ilacqua: you know how many tickets complementary tickets does your organization get? Do you get a table or not?

197 00:23:05.899 –> 00:23:14.313 Spike Ilacqua: like at the top tier. You get a table to yourself at the middle tier you get to share one at the bottom tier. You can just put your stickers wherever right.

198 00:23:15.109 –> 00:23:20.190 Spike Ilacqua: But we were not and I don’t recommend being

199 00:23:20.899 –> 00:23:37.069 Spike Ilacqua: like particularly hard ass with this right like, be flexible. What do they actually want. Maybe if they’re not hiring, they might not want a table right, they might just want to put their stickers out. They might, you know, want a little bump up. They might want an in between amount of money, because that’s what they’re, you know.

200 00:23:37.499 –> 00:23:41.798 Spike Ilacqua: like fine. If you can give me $3,000. I’ll give you the sapphire thing right? I mean, it’s like.

201 00:23:42.436 –> 00:23:46.589 Travis Dockter: You want them to sponsor you. It’s not ultimately, aside from.

202 00:23:46.709 –> 00:23:51.598 Spike Ilacqua: You know, if you sell out, you’re not costing you that much to do this right.

203 00:23:52.349 –> 00:23:53.169 Travis Dockter: So, yeah.

204 00:23:54.121 –> 00:24:11.078 Spike Ilacqua: Be work with them sometimes. They wanna you know, we’ve talked to them. Nobody’s actually taken us up on this. But other things like, you know, host, a game night. Right? That’d be great right? Which up as a sponsor you know, an after party or organize a hike. You know I’m happy to put you on the website.

205 00:24:12.126 –> 00:24:15.951 Spike Ilacqua: Cause that stuff around the conference is also very helpful.

206 00:24:16.429 –> 00:24:23.638 Spike Ilacqua: Once you have a site and you have a sponsor sheet. That’s when I start started reaching out to people that it does get easier

207 00:24:24.799 –> 00:24:28.899 Spike Ilacqua: to do things. Of course, once you have some talks up so.

208 00:24:30.799 –> 00:24:40.219 Spike Ilacqua: We people do different things like some folks put their tickets on sale as soon as they have a date. We generally have waited until

209 00:24:41.044 –> 00:24:45.529 Spike Ilacqua: we’ve picked the speakers, because then we can say, this is what your

210 00:24:47.219 –> 00:24:55.808 Spike Ilacqua: paying for, right? This is why you want to come. Aside from how cool we are. Here’s the actual talks. This year.

211 00:24:56.249 –> 00:25:01.499 Spike Ilacqua: I think we’re gonna have a keynote that we can pre announce before the Cfp closes.

212 00:25:01.679 –> 00:25:04.139 Spike Ilacqua: We’re still talking about that. But

213 00:25:04.865 –> 00:25:12.179 Spike Ilacqua: we’ve gotten the point where we can probably have an invited keynote and that is something

214 00:25:12.299 –> 00:25:22.819 Spike Ilacqua: that’s enough of a splash, I think for us to start selling tickets, but if you’re comfortable selling them from the beginning, and think people want to come to Albert, or even you can do that, too, I mean, I don’t think there’s a right answer there.

215 00:25:23.119 –> 00:25:29.409 Spike Ilacqua: It’s for my thought. My thought the 1st few years, anyway, was like, we don’t. You know, we’ve been gone for 5 years or so.

216 00:25:30.759 –> 00:25:42.318 Spike Ilacqua: we’re not rupeecom for rails. Comp, people aren’t just gonna automatically buy tickets. So now that we’ve done this a few years. We have a reputation, I think, putting tickets on sale before

217 00:25:43.069 –> 00:25:45.768 Spike Ilacqua: we have the full program built out is okay.

218 00:25:46.209 –> 00:25:53.018 Travis Dockter: Yeah, what did you mean when you said you’ve reached the point where you can have an invited keynote.

219 00:25:56.289 –> 00:26:02.168 Spike Ilacqua: just that, you know. Now we have enough of a reputation that people are. People are always telling us they want to come so.

220 00:26:02.169 –> 00:26:02.839 Travis Dockter: Hmm.

221 00:26:04.129 –> 00:26:08.619 Spike Ilacqua: I mean, we could always do that right and

222 00:26:12.819 –> 00:26:14.399 Spike Ilacqua: But in the past years.

223 00:26:14.699 –> 00:26:17.508 Travis Dockter: Did you invite people in the in the past years.

224 00:26:17.509 –> 00:26:25.558 Spike Ilacqua: No? Well, we tried to and couldn’t find anyone who would come. So that cause I mean again, we were new and like people didn’t know what to expect, and and.

225 00:26:25.559 –> 00:26:25.919 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

226 00:26:26.285 –> 00:26:37.288 Spike Ilacqua: We’ll talk about scheduling like the biggest mistake we made the 1st year was not the Marathon. I had forgotten this part, but Rails world was the week before.

227 00:26:37.709 –> 00:26:38.609 Travis Dockter: Oh, yeah.

228 00:26:38.609 –> 00:26:51.649 Spike Ilacqua: And and it was like the beginning of the same week, actually. And then Thai Ruby was the same days that we were so like everyone I reached out to was either at rails world or

229 00:26:51.869 –> 00:26:54.658 Spike Ilacqua: Hi Ruby. And why wouldn’t you be, you know.

230 00:26:55.359 –> 00:27:19.498 Spike Ilacqua: So this year we’re not near Tyroe moved. Change the time of year and rails. World is a couple of weeks before last year we, for whatever reason we didn’t really try, or this year. I think we’re, gonna you know, reach out to some names in the we already have names in the community and see if anybody just wants to come, and and so then we can do that. But you know, I mean, there’s no reason not to do that your 1st year. If you have the connections.

231 00:27:20.509 –> 00:27:25.599 Spike Ilacqua: There’s somebody you think would be a drawer, or somebody, you know, gives a good talk.

232 00:27:27.069 –> 00:27:31.818 Spike Ilacqua: Then no reason to not ask them. Put them on the program.

233 00:27:32.109 –> 00:27:36.128 Spike Ilacqua: and, you know, have something you can post to social media.

234 00:27:36.409 –> 00:27:36.703 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah?

235 00:27:38.109 –> 00:27:38.769 Spike Ilacqua: So.

236 00:27:39.469 –> 00:27:42.288 Travis Dockter: Yeah, did you?

237 00:27:43.919 –> 00:27:48.519 Travis Dockter: So for all speakers, you offer that stipend and everybody.

238 00:27:48.519 –> 00:27:50.018 Travis Dockter: Yeah, same stipend.

239 00:27:50.019 –> 00:27:50.589 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah.

240 00:27:51.139 –> 00:27:52.099 Travis Dockter: Gotcha.

241 00:27:52.339 –> 00:27:53.619 Spike Ilacqua: And we, you know, I mean.

242 00:27:55.199 –> 00:28:03.069 Spike Ilacqua: you don’t have to. Rocky Mount Ruby didn’t in the past. I mean, there’s like there’s different

243 00:28:04.909 –> 00:28:25.238 Spike Ilacqua: philosophies like, I know when Marty ran it. He never did like, just, you know. Sorry we can’t afford that and then there are other conferences that you know, pay the full thing. And we we looked at those numbers. And it’s like this is no way we could make that work. So we just settled on the middle of the and we we’re gonna review that again this year.

244 00:28:25.239 –> 00:28:25.689 Travis Dockter: No.

245 00:28:26.056 –> 00:28:28.629 Spike Ilacqua: Most people don’t take it, though. So

246 00:28:30.299 –> 00:28:32.659 Spike Ilacqua: I think it’s a nice thing to offer

247 00:28:33.480 –> 00:28:38.308 Spike Ilacqua: to people who are coming great distances and juniors who may not be able to afford it on their own.

248 00:28:39.799 –> 00:28:46.799 Spike Ilacqua: But we we make it clear like, you know, this is, we do not have a lot of money, so if you don’t need it, please, just you know we’ll give you sponsor credit.

249 00:28:47.653 –> 00:28:51.319 Spike Ilacqua: But we, you know so.

250 00:28:51.319 –> 00:28:52.059 Travis Dockter: That makes sense.

251 00:28:52.159 –> 00:28:55.731 Spike Ilacqua: But yeah, I mean, it’s something I might consider not, you know.

252 00:28:56.159 –> 00:29:00.479 Spike Ilacqua: I might consider not doing it your 1st year, just because it is really hard to budget for.

253 00:29:01.288 –> 00:29:01.948 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

254 00:29:03.638 –> 00:29:09.998 Travis Dockter: When you were network or not network, when you were marketing, the conference

255 00:29:10.169 –> 00:29:14.919 Travis Dockter: was there anything that like, you did that unexpectedly.

256 00:29:15.139 –> 00:29:18.739 Travis Dockter: Got you like a bunch of people bought tickets because you did this one thing.

257 00:29:25.249 –> 00:29:37.709 Travis Dockter: Couple of things worked well, I mean, so we did a lot of social media stuff and a lot of Linkedin Linkedin, I think, is the best place these days, because social media is in a weird state. I mean, we still have a.

258 00:29:38.287 –> 00:29:44.490 Spike Ilacqua: Twitter account. I don’t know how we feel about it. We have a blue sky account, but I think most of our interactions come through Linkedin

259 00:29:45.156 –> 00:29:52.689 Spike Ilacqua: so that worked and one of the things that I noticed a big bump of ticket sales was, you know, so Linkedin.

260 00:29:52.979 –> 00:29:55.048 Spike Ilacqua: whatever their algorithm is

261 00:29:55.669 –> 00:30:04.658 Spike Ilacqua: it seems pretty localized like who sees your message. I mean, it’s in your network. But like people outside of your network, I think it’s more like your town

262 00:30:06.299 –> 00:30:14.468 Spike Ilacqua: and we got a big bump when I got some of my friends who are in Denver to post stuff, because I think. Then it got shown to more people in Denver.

263 00:30:15.075 –> 00:30:20.678 Spike Ilacqua: So that was pretty effective. So you know, think about like

264 00:30:21.149 –> 00:30:23.849 Spike Ilacqua: getting folks, you know, who are

265 00:30:24.569 –> 00:30:42.490 Spike Ilacqua: in places that people might drive to your conference from to to share it like not just reshare, but actually share it. That seems to do something in the linkedin algorithm. The other thing, I actually really good luck with was Podcasts. So we reached out to a bunch of podcasts. I had a friend who’s a

266 00:30:43.689 –> 00:30:47.219 Spike Ilacqua: who does some podcast editing put together a 30 second clip for me.

267 00:30:47.509 –> 00:30:49.678 Travis Dockter: And then I sent it out to.

268 00:30:53.689 –> 00:31:00.857 Spike Ilacqua: Where did it go? Ruby on rails, podcast. Coding coders with Drew Bragg. The bike shed.

269 00:31:03.518 –> 00:31:10.028 Spike Ilacqua: Well, there’s remote ruby and just having them play, that I think definitely helps.

270 00:31:10.259 –> 00:31:12.669 Spike Ilacqua: and they’re all, you know, happy to do it right.

271 00:31:12.768 –> 00:31:15.279 Travis Dockter: So that was like kind of like an ad spot for.

272 00:31:15.279 –> 00:31:20.048 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah and ad spot, and I offered to pay, and nobody of them. No, none of them made me so.

273 00:31:20.819 –> 00:31:27.789 Spike Ilacqua: But and that’s something you need to do way in advance, because, you know, the the

274 00:31:27.899 –> 00:31:30.209 Spike Ilacqua: people’s editorial calendars tend to.

275 00:31:30.893 –> 00:31:31.208 Travis Dockter: Okay.

276 00:31:31.209 –> 00:31:33.449 Travis Dockter: So they’re booked looking like months out.

277 00:31:33.449 –> 00:31:34.679 Spike Ilacqua: Exactly.

278 00:31:34.679 –> 00:31:36.089 Travis Dockter: Gotcha. Okay.

279 00:31:36.089 –> 00:31:38.708 Spike Ilacqua: Going on podcasts. The 1st year I went on,

280 00:31:39.449 –> 00:31:51.759 Spike Ilacqua: on ruby, on rails podcast with Britney Martin. And you heard us on Remote ruby we’re gonna be on. Oh, derails conf next week. So just getting on on, you know, getting out there.

281 00:31:52.129 –> 00:31:53.971 Spike Ilacqua: And now, of course, we have

282 00:31:54.519 –> 00:31:58.559 Spike Ilacqua: There’s a ruby Conf, ruby conferences website.

283 00:31:59.285 –> 00:32:03.589 Spike Ilacqua: where you can just make a pull request and put your conference in Ruby company.

284 00:32:03.589 –> 00:32:08.968 Spike Ilacqua: That org the ruby central Slack is very active now.

285 00:32:09.770 –> 00:32:20.387 Spike Ilacqua: So that’s a great place to just promote stuff. And then there’s also there. It’s less popular since they rolled out their slack, but they they also. There’s also ruby central discord.

286 00:32:21.460 –> 00:32:26.579 Spike Ilacqua: So that’s those are all good places to start looking for. People.

287 00:32:27.709 –> 00:32:33.706 Travis Dockter: Was there anything that you did when you were marketing that was just like a waste of time? And don’t do it.

288 00:32:35.349 –> 00:32:39.234 Spike Ilacqua: Not really, and only cause we didn’t. You know we didn’t try much because we didn’t have a budget.

289 00:32:39.439 –> 00:32:39.859 Travis Dockter: Yeah, like.

290 00:32:39.859 –> 00:32:42.828 Spike Ilacqua: We had run ads or something. I don’t. I don’t. You know.

291 00:32:43.119 –> 00:32:43.699 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

292 00:32:43.699 –> 00:32:48.669 Spike Ilacqua: We looked at Facebook ads and Twitter ads and things like that just decided it wasn’t.

293 00:32:48.929 –> 00:32:49.289 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

294 00:32:49.289 –> 00:32:49.938 Spike Ilacqua: What’s that?

295 00:32:50.529 –> 00:32:51.158 Travis Dockter: Gotcha.

296 00:32:51.929 –> 00:33:00.369 Travis Dockter: Okay, do you have any? Do you go a lot of to a lot of conferences yourself?

297 00:33:02.289 –> 00:33:03.508 Spike Ilacqua: Not really

298 00:33:04.239 –> 00:33:06.683 Spike Ilacqua: I’ve been going to more. So I’ve since

299 00:33:07.329 –> 00:33:16.269 Spike Ilacqua: 2022. I’ve gone to most of the ruby and rails. Comp. I’ll be going to Railsconf in July. I hope to go to Ruby Conf.

300 00:33:16.509 –> 00:33:21.829 Spike Ilacqua: In the past. I did. I mean, I always go to Rocky Mountain ruby. And then there was Mountain Rest West Ruby in

301 00:33:22.455 –> 00:33:25.539 Spike Ilacqua: Salt Lake City, so I’d go to at least 2 a year.

302 00:33:27.009 –> 00:33:28.749 Spike Ilacqua: I used to be

303 00:33:29.079 –> 00:33:37.688 Spike Ilacqua: not good at conferences, you know, like many of us, kind of an introvert and shy, and those kind of things some point in my life. I stopped caring like

304 00:33:38.259 –> 00:33:39.378 Spike Ilacqua: care what people think about me.

305 00:33:39.789 –> 00:33:43.528 Spike Ilacqua: They’re gonna like me, or they won’t, and turns out most of the time they do so.

306 00:33:43.749 –> 00:33:44.179 Travis Dockter: It’s like.

307 00:33:44.179 –> 00:33:48.329 Spike Ilacqua: Got better at just like, you know, hey? I’ll just go talk to this random person and see what they’re

308 00:33:49.269 –> 00:33:49.879 Spike Ilacqua: and that.

309 00:33:51.179 –> 00:33:54.709 Travis Dockter: Definitely. Is there anything that you do?

310 00:33:55.633 –> 00:33:58.488 Travis Dockter: At your conferences to

311 00:33:58.999 –> 00:34:05.828 Travis Dockter: kind of make it, you know a better experience. Where people do you think that that’s the main

312 00:34:05.999 –> 00:34:11.538 Travis Dockter: kind of thing for conferences is the social aspect. Because, you know

313 00:34:12.099 –> 00:34:25.099 Travis Dockter: a lot of these things. A lot of these talks could be a blog post or a Youtube video, right? It’s nice to see them in person. But do you think that social like socialization is the main point of conferences.

314 00:34:25.099 –> 00:34:29.368 Spike Ilacqua: I do, and you need talks cause otherwise, why would your boss let you go.

315 00:34:29.509 –> 00:34:30.158 Travis Dockter: Right, yeah.

316 00:34:30.159 –> 00:34:35.627 Spike Ilacqua: I do learn stuff right? I mean to your point. Talks are often better in person, and

317 00:34:36.684 –> 00:34:42.053 Spike Ilacqua: and you know and I I learn stuff, you know, even at my own conference.

318 00:34:43.617 –> 00:35:07.210 Spike Ilacqua: you know, my, my big takeaway from 2024 was pack work. I hadn’t learned anything about that framework. But you know, as I work on bigger projects, like having having that kind of thing. And you get different perspectives. And that’s always handy, you know, we we try to mix because we’re not a rails conference. We try to mix in other frameworks and things like that. So I learned a lot about hanami and and

319 00:35:07.619 –> 00:35:12.618 Spike Ilacqua: I may never use it, but just knowing that there are different ways that people do things and think about things is is super helpful.

320 00:35:13.108 –> 00:35:17.898 Travis Dockter: The advantage of a small conference like Rocky Mountain ruby is, we can do both right.

321 00:35:18.607 –> 00:35:19.741 Spike Ilacqua: So we do.

322 00:35:20.309 –> 00:35:44.259 Spike Ilacqua: A total of 16 talks, just 8 talks a day. We have half, we do 2 talks, a half hour, break 2 talks, half hour break. So there’s lots of time. The venue is really nice, because it’s a it’s a concert venue. So the big concert hall. But then downstairs there’s like a bar area where people can just hang and talk to each other. We and and Colorado in October is like one of our best months weather, wise.

323 00:35:44.259 –> 00:35:44.849 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

324 00:35:44.849 –> 00:35:52.419 Spike Ilacqua: Probably similar to New Mexico. Just not too hot. It’s sunny, it doesn’t rain so people will go hang out outside.

325 00:35:52.539 –> 00:35:58.342 Spike Ilacqua: And then the other thing, and I totally stole this from Blue Ridge, and I think they stole it from

326 00:35:59.299 –> 00:36:02.036 Spike Ilacqua: Brian Ruby is we just do open lunch.

327 00:36:03.169 –> 00:36:17.074 Spike Ilacqua: that gives. So we’d have a 2 h block. Just go out in the world and have lunch. We have a list of restaurants. Boulder is a big foodie town. So it’s super easy for people to just go out. We we actively help try to, you know, find people find groups.

328 00:36:17.779 –> 00:36:20.819 Spike Ilacqua: and so that’s really great for the social aspects.

329 00:36:22.129 –> 00:36:29.309 Spike Ilacqua: It’s also great for the budget, because catering lunch is expensive and usually not great. So

330 00:36:29.689 –> 00:36:57.479 Spike Ilacqua: that is a big part of what we do, and then the afternoon we again continue to have big breaks and that’s easier to do in a small conference when it’s single track like you’re gonna see all the talks. And I think there’s something to like people in a single track conference. Everyone sees the same talks. So they all have the same frame of reference when they’re talking in between, whereas at like ruby, Comp for rails, comp. You know where there’s 3 or 5 tracks like you’re more scattered if you’re going to all the talks.

331 00:36:57.479 –> 00:36:57.809 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

332 00:36:58.103 –> 00:37:11.339 Spike Ilacqua: I do think that you know Ruby and rails comp. The hack day they have now has really helped with that social aspect. Right think they’re calling community now, but like having a day where it’s less structured and people can just hang out.

333 00:37:11.699 –> 00:37:13.119 Spike Ilacqua: I think works well.

334 00:37:14.234 –> 00:37:18.258 Spike Ilacqua: So there’s lots of different ways to do it. But that’s what we

335 00:37:19.548 –> 00:37:25.979 Spike Ilacqua: we landed on, and it works well. And then there’s just stuff we can do to encourage, like my co organizer, Becky.

336 00:37:26.859 –> 00:37:37.408 Spike Ilacqua: came back from Brail’s world with the Pac-man idea. Just like whenever you’re in a circle, open up a little wedge, so that there’s always room for someone else to join the conversation.

337 00:37:37.912 –> 00:37:56.649 Spike Ilacqua: So we promote that kind of like, hey, talk to your neighbors like talk to the juniors like, if you see somebody who’s just, you know clearly, just standing on the sidelines, try talking to them and be respectful if they just don’t want to talk at school, but usually, you know, you can engage with somebody, and they’ll want to talk. And so we really push that because to your point. I think

338 00:37:56.969 –> 00:38:00.629 Spike Ilacqua: there’s value out of the tech stuff you learn. But

339 00:38:00.969 –> 00:38:03.460 Spike Ilacqua: you’re gonna make connections that

340 00:38:06.109 –> 00:38:10.738 Spike Ilacqua: are gonna just be useful to have in your career, or are gonna be fun, or you know.

341 00:38:10.739 –> 00:38:11.218 Travis Dockter: There he is!

342 00:38:11.219 –> 00:38:22.971 Spike Ilacqua: I now know all these people from doing this I didn’t know before, like, you know, Chris Holler and Drew Bragg and Nadia. And you know, it’s just. You know my circle has greatly expanded, and these are people I can reach out to.

343 00:38:23.399 –> 00:38:30.718 Spike Ilacqua: And you know. Ask when I have a question, or, you know, help me with a job, search or help them. You know. I mean, it’s.

344 00:38:30.719 –> 00:38:31.389 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

345 00:38:31.389 –> 00:38:33.378 Spike Ilacqua: It’s really nice to have a community.

346 00:38:33.689 –> 00:38:35.049 Travis Dockter: Yeah, definitely

347 00:38:35.939 –> 00:38:47.529 Travis Dockter: alright. Well, we’re coming up on time. I wanted to be respectful of your time. But do you have any other advice that you can think of for a 1st time.

348 00:38:47.949 –> 00:38:54.569 Spike Ilacqua: Yes, my biggest advice is, get all the volunteers you can. I could not have done it without them.

349 00:38:55.426 –> 00:38:59.798 Spike Ilacqua: So I’m fortunate that in Boulder. We have a good

350 00:39:01.409 –> 00:39:08.678 Spike Ilacqua: ruby meetup that’s been going for 20 years now, I think. And we have a slack

351 00:39:09.445 –> 00:39:26.279 Spike Ilacqua: where everyone just kind of hangs out. So I was able to reach out and say, Hey, anyone want to volunteer? I’ll give you a ticket, you know, basically. And so very quickly out of that. I got someone who was who’s good at social media, and she’s still doing that for us. And

352 00:39:26.519 –> 00:39:32.539 Spike Ilacqua: I got someone who’s willing to tackle the catering because we do. We do cater breakfast, so you gotta find somebody.

353 00:39:32.539 –> 00:39:32.938 Travis Dockter: For you.

354 00:39:32.999 –> 00:39:34.509 Spike Ilacqua: Take care of all that

355 00:39:35.829 –> 00:39:46.438 Spike Ilacqua: And then there was Becky, who just volunteered to help with with swag. We learned a lot about swag. This is another quick advice. You have to order it way earlier than you think.

356 00:39:46.649 –> 00:39:52.198 Spike Ilacqua: Cause all those places are like, hey? We could turn T-shirts around in 2 days. That’s only if they’re not busy and they’re always

357 00:39:52.199 –> 00:39:52.519 Spike Ilacqua: cheers.

358 00:39:52.519 –> 00:40:09.325 Spike Ilacqua: So it turns out to be like a month, and that’s like the scariest things like, how many people are actually coming, and what size T-shirts do they need? And so what we do is actually cut it off and say, like, you know, 2 weeks out like we’re not going to guarantee you a T-shirt, or you can pay more, and we’ll order a T-shirt for you after

359 00:40:09.819 –> 00:40:17.429 Spike Ilacqua: and you know you have a whole like chart of like all right. How many people are wearing? You know? What is? What is this likely sizes that we need that kind of stuff, but ultimately.

360 00:40:17.429 –> 00:40:17.779 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

361 00:40:17.779 –> 00:40:18.469 Spike Ilacqua: Think

362 00:40:18.599 –> 00:40:35.979 Spike Ilacqua: so. Becky volunteered to do that. Shirts, stickers, badges, and she just kept doing other things. So at the end of it I’m like. Look, you’ve done so much work. You’re an hour, if you’re willing, you could be the Co organizer and take credit for this and put it on your Linkedin and all that. And so

363 00:40:36.359 –> 00:40:39.069 Spike Ilacqua: that’s how I ended up with a Co organizer. And

364 00:40:39.639 –> 00:40:51.358 Spike Ilacqua: but yeah, you definitely need. You can’t do everything or you can. But you’re gonna make yourself nuts. So just finding those people who are willing to take on just one task right? Most of the socials

365 00:40:51.609 –> 00:40:56.738 Spike Ilacqua: so call around caters and see who’s available that kind of thing. It’s just so important.

366 00:40:57.169 –> 00:40:57.519 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

367 00:40:57.519 –> 00:41:03.439 Spike Ilacqua: And people like to do it. I mean, if they like to be involved. And then day of we have a whole bunch of people who

368 00:41:03.941 –> 00:41:14.959 Spike Ilacqua: are just there to help, like other, you know, answer questions. You know they get a volunteer shirt, and you know their role is to just after we do after we check people, and just, you know, be there. And if somebody

369 00:41:15.419 –> 00:41:16.769 Spike Ilacqua: to know where there’s a

370 00:41:17.039 –> 00:41:21.808 Spike Ilacqua: Vegan restaurant or gluten Free restaurant, where’s the restaurant, you know, like they can just answer that.

371 00:41:22.309 –> 00:41:24.379 Travis Dockter: So that you don’t have to be doing everything.

372 00:41:25.069 –> 00:41:31.629 Travis Dockter: Yeah, that I I’m thinking about that. And I was wondering if

373 00:41:33.649 –> 00:41:52.334 Travis Dockter: what is the trade off, or is there a trade off? Maybe there’s not. Maybe it’s a no brainer. But in my mind I was like, Okay, am I inviting extra complexity by bringing in volunteers. And then, if you know, having to manage

374 00:41:53.739 –> 00:41:56.899 Travis Dockter: multiple people moving in multiple, you know

375 00:41:57.209 –> 00:42:09.768 Travis Dockter: paths at the same time, am I inviting extra complexity that way versus if I did everything myself, of course it’s gonna be more strain on one person. But.

376 00:42:09.769 –> 00:42:10.139 Spike Ilacqua: Yes.

377 00:42:10.139 –> 00:42:10.838 Travis Dockter: I don’t know.

378 00:42:11.399 –> 00:42:14.139 Spike Ilacqua: My, I would say, I mean, it’s it’s

379 00:42:15.849 –> 00:42:22.200 Spike Ilacqua: I’m definitely a person over my career who’s tended to. I’ll you know, screw it. I’ll just do it myself. Kind of a person.

380 00:42:24.639 –> 00:42:25.839 Spike Ilacqua: I

381 00:42:26.989 –> 00:42:34.228 Spike Ilacqua: but I would say, you’re gonna make yourself nuts like, just did I post? It’s 3 in the morning. Did I post the social yesterday like I was supposed to like.

382 00:42:34.229 –> 00:42:34.549 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

383 00:42:34.549 –> 00:42:38.239 Spike Ilacqua: The cater hasn’t gotten back to me with the, you know, pricing, you know.

384 00:42:38.689 –> 00:42:40.840 Spike Ilacqua: Damn it, I need to get the insurance.

385 00:42:41.709 –> 00:42:53.968 Spike Ilacqua: I I think at the end of the day you’ll have a better conference and a better experience for yourself, and want to do it again. If you have volunteers, and the other thing is like, you know all of this, and this should be general advice. Somebody who wants to

386 00:42:54.879 –> 00:43:01.868 Spike Ilacqua: run a conferences. These are good skills to have right as you advance in your career of ultimately, even if you stay

387 00:43:02.219 –> 00:43:07.568 Spike Ilacqua: on the IC track as I I pretty much have. You still gonna have to move people around, you know.

388 00:43:07.569 –> 00:43:08.179 Travis Dockter: Right.

389 00:43:08.179 –> 00:43:15.809 Spike Ilacqua: You’re gonna be working with juniors. You’re gonna have to give them tasks, and you’re just gonna have to deal with that. And this is a great way to practice it right?

390 00:43:16.484 –> 00:43:17.159 Travis Dockter: True.

391 00:43:17.159 –> 00:43:23.289 Spike Ilacqua: Cause. This is the case where worst case scenario, somebody, you know, turns out to be a flake and doesn’t post a social media. You can do it. But

392 00:43:23.779 –> 00:43:31.249 Spike Ilacqua: find good people. I mean, I think, the the way, it shook out for me.

393 00:43:31.739 –> 00:43:45.518 Spike Ilacqua: what and and this was just luck. But the people who who had the bigger tasks and were willing to take on the bigger tasks, tended to be the more senior people. Right? They were older. They’ve been around, you know. They know how to own something.

394 00:43:45.699 –> 00:43:47.089 Travis Dockter: And then.

395 00:43:47.539 –> 00:44:01.088 Spike Ilacqua: The people who were the day of volunteers tended to be the cold school kids and the recent graduates and things like that. And they were great for that, because they were very enthusiastic. They know what it is to, you know.

396 00:44:01.199 –> 00:44:05.769 Spike Ilacqua: feel like a fish out of water, because they kind of do. And and so that just kind of worked out like.

397 00:44:05.769 –> 00:44:06.289 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

398 00:44:06.578 –> 00:44:23.369 Spike Ilacqua: So I would definitely say, like, when you’re looking at volunteers, you know, if if you have a look at their Linkedin, get a sense of their strengths. Are they an engineering manager? Well, then, you can give them the hardest task. Right? Are they? A recent grad, then, you know. Maybe give them something more

399 00:44:24.109 –> 00:44:25.639 Spike Ilacqua: people focused.

400 00:44:25.779 –> 00:44:30.148 Spike Ilacqua: But I think it’s worth it. And you know, maybe you find your Co organizer.

401 00:44:32.030 –> 00:44:37.778 Travis Dockter: Or or whatever I mean. Cause one of the things I’m I’m thinking about this. I don’t wanna do this forever. Right?

402 00:44:37.939 –> 00:44:38.299 Travis Dockter: Yeah.

403 00:44:39.999 –> 00:44:55.238 Spike Ilacqua: My son’s graduating high school. He’s gonna go off to college eventually. We want to travel more or whatever you know. Sooner or later I’ll retire. But I would like this conference to keep going. So I wanna build it in a way, you know, and that goes back to the legal structure and all that, that I can hand it off

404 00:44:55.499 –> 00:44:59.158 Spike Ilacqua: so somewhere else, and that someone else should be somebody who’s

405 00:44:59.269 –> 00:45:04.638 Spike Ilacqua: been a volunteer, or at least gone to it and understands it is passionate about it. So

406 00:45:05.079 –> 00:45:08.608 Spike Ilacqua: another good reason to have volunteers and Co. Organizers and such.

407 00:45:08.959 –> 00:45:15.099 Travis Dockter: Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense, alrighty. Well, I appreciate your time and.

408 00:45:15.099 –> 00:45:15.869 Spike Ilacqua: I’m happy to do it.

409 00:45:16.219 –> 00:45:21.279 Travis Dockter: Actually last question, who should I talk to next.

410 00:45:22.879 –> 00:45:25.408 Spike Ilacqua: Have you talked to Andy Kroll.

411 00:45:25.729 –> 00:45:26.969 Travis Dockter: I have not.

412 00:45:26.969 –> 00:45:29.618 Spike Ilacqua: I would go to Andy Kroll, cause he is just.

413 00:45:29.619 –> 00:45:33.398 Travis Dockter: Did he do one ruby friend or.

414 00:45:33.399 –> 00:45:41.389 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah, he does that. He does the Brighton. His big thing is bright and ruby. Conference. So he’s been running Brighton ruby forever.

415 00:45:42.239 –> 00:45:46.338 Spike Ilacqua: and that’s a i think it’s 1 day, and it’s big. It’s like,

416 00:45:47.799 –> 00:46:01.618 Spike Ilacqua: you know, pushing a thousand people, I think at some points, maybe a little smaller post, Covid. But it’s 1 of the biggest small conferences. And yeah, he does everything. The part of you know. Part of my backstory here is that

417 00:46:02.469 –> 00:46:14.039 Spike Ilacqua: I decided to do this after going to Ruby Comp. Mini in 2022, and that was a side conference that was spun off for people who didn’t want to go to Texas because of politics

418 00:46:14.199 –> 00:46:17.819 Spike Ilacqua: and run by the founders of W

419 00:46:18.259 –> 00:46:28.348 Spike Ilacqua: Wnrb. The women in non-binary Gemma Gemma Azarov and Emily Stamper, and that they had no idea how to run a conference, and Andy volunteered to

420 00:46:28.519 –> 00:46:35.218 Spike Ilacqua: come out to the United States and help them do it. And so he’s the guy for for running conferences.

421 00:46:35.649 –> 00:46:36.689 Travis Dockter: Okay. Wow, yeah.

422 00:46:36.689 –> 00:46:38.019 Spike Ilacqua: Recommend talking to him.

423 00:46:38.259 –> 00:46:39.749 Travis Dockter: I’ll definitely reach out to him.

424 00:46:39.939 –> 00:46:45.489 Travis Dockter: I did do the one. So I forget the exact name. But the ruby friend, yeah.

425 00:46:45.489 –> 00:46:49.879 Travis Dockter: he was putting on. I did that. So I have, you know, interacted with him over email.

426 00:46:49.879 –> 00:46:50.559 Spike Ilacqua: Oh, yeah.

427 00:46:50.859 –> 00:46:53.359 Travis Dockter: Briefly, but I’ll definitely reach out to him.

428 00:46:53.359 –> 00:46:54.728 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah, he’s a nice guy.

429 00:46:55.029 –> 00:47:00.098 Spike Ilacqua: So yeah, I reckon, and definitely like years and years of experience that you can lean on.

430 00:47:01.409 –> 00:47:05.018 Travis Dockter: Cool, alrighty. Thank you so much for your time, Spike. Yeah.

431 00:47:05.019 –> 00:47:06.288 Spike Ilacqua: Nice meeting, you.

432 00:47:06.289 –> 00:47:12.799 Travis Dockter: I hopefully, will be in Rocky Mountain ruby September October this year, right.

433 00:47:12.799 –> 00:47:15.309 Spike Ilacqua: October, October 6, th and 7.th

434 00:47:15.469 –> 00:47:19.188 Travis Dockter: Okay, perfect. I hope to meet you in person. There.

435 00:47:19.189 –> 00:47:23.789 Spike Ilacqua: Yeah, definitely. And I’ll keep an eye because Albuquerque is not that hard for me and a city I love so.

436 00:47:24.009 –> 00:47:29.688 Travis Dockter: Yeah, awesome. Awesome. I’m hoping it’ll it’ll draw some people. It’s not, you know.

437 00:47:30.299 –> 00:47:31.176 Spike Ilacqua: Not San Jose.

438 00:47:31.469 –> 00:47:40.939 Travis Dockter: You’re right right. But hopefully, people will come and then go visit Santa Fe. Yes, so alrighty. Well, I hope you have a great rest of your day, and.

439 00:47:40.939 –> 00:47:43.844 Spike Ilacqua: Feel free to reach out. If you have any other questions.

440 00:47:44.109 –> 00:47:45.442 Travis Dockter: Alrighty sounds great, thank you.