A lot of people like the idea of another Scarcth conference in betweeen the bi-annual conferences at MIT.
Me too, but I know that's it's a lot of work and you need an incredible team some financial support ($50k to give you an idea) to get it done.
So it will only happen if we find enough reaons to gather again, a nice location, and ...
scratch2013bcn.org was announced around Christmas 2012, leavinf us with around 8 months to organize it. It's highly preferred to make the announcement earlier.
If you have an idea about where this conference should take place, if you have more than 1 month of spare time the upcoming year, if you know of a theme to focus on, ... please share your thoughts. The only thing I can guarantee about this is that if the discussions doesn't take off, it won't happen :-(
I'll start with some of my thoughts
Best regards, Joek
The team which organized #scratch2013bcn together with some fresh bright minds is working hard to make #scratch2015ams as inspiring.
Once againthere will be six world class invited speaekrs. New this year is our guest of honor: Logo co author Cynthia Solomon.
Be our guest and register via scratch2015ams.org/registration
And please note you can follow us on @Scratch2015AMS
Lilli
Please join us August 12-15 for another Scratch fest this side of the Atlantic: Scratch2015AMS creating creative communities.
Follow us on twitter and don't forget to send your proposals before March 15th.
Can I find out whether there is a form for us to fill up for proposal submission for Scratch2015AMS?
Thanks!
Frank
Congratulations on the initiative, and count on us for anything you need! :)
We'll start preparing our submissions soon.
Joek
UPDATE
It looks like we'll have a pre-conference!
Confirmed for the warming up and set up are:
Jens Moenig and Ralf Romeike form Germany
Samir Saidani and Claude Terosier from France
Agnese Addone from Italy
Margaret Low from England
a bunch of locals and last but not least
Mitch Resnick in the hangout Saturday 5PM CET
Those arriving Friday 16th may be part of a special fundraise event :-)
Stay tuned, this feels good
Tom -Hummingbird- Lauwers sponsors with € 500 and suggests that other companies who feel support of the the Scratch community could do the same. Finding out who at Sparkfun, Adafruit, LittleBits, NoStarchPress is taking care of such matters is something that's more easily done from the US I think ...
We need external funding of € 25.000 That's dirt cheap if you remember what scratch2013bcn.org brought us for this kind of money. My experience learned me that most people prefer to spend their money on other things. E.g. yesterday I received a "no" from Google RISE Awards.
If we don't secure funding before mid January I want to cancel the project (or hand over to someone else wanting to take the risk).
I've funds to organize one preparation meeting. If you are available for a meeting in Amsterdam the second weekend of January 2015, working Saturday 10 and/or Sunday 11, you're welcome to help kick-off this event.
If you want part of the program to be scientific (peer reviewed / published in proceedings) and are available for a committee taking care of that let me know right away as this needs more time.
Joek@xota.nl
This time I'm willing to participate, and to help out if I can be of any help.
It'd be difficult for me to reach places outside Europe or the US (East Coast).
But I'll keep me posted with your work.
Best.
Once again, you better share your thoughts here as
I think on the possibillity of a conference daily. Was thinking of doing an opne invitation for organizers meeting in Amsterdam mid november or in Berlin during Wipsce 5-7 november. But first I want to have sponsorships for approx $25000, so I'm sure we can do without a deficit. I applied for Google RISE funding, pray your buddha.
As for places I reduced my options to Barcelona, Amsterdam and Berlin. You need to know the town a little (and have strong local partners) to set up a conference in a friendly afforable sphere (i.e. oppostite of venet organizers / conference center kind of meeting). Once again, other cities may equally qualify but should bring their own lead organizer.
There's no rule that says next conference is in Europe. There will be Asian Scratcher Forum at 8 November, Korea (info?) If the people present there manage to form a team for an Asian Scratch Conference next summer I'll happily postpone European initiative to 2017. Same goes for a Snap-Invites-Scratch-Fest on US west coast.
Please make some noise here so people can see it's worth their time to start organizing.
Joek
Jesús M.
Although we think it'd be more interesting to spread the Scratch movement to other locations, we'll be happy to offer the Citilab to host the Scratch Conference again, if needed.
The Citilab has a commitment with the Scratch family, and it will we a pleasure for us to help organize the Scratch Conference 2015.
I was just looking at the slide summary from the last conference in Barcelona http://creativecomputerlab.com/ScratchConf2013.pdf They sure covered an amazing amount of stuff and all very exciting stuff too! :)
I would be interested in helping out with the next conference if it is in Europe (or Canada but I think you're looking for a place outside of North America). It would really be helpful for someone to outline what the needs are, so I have a clear understanding of what that might entail. I've never been involved in hosting or helping organize a conference before, so maybe this would be way beyond my abilities. :)
I live in Switzerland, but usually spend my summers in Canada but I can be "wherever" really, if it is summer time.
How do we go about chosing a venue (a country)? Does someone just volunteer a venue and what does the venue have to provide in terms of rooms, exhibitions halls, IT infrastructure...? Is is expected that the venue be offered free of charge?
Sorry for the questions. You can tell I'm a detail-oriented person. :)
~Vivian
A lot of Europeans truly enjoyed the Barcelona conference and if a lot of people are in favour of another European edition I'm totally happy to take the lead. Another Citilab edition will benefit largely from the experience in 2013 and is a good option (I love the place!) Reaching out to Eastern parts of Europe is also a good idea. Places coming to mind: Berlin, Austria, Budapest, ...
And then there's a third option mentioned by Brian Harvey: Berkeley, California. I assume such a place will be attractive to Asians, Americans and Europeans alike ...
Keep up the good work with bringing Scratchconference to Europe.