A proposal for your thoughts, as we plan future FUDCons...

[Robyn Bergeron]

I'd like to get feedback on a possible thought around FUDCon.  I've 
spoken with some folks about it in passing but I think it might be 
worthwhile to bring up as an idea for pondering.

The idea is fairly simple: Trying out the idea of having a US-based 
"worldwide" FUDCon for a year. I think we had a great deal of success, 
and quite a bit of added productivity, in bringing in a handful of 
contributors from other regions for the Tempe FUDCon just a few months 
ago.  I believe that adding larger numbers of contributors from other 
regions might help to scale that productivity and "getting things done" 
in a great way.

I'd suggest that this would work in the following way: Rather than have 
the NA FUDCon in Q4 of Red Hat's 2012 fiscal year (December 2011 - 
February 2012), we allocate Q4 budget, plus the majority of next year's 
budget for ALL FUDCons, towards a FUDCon in sometime between March and 
July of next year (2012). We still use the regional money for the 
2012-2013 fiscal year by region, ie: 20k for bringing in folks from 
Europe, etc. I think we could bring in a BOATLOAD (or airplane-load, I 
suppose) of regional folks for that money.

And then shift back to having regular regional FUDCons the following 
year, and then possibly back to another worldwide fudcon the year 
following that, depending on success/fail.

(This might also have the benefit of having fudcon in the US in a season 
that, quite frankly, doesn't suck for travel with snow.)

Thoughts, comments, flames? I think it's worthwhile to at least consider 
the idea. I realize that we already have had the deadline pass for 
submitting bids for a FUDCon in NA late this year/early next year, 
though I suppose it's not entirely set in stone.  Pros/cons welcome!

-Robyn