morning.... just saw this...

😞 😞 😞

I just started organising things for this, who to meet etc.

I also intended to join this year, I’m sad to see it go

I had already booked train and hotel.

Just saw this as well, alreay booked everything 😐

This is so sad

it was a very good conference and a beacon for Europe Clojurists

we should check the law, maybe we have some ownership on these because we were the subjects

I can’t believe one could wipe it out just like this

Unfortunately, with receivership, there's not much you can do

You're an unsecured creditor

which means you come way way way way wwwwaay down the list of who gets any compensation, or even money back

It's possible, perhaps via travel insurance, to claim your money back for hotel/flights etc, check policy?

Yup, there was no refund clause on my hotel and flights, wasn’t a fortune. Just part of the gig.

@slipset @jr0cket @olical Yeah, I was thinking we could just reserve an entire large-ish pub for two days from 0800-1730. If those attending commit to purchasing lunch + dinner and a drink or two we could probably get to use the venue for free (i.e. they waive the minimum spend) Do we know how many attendees were scheduled to attend? We could reach out the the scheduled speakers and see if they would be willing to come despite not being refunded flights/hotels?

I wasn't being refunded anyhoop 🙂

@cfeckardt only downside would be that I'd have to finish my talk and that it wouldn't get recorded. The latter may or may not be a downside.

hah

^^ Would the above be something you’d be interested in, in lieu of ClojureX being cancelled? @jasonbell @dana.borinski @olical @danieleneal @ztellman @peterwestmacott @firthh @salaun.clement @kennethkalmer

I would imagine that the first thing we'd need is an official notice that ClojureX has been cancelled.

Yeah of course, but it’d be good to know if people were still interested if (🙏 not) it does get officially cancelled, because Christmas is around the corner we’ll probably have to move quickly if we’re going to find a venue. So best to reach out asap, to not waste any time.

Agreed

@cfeckardt Interested! Already booked everything anyway and my talk is almost-ish ready, would be great to see the community making it happen 🙂

I'd love to come

im interested as well and also have everything booked already 😎

hadn't booked anything, 'cos i'm near london, but i have/had a clojurex ticket, and would be interested in an alternative

@cfeckardt That’s very kind but I’ve cancelled my work holiday and made other plans, I’ve got book edits to do anyway. Thank you for thinking of me though.

Full list of speakers before it goes under

I think it would be great if the conference still went ahead with the venue change. I know in the past ClojureX, The Crypt in St James church in Clarkenwell was used as the venue… It really would be good to know how many people would still attend and how many people would still present and then maybe it can be taken from there? Does anybody know if the tickets for the speakers were already purchased? What about their accommodation? Because if that was handled, then potentially it could still happen. What do you think?

https://github.com/slipset/clojurex2019/blob/master/programme.md

It seems like a lot of spaces offer Daily Delegate Rates, where you pay per-attendee. Prices seem to range from £40-£90 per person per day in central. Ordinarily you'd need to book well in advance but it might be worth looking into for rooms in large hotels, etc, which have the infrastructure to do it on short notice.

The other challenge would be to communicate with attendees, as only SkillsMatter has this list today

Yea, but I guess if you’re “loud enough”, by posting on Reddit/Slack/other social media channels, then people will pick this up, or at least a large part of them.

Here is the sample form, please suggest in thread what other questions/considerations should we have: https://forms.gle/fAKVw2E2SLEd8SH47

If you can peg a location with a DDR offer, that's all-inclusive for the basics (basic A/V, sandwich lunch, refreshments). As a benchmark, the Canary Wharf Hilton appears to offer a ~100 person room for £450 minimum spend and £50 per person. It's going to be higher closer to moorgate. Barbican, which is basically next door to the original location, seems to be £69 per person with a 30 person minimum.

Ignoring other costs, that means you can offer a concrete value for a replacement ticket with less risk.

No bones about it, organising a conference at short notice is very tricky

Called Skills Matter, no response, called Resolve (the administrator), the person handling the case is in a meeting right now but the receptionist said they'd get back to me.

I’ve just been in contact with @ztellman and informed him of the situation. It was news to him.

If Anyone(TM) has Chris McCormicks contact details, it would be great to inform him as well.

An official statement announcing that ClojureX is cancelled (if that is in fact the case) would be great too, I guess.

@jr0cket ^^?

Yeah at least updating the website and removing ticket sales button would prevent further damage as the conference date is getting closer

I don’t think I’ll be able to make the alternate conf, but I hope everyone local will be able to salvage something

https://clojure.org/events/2019/clojurex

Via @ztellman

Sent a PM to Chris on Twitter as well.

Apparently they "aren't yet liquidating, they're actively looking for a buyer," which might be why they haven't overtly cancelled https://twitter.com/robsmallshire/status/1191760311403061248

Like everyone else - very sad to see SkillsMatter go ;/

Really enjoyed the 2 conferences I got to attend a few years back... Grails and Microservices ...

But I've been an avid follower of the videos of DDD and ClojureX amongst others

And yes ... selfishly my first thought was about what will happen to the videos ... they are a brilliant resource

I can only hope that London devs will coalesce around other events that over time might do as good a job as SkillsMatter did.

Or indeed that SkillsMatter lives on with a new buyer 🙂

I have spoken to an event coordinator from http://talent.io today. I explained the situation and he seemed confident and willing to help sort out a venue for a clojure conference at 'no cost'. He's available for a call tomorrow. Would anyone be willing to join in on that call, to help clarify requirements and expectations?

Hi X,

It was nice to meet you today. What did you think of the presentation?

I have looked at the  website and am intrigued about your service. It sounds like a good way to get in touch with potential customers, and is definitely something I would consider in the future.

We spoke briefly today about the Clojure London conference ClojureX being cancelled as the company that manages it has gone into administration yesterday. 

A large number of developers and the speakers have already booked travel and accommodation to London (from all over the world) and are disappointed that it won't go ahead.

However, the community is rallying around trying to salvage something and get at least scaled down version of the conference happening somewhere in the UK. Last
t year 300 people attended and we are trying to estimate numbers for this year, as well as confirm how many speakers would be able to make it without getting remunerated (realistically I think we'll only be able to fill one day instead of the planned two)

For a bare bones event to take place all that is needed is a venue and a projector.

You had mentioned that  organises these sort of meetups regularly and that you might be able to help us on short notice.

Do you think this is something you'd be able to assist with? Are you still available for a call tomorrow?

Kind regards
Fredrik

This is great news

I wouldn't count my chickens just yet but with a bit of luck it might lead to something

Putting together a list of potential speaker, will try to get in touch with them all => https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1flEvhRNLH6qbAGfdxdUNnaylnX-GK1fdNNMz9OndlBY/edit?usp=sharing

@jasonbell ~ how many attendees last year?

@cfeckardt CodeNode's largest room has a capacity of 300 in theatre format, so I'm guessing that's the max

@cfeckardt At a guess, I think it was ~150-170 but that’s a guess and I’m not really the best person to ask.

Great e-mail sent

So, to summarise: @dotemacs is handling getting together an attendee list, and generally gauging the interest for a resurrection. @salaun.clement is reaching out to speakers to see if they will be willing to still attend @cfeckardt (me) is trying to sort out a venue. If we can get a venue we also need to sort out food and drink (and figure out how to finance it, one way would just be to have a collection jar with reasonable prices. Then donate any proceeds to CIDER/clj-kondo/other project 😃)

But why bother with organising the food & drinks? It’ll never please everybody and we can just assume that the attendees are grown up enough to get their own food. I mean, they probably do that any other day of their lives. Maybe we can just concentrate on the essentials first: - get the speakers - get the venue - get enough people to turn up - then worry about getting it filmed

I did email the people behind Lambda Ale, a functional conference in a pub, about their venue and capacity…

Maybe we can take a leaf out of this “book” (in particular the section Long breaks): https://lambdaisland.com/blog/2019-08-09-fork-this-conference

By having those longer breaks, it’ll give people time to chat and go get their food