Last month I announced my next crazy idea, a free online conference, and then I asked for your help picking the logo. Now it’s time to take the wrapping off.
The first GroupBy Conference is now open for session submissions!
November 20-Dec 15 – Open call for abstracts, and readers can vote on which sessions they like.
December 16 – Voting closes, winners are announced, and registration starts. (No big mystery here, since your votes choose the winning sessions.)
January 13 – The first online event. We’ll be recording the sessions live, then uploading them to YouTube afterward for permanent archival.
I’m announcing it here on Ozar.me first because I wanna give you, dear reader, an early chance to get in on submitting abstracts. I’ll announce it next Tuesday on BrentOzar.com, which has a much higher readership audience, and at that point, sessions that are already in the running will have a much easier chance of getting high vote counts.
Head on over to GroupBy.org and check it out. For questions, feel free to use the forums over there. Let’s do this!
15 Comments. Leave new
Are you going to put ads on the YouTube channel?
No. (I don’t do it on our company channel either.)
The problem I have with YouTube ads is that you can’t really control the quality of what goes on there, and it can send the wrong message. Viewers can think that the ads are somehow endorsed by the content providers, and that’s a huge problem when the content providers might be consultants or software vendors. For example, I wouldn’t want Grant Fritchey’s session recording to have an ad pop up for, say, Idera.
Actually I was trying to figure out whether you were going to attempt to profit from the videos 🙂
Hahaha, no. (And I just added this explanation on the presenter FAQ page.)
I debated starting it as a separate non-profit org, but it’s essentially sponsored by Brent Ozar Unlimited, so I left it in as part of the company. GroupBy is using BOU’s GoToWebinar and WPengine hosting accounts, licenses for WordPress plugins, etc.
I don’t ever want GroupBy to make a dollar. Down the road, if the online events work in spectacular fashion, I can see using the same infrastructure for in-person events similar to SQLsaturday, but that will be a big bridge to cross. At that point, it’ll probably make sense to split it into a separate business entity.
Good to know. I’m looking forward to being involved!
Quick question.
On the groupby.org website, the information sais that you can change your ratings of the sessions later. But when I rate a session, close the page and then later return to it, I do not see my original rating – so how exactly does this “change my rating” process work?
If you leave it again, it should override your initial rating. (That’s the way it worked in testing anyway, hahaha.)
Fair enough, Brent; and what I would expect.
But can you please take as a feature request that I’d like to see my original rating when I return to the page?
(Also, I noticed that I cannot comment when not logged in, but I can rate. So how do you know when I am not logged in whether it is a new rating or a return rating?)
Hugo – sure, but for feedback, can you head on over to the site and use the forum? I’d appreciate it! Thanks.
Yes, you are right of course. I will add the suggestion on the forum
Hi Brent, this sounds like an excellent idea. I can tell that you’re confident in the idea seeing as you’ve scheduled the first event for Friday the 13th. Good luck
Hahaha, yeah! It worked really well with my schedule, and I didn’t even notice it was Friday the 13th until you said it! That’s awesome.
What are you going to do with the attendee contact information? Can you guarantee that this will not be sold or marketed to by third-parties?
Vincent – yep, absolutely! Will add that to the FAQ.
Vincent – I added this to the registration page – any tweaks you think I should make?
“Your contact information stays with us, and will not be released to third parties or presenters. (No, we’re not going to send you slimy “partner communications” either and spam on someone else’s behalf.)”