foss.my 2008 in summation
It’s over! I can’t speak for the others, but I know I’m still recovering. In summary: the event was awesome.
The Organising Committee
First, a word of thanks, to the people that didn’t get enough of it – the amazing organising committee, who scurried around for both the days (and much before that too – besides, we only had 43 days), to make sure things were a-happening. In no particular order:
- Aizat – You rock. From handling the registrations (since we don’t have a good payment gateway in Malaysia, he had to see photos, scanned receipts, and a lot more crap), to handling the registration desk, to writing “updates?” to the mailing list, to creating the initial website, to updating the website as and when I tell him to, to handling the volunteers and probably so much more – you rock. Thank you. You are now officially the foss.my registration and website dude.
- Ditesh – From the initial website, right down to monitoring the halls, to giving suggestions to whom might be great local speakers, to dropping in and giving a most fabulous keynote, you rock.
- Angch – Hall monitor, to bank account bootstrapper, and all around great help, you rock. Thanks for also getting your company to be a sponsor!
- Yoon Kit – From the press, right down to the speaker gifts, if it wasn’t for you, there would be no opening keynote. You rock!
- Kaeru – From the initial idea, to handling the PR, for sponsoring the event, and for giving a last minute talk about ORCA, while the speaker was down with a bad fever, you rock. And folk, he did this all while changing jobs!
- Izhar – You did the posters. You did the amazing “I Love…” badges. You handled the food preparation. You also participated in a “side session”. You sorted out hotels. And you had exams on Monday (the day after foss.my). You rock for being an all round gopher! Your mother also rocks :)
- Yondie – You’re Mr. Subway. Thank you for sorting out the food, and thank you for harnessing the power of volunteers to make sure things ran smoothly. You are now officially the foss.my food dude (probably alongside Izhar :P).
- Wariola – You’re Mr. T-Shirts. Without you, there will be no foss.my t-shirts, so you rock!
- Gurdip – Not enough can be said about you. Thank you for giving us the great location, that was APIIT, to sorting out the logistics, the driver, the booking of hotels, to getting the nice (and easy on the eyes) volunteers, to making sure the network worked, to ensuring we had power sockets, you rock!
- Suanie – Without you, we would have no speaker/organiser/volunteer party. Without you, there would be no press. You rock, and we’re sorry you couldn’t be at the event (hope the weekend in Singapore was productive, though).
- Firdaus – For registering foss.my events, with the RoS, and for also going to get that bank account, you rock.
The Volunteers
Thank you for taking time off from your busy weekend, to come spend time with a bunch of free and open source lovers. There has to also be a special mention to Sean, who single-handedly sorted out the logo for us, early in the game.
The rest
Speakers, you rock. Without you, there would be no event in under 45 days (on Sunday, led the 45th day).
Sponsors, you rock. Without you, this event would have to cost a lot more money, and nobody would have liked that.
If I missed anyone, E&OE.
In conclusion
I believe foss.my has been deemed as a technical conference. Fluffy talks weren’t taken kindly to, even during the lighting talk sessions.
I believe foss.my will continue to exist in 2009.
I believe foss.my will be longer than two days, to ensure that there is enough time to move in between rooms, hack while you’re there, and so on.
So, to foss.my 2009, bigger and better, and a lot more well planned, than foss.my 2008 :) Don’t forget to give us feedback.
