10 Year Anniversary and Zabbix Conference [Archive]

richlv

01-11-2010, 13:45

edit: dates for the Zabbix conference & 10 year anniversary have been set to May 7-8, 2011

It's been a while since the first public release of Zabbix - almost 10 years. That's something worth celebrating, right? There also could be some event where Zabbix users could share their experiences, meet the developers and gain new knowledge about Zabbix. So what's the plan?

see http://blog.zabbix.com/10-year-anniversary-and-zabbix-conference for more info, discuss here :)

nelsonab

01-11-2010, 13:55

HOLY FREAKING CRAP THIS IS A GREAT IDEA!!!!

I've been wanting to come back to Riga for a while, but this would give yet one more reason! I could see setting up some group activities like walking around the city (which is actually a pretty nice place), or going to check out some of the old castles or something. In addition I'm sure Rich would gladly lead a couple of geocache expeditions. :-D

When is a good time for people to come to Riga? Spring?

richlv

01-11-2010, 15:20

When is a good time for people to come to Riga? Spring?

any time ;) (well, ok, autumn is risky)

note that there's absolutely no details yet (except that it would most likely be the second half of april), and that includes the location - it could be riga, or it could be some small, nice town somewhere on the countryside.

nelsonab

01-11-2010, 15:23

Red Hat Summit is May 3-6, so that's not a conflict.

I could envision a 2 day summit if you will. As much as I would love to see it go for 3 or more days I don't really see that happening, unless you add a full training track to it.

I'd be up for presenting a topic or three. :-) I think a fun and great topic would be to present something like "Zabbix, and how not to do it". This way someone could collect a lot of the nuggets of wisdom from the forums and present best practices in a "How not to do it" manner.

I think there should be a fun name for the evening... "Monitoring your beer with the Zabbix crew"

I also think it would be great to see if we could get Florin to come out, with a few of his devices to show us all!

walterheck

02-11-2010, 18:49

Sounds like a great idea, and I might actually be in Europe around that time, yay!

1) I'd be up for presenting some sessions as well. Ideas:
- Experiences/challenges with getting zabbix to function in a hosted setup
- Getting started with Zabbix API
- Bridging Drupal and Zabbix
2) Problem with this concept is that I wonder if it is not too narrow. Might be interesting to pull this to a wider crowd and make it an open source monitoring conference or something like that?
3) Like the mysql user conference, it would be great to offer zabbix certification exams at bargain prices. It gets a lot of attention at the mysql conf, as when you pay the conf ticket, the exam is only 50USD (per try). That way, a lot of new certfied specialists walk away from the conf, benefiting zabbix in the long run :)
4) Please don't make it April 22nd, that's my mom's birthday ;)

jthakrar

03-11-2010, 08:55

Here are some more thoughts.....

Timing
Spring / Summer is the best.
Having been there this June, I found the long daytime quite beneficial in doing sightseeing 8-)

Topics
Besides the "usual/regular monitoring" sessions, would also like to see some tracks/presentations on non-hardware and non-OS monitoring - e.g. databases, middleware, cloud, ERP, etc. These could include sessions from people who are using it for monitoring other than just hardware/network as well as tips/best practices on how to develop "plugins".

Certification
This certainly is a very good idea!

Workshops and/or Hands-on Labs
Keeping a few workstations or virtual environments around and trying out stuff with 1.9 and 2.0 stuff would be great.

Challenge of the Day
The hands-on labs/workshops can be made more interesting by setting some challenging monitoring or other scenario/setup to be solved.

The API
The conference would be incomplete without a session or two and/or hands-on lab on the API 8-)

nelsonab

22-12-2010, 20:41

Any more discussion in the office about this? Or would it be more like "Hang out with the Zabbix team for a day or two then head home?"

richlv

23-12-2010, 19:48

Or would it be more like "Hang out with the Zabbix team for a day or two then head home?"

that would be a bit sad, eh ? go around the world to look at some geeks for a few days... i'm sure most can get that closer to home =)

so there's obviously huge hope to have something more, but there's always the huge problem of spare time. thanks for the push, though - so far interest on this thread has been a bit... small :)

make sure to remind about this topic more often ;)

nelsonab

23-12-2010, 19:56

You know me, I can champion an idea... :-)

I think what needs to happen is that someone set a date and location. Then adjust the plans form there. If more people want to show up, then get a bigger place, if fewer show up then go to to Plan B which might be to hang out in the office for a week, maybe in the process we could get Aly to teach a class on how to write your own improvement to the UI with pointers on what to do to get them included. Maybe Alexi could buy the Balsams for all the foreigners...

Bottom line. Finalize a date, suggest some hotels, and perhaps find a conference center for about 20-40 people. Unless you can piggyback on another conference or hold it in a place West of Berlin (Though Berlin is a cool place too) I don't know if you'll really break 20. And if all you get is 20 people that can still be cool. This would be a chance for the participants and the Zabbix team to meet and brainstorm together, and perhaps create a new feature or two during that time.

Set a time and location and let's work from there, otherwise it's going to be like herding cats.

zalex_ua

23-12-2010, 21:45

thanks for the push, though - so far interest on this thread has been a bit... small :)

hey-hey, it is not true. I was two weeks ago filed a request for a new foreign passport (old lost the time validity).
Therefore set aside the pessimism, the preparation is in full speed.
Even if my university does not give a business trip - I'm still coming. So do not relax. :)
You have a chance to be the firstest in the world who will hear my English speech :D

p.s. If I will have enough inspiration - I will prepare an awesome surprise. :rolleyes:

nelsonab

23-12-2010, 21:53

p.s. If I will have enough inspiration - I will prepare an awesome surprise. :rolleyes:

/me runs and hides in terror....

qix

28-12-2010, 11:15

10 years already? :eek:

I've been using Zabbix for about 4 years now, and I really like it!
I will definitely advice it to most people when they need a monitoring tool.

So, yeah, I'm also interested in a Zabbix meeting for the 10 year anniversary :D
I does however depend a bit on the location if I will come along.

richlv

13-01-2011, 11:15

May 7-8

so that's the current proposal ;)
anybody knows of a huuuuuge event that happens at the same time ?

nelsonab

13-01-2011, 16:24

Nope.

Can't do it...

Red Hat summit is that week in Boston, May 3-6. I'm waiting to see if I'll be giving a presentation on Zabbix there.

nelsonab

13-01-2011, 16:27

I should know in the next 2-3 days though. (The schedule says I should know today but I'm padding the schedule just in case)

nelsonab

13-01-2011, 20:04

May 7-8 works for me!

Rejected... oh well, next time.

walterheck

14-01-2011, 15:07

Not super big, but related: http://datacharmer.blogspot.com/2011/01/announcing-open-database-camp-sardinia.html

qix

18-01-2011, 11:20

The date is wrong, but it is going to be big:

http://events.ccc.de/2010/08/10/chaos-communication-camp-2011/

No exact infos yet, just location and date for now.

richlv

24-01-2011, 17:04

May 7-8, 2011

so those are the dates for the event. while more specific location will be set shortly, it will be in/near riga. event specific page also will be created to collect such information.

good ideas for a name that would be reusable well also welcome :)

nelsonab

24-01-2011, 17:07

zalex_ua

24-01-2011, 17:31

May 7-8, 2011

Excellent, I've got a new passport, it's time to prepare other documents to obtain a visa.

italux

18-02-2011, 17:29

richlv

18-02-2011, 17:43

And... wait my manager agree the travel ... o/

also something generic - if an invitation letter or similar is needed for visa or other purposes, we surely can arrange something :)

qix

15-03-2011, 10:06

Anyway the decision was made. Zabbix Conference 2011 was postponed to Autumn 2011, no precise date is set yet. Please stay tuned for further announcements.

Any word on a new date yet?

Also, I like the idea of being able to get a discount on the Zabbix Certified exam like Walterheck suggested.

qix

05-04-2011, 21:15

Also......T-SHIRTS!!!!

pearlcabrezos

07-04-2011, 17:01

oh! 10 years already??

jthakrar

10-04-2011, 07:42

Just wondering - can the conference include things like
- who uses Zabbix
- some unique ways that Zabbix is being used
- different monitoring add-ons / plugins developed
- hackathon / coding camps or something like that
- prizes for new/innovative ideas/suggestions/recommendations
(these can be done by using voting by conference participants as well as others)
- we need to get the onsite crowd excited and the virtual crowd involved
(maybe via streaming, etc. - now that Youtube live has been launched ;-)

richlv

12-04-2011, 06:37

Just wondering - can the conference include things like
- who uses Zabbix
- some unique ways that Zabbix is being used
- different monitoring add-ons / plugins developed

i think these would be wonderful topics to have in any case - as long as we have enough people interested in talking about really great things ;)

- hackathon / coding camps or something like that
- prizes for new/innovative ideas/suggestions/recommendations
(these can be done by using voting by conference participants as well as others)

this probably depends on the scope of the event. would it be more about business-oriented discussions ? more about technical side ? both intermixed, or both in parallel ? finding out what participants would enjoy the most would be crucial.

- we need to get the onsite crowd excited and the virtual crowd involved
(maybe via streaming, etc. - now that Youtube live has been launched ;-)

i guess the "buzz" is just a matter of getting everything else right, then it will be much easier to create :)

Alexei

13-04-2011, 17:55

We are seriously considering September 30 - October 1, 2011 as the conference date. Please let me know if anyone here has any serious objections. We'd like to agree and publish the dates tomorrow. :)

nelsonab

13-04-2011, 18:18

Make it so number one...

qix

19-04-2011, 10:16

I have no objections and I'm looking forward to going to Riga :)
Please set the date so I can put things in motion!

Alexei

20-04-2011, 10:03

The date of the conference is already set: http://www.zabbix.com/conference2011.php. You are very welcome! ;)

qix

20-04-2011, 10:31

Great news! I've just mailed you guys for pre-registration :D

GArmao

03-06-2011, 09:05

any news about 2.0 certification during the conference? that would be something awesome!

also, count me in to form a geocaching expedition in Riga, I already found a couple of them the last october when I came for the 1.8 and large environment certification :)

richlv

07-06-2011, 12:05

not sure about 2.0 cert details, lots of things happening.

regarding gps-addicted entertainment... an upgrade from geocaching, called openstreetmap (http://www.openstreetmap.org/), might be more challenging ;)

we could have a mapping party (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mapping_parties) !