Brooklyn Beta 2011
Despite our playful splash page inspired by one of our favorite Brooklyn beers, Brooklyn Beta does exist and it is taking place this year from October 12-14. Over the past six months, it has become increasingly clear that demand for BB tickets will far outpace supply. Lots of folks, including many friends I would greet with a hug, will be disappointed. This post is an attempt to offer some insight into the situation so everyone will know what to expect and maybe even take it easy on us when the tickets are gone.
At the end of last October, when folks were saying nice things about Brooklyn Beta, it felt good. Chris and I knew we wanted to create a conference, but it was by no means clear that we’d be able to create one that people liked. It’s not widely known that just two weeks before the event start date we had only 4 speakers (doesn’t count as a conference) and stood to lose about $15K each (money that we absolutely did not have). Needless to say, we weren’t sleeping great. In the end we got lucky. @k and @marcoarment took a chance on us and rounded out our fantastic speaker list. H&FJ, Mailchimp, Fontdeck, Ning, Siteleaf, and WonderProxy took a chance on us and saved us from the poor house. It wasn’t just sponsors and speakers who took a chance on us, it was friends and even strangers travelling from around the globe to attend a “friendly web conference” (whatever the hell that is). These people showed up not knowing what to expect and then made Brooklyn Beta awesome.
This awesomeness did not go unnoticed and demand for tickets this year is nothing short of frightening. Chris has the details on how we’re doing the tickets this year. We’ve tried to be as fair as possible with the process, but we are also trying to keep a lot of the magic of last year alive. To us, that means a couple things. First, we’re keeping the event small. We’ve made it about 30% bigger, which is not so much that it will lose last year’s intimacy. Second, we are inviting back quite a few of the folks who took an early chance on Brooklyn Beta and helped make it great. This includes our respective teams and studios, last year’s speakers and workshop leaders, our sponsors, last year’s crew, and a small batch of positive people like @lachlanhardy & @scenariogirl who signed on to BB from day 1, travelled from Australia, and had two of the best attitudes before, during, and after the conference. That still leaves quite a few tickets, but again, demand is high.
If you don’t get a ticket, please look at it as an opportunity. Build sold out in under 24 hours, 600 folks descended on Nottingham for Collycon, folks travel across the globe for Webstock, and people are currently kicking themselves for missing JSConf tickets. People want more friendly web conferences. Ones that are run by small groups of passionate folks. This is a great time to put on an event that shows off your neighborhood and your community. Put on a friendly web conference and they will come. (Me, too.)
