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We’re looking for someone who can publish a regular “What You Missed This Week” blog post on PowerShell.org each Friday (excepting the odd week off for vacations, of course).
This is meant just as a roundup of interesting posts from around the web; we know tons of people are blogging in their own spaces, and we’d like to call attention to some of the more noteworthy ones.
This isn’t any more complex than a brief blurb for each:
Back in… gosh, 2009, 2010 or so, an Arizona company named NetPro hosted PowerShell Deep Dive, part of their The Experts Conference event (the first was held in Las Vegas for just 50 people). After hosting two years (I think) though, NetPro was purchased by Quest Software, which moved to close down TEC. I may have those years slightly off, but that’s the general sequence.
In 2012, myself, Jeff Hicks, Richard Siddaway, Jason Helmick, and Kirk Munro had formed PowerShell.org, attempting to make good on the basically-defunct PowerShellCommunity.org that I’d started and that Quest now basically owned (and was shutting down).
In August 2012 Jason and I were out in Redmond for a TechMentor conference, and…
Erin Chapple and Kenneth Hansen, who were running the PowerShell team at the time, asked us over to building 43 for lunch one day. They told us that community engagement was huge for them–they needed to know how people were using their product, and what they needed to focus on. They got plenty of engagement at TechEd events, they said, but it was largely beginners; they needed the Deep Dive, or something like it, to stay in touch with hardcore users.
In April 2013, the first PowerShell Summit was held.
“We can’t give you any money, though,” Kenneth said. And for good reason: they wanted an event that could sustain itself, so that when Microsoft inevitably reorganized and got distracted, the event wouldn’t die. To help, they volunteered to get us space on-campus, so our first event was in conference rooms, and they helped guarantee the food deposits. That helped give us a tiny financial pad and some experience, so in 2014 when we moved to Meydenbauer Center, we weren’t a brand-new event with an inexperienced team.
Today, Summit is formally owned by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and venue and food deposits no longer have to go on my personal Amex ;). We’ve built enough operating margin that Summit can pay its own deposits until registrations start rolling in, and the event is essentially self-sustaining–we don’t even rely on corporate sponsors, although we’re very happy to have them when we can. We’ve held six events in the US, and two in Europe, which led to the launch of PSConf.eu a few years back.
Jason ran across this page in his journal last night and sent the photo, and with his permission I thought it would be a fun piece of community history to share.
We need your help.
As you may have heard, we’re launching a new “OnRamp” track at PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit 2019. Limited to 40 students, this will be a hands-on class designed to bootstrap someone into the technology and our community. There’s a whole brochure about it!
We’re also offering a number of free-ride scholarships designed to cover admission, air, and hotel, to help increase the diversity of our field and community right at the top of the funnel. Half of our scholarships will be awarded to individuals from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in IT, and that’s where we need your help.
We need to get the word out to potential applicants so that they know to apply!
We’ve been conducting a survey of Summit 2018, now that it’s in the past, and wanted to share some of our immediate take-aways. The survey is still open for Summiteers until end of April 2018; you should have the URL in a follow-up email and can inquire in the Slack team if you need it.
This week at PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit 2018, we announced a change in leadership for The DevOps Collective, the nonprofit organization that runs Summit, PowerShell.org, and other programs.
Stepping in as CEO will be former Director of Online Services Will Anderson (@gamerlivingwill on Twitter). As CEO, Will takes on day to day responsibility for running Summit, managing the website, and keeping our other programs on track. He will be assembling a team, including our new CFO James Petty, to help him with those tasks. Many of our current crew, including Richard Siddaway and Jeff Hicks, will continue their major contributions to Summit and other activities, and Will is already speaking with other community members who will be joining our team for the first time. Jeffrey Bernt will take on additional responsibilities for Summit logistics, backed by our long-time logistics expert Christopher Gannon. This is all part of what has always been our plan to involve more community members in the organization’s operation, and to help to ensure the long term success and survival of all our programs.
I will remain the organization’s President. This enables me to stay on the advise Will and his team, help document how we do things, and focus on the organization’s future. Will’s move to CEO will free up space for me to work on new projects that further the organization’s mission, and to grow the organization to better serve our community. I’ve some fun things in mind that you’ll hopefully get to see someday soon.
Information is now available at IronScripter.us for the at-Summit events, and participants are advised to refresh themselves on the Rules.
Participants attending Summit should begin choosing their faction and getting to know their teammates in the faction-specific channels of the DevOps-Summit Slack team (open only to attendees and alumni).
Participants hoping to participate remotely may wish to start choosing a faction and finding a way to get in touch with them. The Faction Discussion may be a good way to do that.
We sent out a big email blast to everyone this morning (noon Eastern time), and if you didn’t get it it’s because (probably) your corporate email is block-block-blocking us. You’re welcome to sign up a personal email address at http://eepurl.com/cEcNlT, if you’d like. We’ll also continue to post communications in the #summit-events channel in the Slack team. A PDF of this morning’s email is here, although this’ll be the last one we post publicly.
Important Pre-Summit Information
That mailing list and our Slack team are going to be our best way to communicate with Summiteers, so make sure one of them is working for you.
As I write this, we’ve sold out. Here’s what happens next:
We need to finish reconciling our speaker slots and PowerShell team seats, which will take about a week. That may result in a free seat or two, which we will place on sale. Watch @PSHSummit on Twitter for that announcement.
A WAITLIST IS AVAILABLE ON THE REGISTRATION PAGE. Sign up if you’d like first notice of released inventory and a 24h window to claim a seat
Beyond that, monitor the Summit discussion forum here. We often have last minute cancellations, and while we don’t permit refunds, we do permit ticket holders to transfer their tickets. We will advise them to post in the forum to solicit transferees. Financial arrangements for such transfers are private; we cannot facilitate those
That will do it for registration - aside from a possible small handful of seats coming out of our final reconciliation, and the opportunity of purchasing a ticket from a cancellation, there won’t be additional inventory. We’re not looking to increase attendance for 2019, either; we will be sticking at the current attendee count for the foreseeable future.
Big thanks to our returning and new Summiteers! We are looking forward to seeing you in April!
This is a bit of a long post, but we promise - it’s important, and it’s worth it.
Refunds & Transfers
Because this is the time of year when it starts to come up, remember that we don’t offer registration refunds. You’re welcome to transfer your membership, however, at no fee. Just log into EventBrite (if someone else registered you, they’ll need to do this) and change the attendee information. Voila!
Pre-Arrival
For the love of all that is good and just in the world, make sure you have your EventBrite ticket. That can be printed, in the EventBrite phone app, in an email on your phone, or whatever - we just need the barcode. If you don’t have this, there will be a Sad Summiteer line for you to stand in, where we can look you up by name or order number.
Speakers! You’re not in EventBrite yet, but you will be. Right before Summit, we’ll be registering you, so be sure to watch your email. If you haven’t provided Richard with a good email address (we STRONGLY suggest a personal one to avoid corporate spam-traps), please do so NOW.
Registration Process
When you get to the Meydenbauer Center, go DOWNSTAIRS to Center Hall A and B. This is not where we’ve been in the past. Do not go upstairs.
Step 1 will be to get your EventBrite ticket scanned. Don’t have yours? Sad panda, you’ll need to stand in Sad Summiteer line for a manual name lookup. Then…
Step 2, find your badge (organized by last name), and insert it into a badge holder. Then, on to…
Step 3 is T-Shirt pickup. This must be done right then - we won’t have this set up later, and leftovers will be donated to a local charity. If you’re skipping Monday for some reason, you will not get your shirt. We will have tables set up for each shirt size. Go to the table corresponding to your pre-selected choice in EventBrite, where your name will be checked against a list. You shirt size is also printed on your name badge for your convenience.
This is a good time to double-check your EventBrite shirt size selection. You can change it until March 5th or so (if someone else registered you, they will need to make the change for you as well). You cannot change your mind later because we’re ordering the exact quantities indicated in EventBrite. Speakers! We collected your shirt size during the Call for Topics; check with Richard Siddaway on your shirt size, if you need to. Do this RIGHT NOW if you’re not certain.
Step 4 is breakfast. Enjoy. And wear your badge at all times, please.
Venue Layout
Monday, we’ll be downstairs in Center Hall A and B all day. All day! Tuesday-Thursday, we’re back in our traditional space upstairs (rooms 401-409) for all sessions; meals will remain downstairs in Center Hall. During meal times, all escalators will run in the direction of food; about halfway through meal breaks, we’ll run them all back int he direction of sessions. If you want to go the opposite direction for some weird reason, take the elevators. Do not run wrong-ways on the escalators.
GET THE SCHEDULE APP!
If you hustle to the schedule website (linked from PowerShellSummit.org), we suggest you bookmark it. Then, get our iPhone or Android app for your phones. If you need a Windows Phone app, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. The app is where ALL schedule changes will be reflected. Install it. Examine it. Love it.
CHOOSE YOUR FACTION!
If you haven’t already been participating in Iron Scripter Prequel on PowerShell.org, jump in. And use the #faction- channels in our Slack team to find the faction whose style fits you best. Locate members of your faction all week, and get to be friends - because you’ll need each other for the epic, annual IRON SCRIPTER tournament Thursday afternoon! (And we may have some faction-logo rubber stamps wandering around, if you’d like to indicate your faction loyalty on your name badge!)
Open Spaces / Side Sessions
Tuesday-Thursday, rooms 407 and 408 will be available for ad-hoc “Side Sessions.” We do not provide A/V in these rooms, but you can suggest a session anytime you like. Email your suggestions to sidesessions@powershell.org. If you have a time slot request, or a time you don’t want your session to be, just mention it. We’ll do our best to accommodate, reply to you, and add you to the schedule. We’ll announce sessions each morning, so try to schedule at least by the day before.
Session Reviews
THESE ARE IMPORTANT. DO THEM. You can do so right from within our app, or the Sched.com website. Reviews end on Thursday afternoon, so you can’t save these up and do them a week later, sorry.
Power Cord Policy
Do not under any circumstances WHATSOEVER drag a power cord across any walkway. Do not leave your electronics leaning against the wall in an attempt to avoid running a cord across the walkway. This is serious, Fire Marshal business. Do not poke the Fire Marshall - his office is literally across the street.
Slack
People often use the Slack team to coordinate dinners and more; we recommend getting their mobile app and logging into the DevOps-Summit workspace.
Hug Jason
Hugs are an important part of Jason Helmick’s personal economy, and as this is his last year serving as our CFO, please take a moment to thank the big bald goofball for his service.
Spouse / Guest Passes
Please bear in mind that only paid attendees are permitted to any and all Summit activities - this is as much about insurance requirements as it is our costs. We did offer Spouse/Guest passes on the main registration site - those provide access to our Monday and Wednesday evening events only. Please ensure your guest brings their EventBrite ticket (barcode) with them to each event. We cannot accommodate early admission for guests.
First: Please share this as widely as possible in your social media channels, so we can get the most number of suggestions possible!
We’re working with the PowerShell team at Microsoft to identify individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the PowerShell community. Perhaps they’ve written blog posts that really helped you conquer a PowerShell challenge, or maybe they’ve contributed code (on GitHub or elsewhere) that you rely on. Maybe they’re an amazing teacher, or perhaps they’re an awesome coder. Whatever their contribution, if it’s been notable and helpful to you, we’d like to hear from you.
