Okay, I know I want to go to DrupalCon... but I'm just an SE employee. We want to hear what the community thinks. There was already a short promotion post related to the conference, but March is coming up fast, and it's time to start planning in earnest.

Some quick info:

• Drupalcon Denver is nominally March 19-23, 2012. However, there are typically pre/post conference events very worth attending.

• Buying tickets by February 21st we get them for $350/each. After that it's $400 each. (Unless individual participants happen to be eligible for speaker, sprint leader, or other discounts, but we can hash that out later.)

• The main Hotel (Hyatt Regency) has a $175/night rate for anyone going to the conference. It's wise to book sooner rather than later -- typically the hotel fills up fast once sessions are announced (November 16th in this case). We reduce our exposure considerably by being in another hotel, as that reduces access to after-hours and informal events where a lot of the real networking happens.

• Not knowing who we're sending or where they live, I can't guess at travel prices.

• Sponsorship opportunities range from $45k down to $4k and include various stuff detailed here. I have no idea how much money SE plans to throw at this, but (assuming we go, which I think we should), I'll do my best to make sure that whatever number we come up with is spent as effectively as possible.

I can't think of a better opportunity to promote our site to the Drupal community. In addition to the obvious opportunity to make thousands of attending Drupallers aware that we exist, it's likely that getting a few more Drupal opinion-makers interested in Drupal.SE (or at least convinced that we aren't a threat to Drupal's own support efforts) it'll filter down quickly and help Drupal.SE grow.

Should Drupal.SE send some users to DrupalCon? Who? What should they do there?

Okay, I know I want to go to DrupalCon... but I'm just an SE employee. We want to hear what the community thinks. There was already a short promotion post related to the conference, but March is coming up fast, and it's time to start planning in earnest.

Some quick info:

• Drupalcon Denver is nominally March 19-23, 2012. However, there are typically pre/post conference events very worth attending.

• Buying tickets by February 21st we get them for $350/each. After that it's $400 each. (Unless individual participants happen to be eligible for speaker, sprint leader, or other discounts, but we can hash that out later.)

• The main Hotel (Hyatt Regency) has a $175/night rate for anyone going to the conference. It's wise to book sooner rather than later -- typically the hotel fills up fast once sessions are announced (November 16th in this case). We reduce our exposure considerably by being in another hotel, as that reduces access to after-hours and informal events where a lot of the real networking happens.

• Not knowing who we're sending or where they live, I can't guess at travel prices.

• Sponsorship opportunities range from $45k down to $4k and include various stuff detailed here. I have no idea how much money SE plans to throw at this, but (assuming we go, which I think we should), I'll do my best to make sure that whatever number we come up with is spent as effectively as possible.

I can't think of a better opportunity to promote our site to the Drupal community. In addition to the obvious opportunity to make thousands of attending Drupallers aware that we exist, it's likely that getting a few more Drupal opinion-makers interested in Drupal.SE (or at least convinced that we aren't a threat to Drupal's own support efforts) it'll filter down quickly and help Drupal.SE grow.

Should Drupal.SE send some users to DrupalCon? Who? What should they do there?

Okay, I know I want to go to DrupalCon... but I'm just an SE employee. We want to hear what the community thinks. There was already a short promotion post related to the conference, but March is coming up fast, and it's time to start planning in earnest.

Some quick info:

• Drupalcon Denver is nominally March 19-23, 2012. However, there are typically pre/post conference events very worth attending.

• Buying tickets by February 21st we get them for $350/each. After that it's $400 each. (Unless individual participants happen to be eligible for speaker, sprint leader, or other discounts, but we can hash that out later.)

• The main Hotel (Hyatt Regency) has a $175/night rate for anyone going to the conference. It's wise to book sooner rather than later -- typically the hotel fills up fast once sessions are announced (November 16th in this case). We reduce our exposure considerably by being in another hotel, as that reduces access to after-hours and informal events where a lot of the real networking happens.

• Not knowing who we're sending or where they live, I can't guess at travel prices.

• Sponsorship opportunities range from $45k down to $4k and include various stuff detailed here. I have no idea how much money SE plans to throw at this, but (assuming we go, which I think we should), I'll do my best to make sure that whatever number we come up with is spent as effectively as possible.

I can't think of a better opportunity to promote our site to the Drupal community. In addition to the obvious opportunity to make thousands of attending Drupallers aware that we exist, it's likely that getting a few more Drupal opinion-makers interested in Drupal.SE (or at least convinced that we aren't a threat to Drupal's own support efforts) it'll filter down quickly and help Drupal.SE grow.

Okay, I know I want to go to DrupalCon... but I'm just an SE employee. We want to hear what the community thinks. There was already a short promotion post related to the conference, but March is coming up fast, and it's time to start planning in earnest.

Some quick info:

• Drupalcon Denver is nominally March 19-23, 2012. However, there are typically pre/post conference events very worth attending.

• Buying tickets by February 21st we get them for $350/each. After that it's $400 each. (Unless individual participants happen to be eligible for speaker, sprint leader, or other discounts, but we can hash that out later.)

• The main Hotel (Hyatt Regency) has a $175/night rate for anyone going to the conference. It's wise to book sooner rather than later -- typically the hotel fills up fast once sessions are announced (November 16th in this case). We reduce our exposure considerably by being in another hotel, as that reduces access to after-hours and informal events where a lot of the real networking happens.

• Not knowing who we're sending or where they live, I can't guess at travel prices.

• Sponsorship opportunities range from $45k down to $4k and include various stuff detailed here. I have no idea how much money SE plans to throw at this, but (assuming we go, which I think we should), I'll do my best to make sure that whatever number we come up with is spent as effectively as possible.

I can't think of a better opportunity to promote our site to the Drupal community. In addition to the obvious opportunity to make thousands of attending Drupallers aware that we exist, it's likely that getting a few more Drupal opinion-makers interested in Drupal.SE (or at least convinced that we aren't a threat to Drupal's own support efforts) it'll filter down quickly and help Drupal.SE grow.

Should Drupal.SE send some users to DrupalCon? Who? What should they do there?