Travis Swicegood

Conferences as fundraisers for charity

Published On
May 22 2007
Author
Travis Swicegood

Dave Thomas - as in code, not spicy chicken sandwiches or the best bike wheels in Arizona - just posted a challenge to other conference organizers:

So the Rails Community has shown what's possible [by raising $33,000 for charity]. Let's not let it stop there. Everyone in our industry is privileged; we're all way better off than the folks being helped by these charities. So let's take this up to the next level. Let's see if we can make all industry conferences into fund raising events.

That might actually encourage people - well, me at least - to go to more conferences and would definitely influence my decision on which conferences I did attend. If given the choice between two conferences with similarly interesting topics and a similar cost, I'd definitely choose the conference that was donating a portion of their profits to charity.

About

Travis Swicegood is a professional programmer and owner of Domain51, a web development company with a focus on non-profits, NGOs, and online activists. He doesn't change the world, he supports those who do.

He has personal a focus on web applications, performance, and stability; is author of Pragmatic Version Control using Git; and working on his second book. He has been using PHP; since '99 and still remembers how revolutionary PHP 4 was, but can't remember why. He's a TDD, open-source, and open government advocate—sometimes called a zealot—and lurker on many an open-source project mailing list when not learning other programming; languages; for fun, exploring his surroundings on bike, or tasting his latest kitchen and home-brew creations.

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