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What are the best web solutions available for coordinating people you send out for events?
We recently released a product that solves exactly this problem. Lanyrd Pro is designed to help companies that promote themselves through attending, speaking at and sponsoring events co-ordinate their event strategy internally and promote it externally.
[... 247 words]What are some cool and cost-effective things to do for and at a wedding reception?
Lawn games! Croquet, pétanque, coits and the like. Cheap, fun, easy for people to pick up, won’t ruin any suits and (at least for a UK wedding) traditional without being overly cheesey.
[... 53 words]What is the best place to post a call for papers in the computer science community?
Our service Lanyrd has a feature to help keep track of conference CFPs. We tend to have more commercial conferences than academic ones, but those topics are definitely relevant to our core audience. For example, our Cloud conferences and events page shows six upcoming CFPs at the moment.
[... 107 words]What are some interesting and unusual tactics to draw people to your booth at a large conference or convention?
Make sure you have people on the stand who know their stuff—ideally people who built the thing you are promoting. Make it worthwhile for people to come and talk to you. Don’t have booth babes who are there for their looks rather than their expertise.
[... 129 words]Which should I learn: Python or PHP?
Python will teach you more about programming than PHP—and you’ll be able to learn PHP easily if you learn Python first.
[... 36 words]What could be the reason my login with Twitter stopped work in web site?
Yes, there have been breaking changes recently. You need to make sure you are running on Twitter’s API v1.1: https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api...
[... 41 words]How should I start learning Python?
I’d start by going through the official Python tutorial. It’s really good: The Python Tutorial
[... 28 words]What are the best books/tutorials to begin learning about memcached?
There isn’t really enough of memcached to justify a whole book—it’s a pretty straight-forward API.
[... 100 words]What’s the best material on scalability?
Cal Henderson’s book Building Scalable Websites offers a good grounding.
[... 32 words]What are the simple ways to gain more self confidence in public speaking?
Be confident that you understand your subject matter. Practice, out loud, in private, as many times as possible. Have notes in your pocket so you know you can fall back on them if you really need to (you probably won’t, but I find knowing they are there helps with nerves). Then get as much speaking experience as you can. BarCamps / Unconferences are a useful place to get started.
[... 104 words]How should one maximize their professional conference experience?
Take a look at How to maximize the conference experience as an attendee?
[... 28 words]Does anyone ever had the experience where they could carry on a conversation with someone very well, but stutter and go blank when public speaking (eg. informal introduction) in front of a crowd?
This is extremely common, and will certainly go away with experience... but being well prepared is never a bad idea with respect to public speaking! Even for informal introductions it’s worth figuring out what you’ll say, writing it down, rehearsing it out loud several times in private and memorising it.
[... 132 words]What are some ways to organize conferences at a very low cost?
Find a venue sponsor: venues are the biggest expense for most events, and if you can find a company with their own conference-suitable facilities who will provide the space for free you’ve just massively slashed the cost of the event. Most BarCamps (at least in London) work on this basis.
[... 158 words]Why do academic conferences cost so much?
They’re usually a whole lot cheaper than industry conferences, where tickets can cost more than a thousand dollars.
[... 92 words]What are some ways to get a job from attending a conference?
Talk to people. Ask if they are hiring—if they aren’t, ask if they know anyone at the conference who is hiring. Make sure you have lots of business cards. Get other people’s business cards. Follow up afterwards. Connect with people on LinkedIn.
[... 111 words]What are some hidden features of Python?
Generators and Iterators are pretty amazing. These two tutorials will really open your eyes as to how powerful they can be:
[... 63 words]Where can I find out about upcoming conferences, conventions, and trade shows in design, publishing, and elearning?
Our site, Lanyrd, is a crowdsourced directory of conferences and professional events. We’re extremely strong in areas such as Mobile, Web Design and User Experience, but we also have listings for Publishing and E-Learning. Try these pages:
[... 162 words]How do I get started with node.js?
You don’t run Node.js in a script tag on your website. Node is a technology for writing servers in JavaScript—you can think of it as a replacement/alternative for PHP, Python, Ruby, ASP.NET etc.
[... 58 words]How do you get invited to speak at high profile events?
SXSW has an open call for proposals—you’ll need to submit a suggestion to the panel picker and encourage people to vote for you.
[... 123 words]How does one create innovation in a business conference? What’s new and different in this area?
Two formats worth investigating are unconferences and lightning talks.
[... 155 words]What is your review of xkcd?
★★★★★
It’s consistently excellent, and frequently throws out absolute diamonds. Here’s a great one from just a few days ago: [... 63 words]What is the history of question and answer websites?
I’m afraid this answer will be a little vague, but I worked at Yahoo! back when they launched Answers, and the story I heard was that this category of sites was extremely popular in some Asian countries—particularly countries that didn’t yet have a large number of available native language sites on the Web. Q&A sites filled a valuable gap there by allowing people to discover information online in their own language despite there not being many existing sites.
[... 120 words]What new apps were used most at SXSW 2013, and why?
Lanyrd will be at SXSW again this year, and we’ve continued to refine our unofficial schedule guide and session planner for SXSW Interactive. Here’s our site for this year:
[... 367 words]How many women are raped each year at tech conferences?
The geek feminism wiki maintains a comprehensive list of incidents at tech conferences: Timeline of incidents
[... 33 words]Are there specific elements of SXSW that make it a successful conference?
SXSW is a great event because of the people who go. There is no other technical/creative conference I can think of which attracts talented, interesting people at the same scale (20,000+ attendees).
[... 140 words]Which web/software development conferences a student should attend and why?
Offer to volunteer at conferences. If accepted, you’ll get in for free and you’ll get to meet loads of people (including spending time with the speakers)—in exchange for a full days work manning desks, finding speakers in time for their talks, giving people directions and generally helping organise and clean things up.
[... 104 words]What is the best 30-minute sitcom ever?
I’m shocked it hasn’t been mentioned already, but seriously: where’s the love for Father Ted?
[... 49 words]What are Startup Friendly Event Venues in Berlin?
We have a list of conference event venues in Berlin here (it’s a semi-unreleased feature, so I’d love to get your feedback on if it helps solve your problem): Venues in Berlin | Lanyrd
[... 108 words]Where do I find out about interesting upcoming events in London?
I’m a big fan of Ian Visits: London Events Listings Guide for finding out about some of the more obscure events going on. Ian is an excellent curator with impecable taste in cultural events, and frequently lists guest lectures, guided walks, tours and other events that you may not hear about anywhere else.
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