Interview with Angelique Martin
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
The Guest
Angelique Martin
Lead Organizer of Software Craftsmanship North America (SCNA)
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Hi, it's Mike with UGtastic. I'm here at SCNA 2013. I'm sitting down with Angelique Martin, who is the lead organizer for SCNA. You've been doing this for a few years now. What have you learned over the last couple of years that affected 2013, and how is this year different from 2012?
Angelique Martin
Lead Organizer of Software Craftsmanship North America (SCNA)
The differences were actually pretty subtle. The main concept of short talks with long breaks for networking remained. This year, we changed the schedule slightly so the second day would start later, allowing for a 'Code and Coffee' session to give people more technical time. We also reintroduced the 5K run. This is SCNA's fifth year, and we're always trying to reiterate and improve the experience.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
There is a lot that goes into these conferences that people might not realize.
Angelique Martin
Lead Organizer of Software Craftsmanship North America (SCNA)
Absolutely. The big challenge this year was getting our speakers right. Even though we announced our dates a year in advance, we had a conflict with another major event in Chicago—No Fluff Just Stuff—and we were competing for speakers. Luckily, we were still able to have 13 wonderful speakers and devote a session to lightning talks and a panel. We also added entertainment like coding katas and a Jeopardy game.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
I noticed you have different people doing the introductions between sessions too.
Angelique Martin
Lead Organizer of Software Craftsmanship North America (SCNA)
Yes, we wanted variety. We had one little snag where a speaker got locked outside! But because the introducer was comfortable talking and could control the room, we just winged it with some software jokes until Gary made it. That resilience is what shows a strong organization.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
We've talked before about the hidden costs, like how water bottles can be ridiculously expensive at certain venues.
Angelique Martin
Lead Organizer of Software Craftsmanship North America (SCNA)
The main costs are food, beverages, and the venue. We've detached ourselves from hotels because of the consumption costs. When you take a bottle of water, keep it! It's expensive and it affects the budget for next year. We rely heavily on sponsors to keep the ticket price the same as it's been since the beginning. It's a stretch to maintain that low price while competing for sponsor dollars against more niche, direct Ruby or Java conferences.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
For someone looking to start their own conference, what tidbits would you offer regarding venues?
Angelique Martin
Lead Organizer of Software Craftsmanship North America (SCNA)
The venue is the biggest part. We've moved away from hotel venues. In Chicago, hotels often require a high ratio of room bookings to meeting space. Nowadays, people use tools like Hipmunk to find cheaper rates elsewhere, which leaves the organizers with a huge liability for empty hotel rooms. By using a non-hotel venue, we decouple the event from the accommodation, giving attendees more choice and reducing our financial risk.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Much like we try to write good software—we decouple things! Angelique, I know you're busy. I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me.
Angelique Martin
Lead Organizer of Software Craftsmanship North America (SCNA)
Thank you very much.
Critical Insights
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"The 'Hotel Liability Trap': Modern travel tools (e.g., Hipmunk, Airbnb) have made traditional hotel-based conference contracts risky for organizers, as attendees increasingly book outside the official block, leaving the conference liable for room-to-space ratios."
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"Conference 'Decoupling': Detaching the event venue from the accommodation provider reduces financial liability and provides attendees with more flexible, budget-friendly options."
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"Community-driven conferences often maintain 'Legacy Pricing'—keeping ticket costs static for years to ensure accessibility—but this requires increasingly aggressive sponsorship models to offset rising food and beverage costs."
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"Organizational Resilience: The quality of a conference is defined by its ability to 'wing it' through technical snags (e.g., locked-out speakers) without breaking the attendee's immersion."
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"The value of a technical conference isn't just in the sessions; 'Technical Buffer Time' like Code and Coffee sessions and long networking breaks are essential for high-bandwidth knowledge transfer."