Launching a Conference

I had an interesting discussion with the leaders of several different  
user groups here in Dallas, last night.  It seems we've gotten  
ambitious.

I've long spoken with other PHP users in the area about how the  
conference action for PHP users in the U.S. seems to be limited to  
either West Coast, East Coast, or, occasionally, Chicago/Upper  
Midwest.  Here in Texas, as close as we get seems to be a track  
buried in the SXSW extravaganza.

Now, the forces behind an existing conference here in Dallas want to  
open up their ranks a bit and turn what has traditionally been a  
small .NET conference into a broader, multi-discipline conference -  
Dallas CodeCamp 2008.  We have the support of group organizers  
from .Net, Ruby, Python, and with the help of Jason Ragsdale and  
myself, PHP.  Technically, this isn't strictly a launch, since the  
conference has existed for a few years, but it is a dramatic rework  
and expansion of scope and scale.  This is most definitely a new animal.

We're hoping to scale a one-day, single topic schedule into a 5-track  
two-day event, with the goal of getting coders from various  
disciplines to learn from each other while mixing and mingling  
happily.  At the moment, there are plans for tracks dedicated to each  
of the specified four languages as well as a 'crossroads'  
interdisciplinary track aimed at skills and subjects that are  
relevant to all.  I'm sure there will be lots of web development  
ideas covered, but they want non-web-oriented topics as well.

We'll be fighting with the mechanics of assembling the conference  
soon, but first, I want to throw the question out to both potential  
attendees and potential speakers:

What would it take to convince you to come to Dallas next April/May?

What topics would you want to see covered?

Who would you want to see?

What conference features would you desire?

What non-conference features would you desire?

and, for my own benefit,
What hurdles, surprises and horror stories should I brace myself  
against?

Tim Stiles,
Co-Organizer, DallasPHP
WatchMaker, Icomex.com