ZendCon Panel:Attendance & Avoidance

One thing I can absolutely verify is that location can be crucial to  
your attendance, both the quantity and the nature of your membership.

DallasPHP originally stabilized on the campus of University of Texas  
at Dallas - near Central Expressway, where one member (a UTD faculty  
member) served as our Campus Sponsor.  When he changed jobs after a  
little over a year and was unable to serve as liaison, we had to find  
a new space.  Our next location was another local campus about 10  
miles away.  In a state as big as Texas, people get used to driving.   
10 miles is nothing.  But our attendance dropped by half, and the  
experience level fell through the floor: most working PHP  
professionals pretty much abandoned us.  More details: on the old  
site, members had to stop their cars to check in with Campus official  
and turn over their drivers license  for photocopying.  Parking was a  
long way from our meeting space and most of the year, even the  
evening walk is hot.  The NEW space had no checkin, and a shorter  
walk, but it was several miles and more than one turn from the  
nearest major road / interstate highway.  Less personal inconvenience  
but farther from a major road resulted in 50% our attendance.

After about 4 months we got to move to a corporate meeting space on  
the North Dallas Tollway.  Just exit the major road and pull into the  
parking lot.  Attendance started to climb and the ratio of experience  
to inexperience titled back towards the working PHP professionals  
instead of experimenters and novices.  After 4 months, we lost that  
space too when our member moved his offices.  We moved to another  
college campus, just three miles away from that space.  Attendance  
again dropped 50%, and even more of the working professionals dropped  
out of touch.

In January, (about 4 more months) we landed in our current home, the  
North Dallas offices of Yahoo!.  This location is less than two miles  
from the original meeting location on the UTD campus, less than a  
mile from Central Expressway.  Our attendance doubled on the first  
meeting, and we are now almost entirely made up of professionals  
whose job entails at least some PHP work.


My observations:
1) Novices will work harder to find you.  Working professionals are  
less likely to give up their time unless your presentations are  
knockout.
2) The closer you are to a major road in an urban area, the better.
3) Working with a sponsor who has a good reputation in the PHP world  
is a definite benefit.  And we are VERY grateful for their help.

Other attendance observations over the years:
Professionals draw in other professionals.  Even to the extent that  
they carpool from their offices.
If you present mainly beginner topics, you draw more tourists  
(attendees who only show up once), and quantities (while notable)  
fluctuate wildly.
If you present mainly advanced topics, you develop more regulars of  
all skill levels, though the experienced far outnumber beginners.   
Balance is very difficult.

Our most attended meetings so far have been "Open Mic Nights" ("Show  
us your work.").

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