Democracy and Program Committee

In a previous post , a few words were said about the principles for selecting reports by the HighLoad ++ conference program committee , among which there was such a high-profile statement as: "Democracy does not work."

I would like to clarify that, of course, this is not so.
How it works is the secret to success in the right preparation.

The main seasoning is collective meetings that take place several times a year. These are real brainstorming sessions, the entrance to which is open to anyone who wants, in the sense - any person in general, regardless of whether he is a participant or a speaker.



The Program Committee and HighLoad ++ activists meet there., and we encourage active participants in such meetings. First of all, because the conference’s goals are set in exactly this way: “I want such a topic or such a speaker, I heard about this new conference - bring its developer here.” Sometimes this is a non-trivial task that can only be solved collectively.

The purpose of such a meeting is to collect ideas and requests, primarily from the community, which comes to the conference to listen to reports.

All this translates into concrete proposals for the conference program, here is an example ( summer 2015 ): goo.gl/HFLghj . If anyone has ideas, contacts, tips - write to oleg.bunin@ontico.ru , we will be grateful.

It turns out an interesting situation, as a result of which we make the conference for ourselves! Of course, there is an organizing company, but it obeys the dictates of the community and generally does not interfere in the work of the Program Committee.

I would like to believe that this is the reason for the increase in the number of participants in the HighLoad ++ conference . Decent growth, I must say, despite the crisis and all the possible difficulties:

• In 2011, we were 754 people and we still fit in the "Infraspace";
• In 2012, we had to move to the Radisson in Kievskaya and 1049 participants came;
• In 2013, we already had 1,266 people;
• In 2014, a breakthrough (and this despite the difficulties with foreign speakers) - 1606 participants;
• This year's goal is 2,000 people.

Finally, about Western speakers, for which there is a basic rule: "The same as everyone else . " No reverence, you know why?

The paradox is that the average level of an English-speaking speaker is lower than the level of a report of a person who speaks Russian. In 2011, it was interesting to hear about how many servers Facebook has, but now that everyone has a lot of them, it just doesn't cause any interest.

And the last : For Habrahabr users, the conference offers a special discount of 15%, all you need to do is use the IAmHabr code when booking tickets.