Flourish Conference 2011 - April 1st - 3rd

We will have a Drupal booth at Flourish for our 4th year in a row. If you are available to hang out at the Drupal table throughout the weekend, comment here. The more people to answer Drupal questions the better. We usually have one of the more popular tables. I can be there all day Friday and probably parts of Saturday. UIC has good wifi, you can get work done, and free food. Not to mention all of the cool presentations and discussions.

Flourish is University of Illinois at Chicago's free annual conference dedicated to celebrating and elevating open source software and open culture in the Midwest. Through talks, workshops and coding sprints, attendees experience and reconnect with the philosophies and technologies that make the open source movement a key driver of innovation. Flourish is also a great opportunity to meet up with old friends and to make new ones.

Goal of the Flourish Conference is to promote the use and adoption of Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) by demonstrating the practical applications of FLOSS in the business and academic world. While everyone is familiar with businesses that focus on creating non-free proprietary software, the same cannot be said for those who specialize in developing and supporting FLOSS software and Open Culture. Attendees of Flourish have an opportunity to see how using, creating and supporting FLOSS software can enhance their careers, businesses and academic aspirations.

Dates and Venue:
April 1st through 3rd at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Directions:
http://www.flourishconf.com/2011/directions

Schedule:
http://www.flourishconf.com/2011/schedule

Highlights from our Speaker Line-up:
We have an exceptional lineup of speakers this year:
Italo Vignoli - Founder & Steering Committee member of The Document Foundation (LibreOffice)
Chris Palmer - From the Electronic Fronter Foundation
Ryan "Icculus" Gordon - Will talk about Gaming on Linux (He MIGHT also run a game development workshop.)
Chris McAvoy - VP of technology at Threadless and founder of the Chicago Python Users Group
Gregory Miller - From Open Source Digital Voting
Mitch Altman - A famous open source hardware hacker.

More speakers are listed on our website here:
http://www.flourishconf.com/2011/speakers

Panel Discussion:
For our panel discussion this year, four of our top speakers will discuss the challenges for Open Source Software going forward. Our panel discussion is typically one of our better events and is one you will not want to miss.

Lightning Talks:
Got something to say? We'll give you five minutes to do it. The Flourish Lightning Talks is an hour set aside for our attendees to tell us about whatever they want. But you only have have 5 minutes to do it before we give the floor to someone else.

BSDA and LPI Exams:
You will have the opportunity to take the BSDA or the LPI exams at Flourish. The LPI exam is being offered at a discounted rate. More information is available at
http://www.flourishconf.com/2011/exams

Flourish Mini-expo:
Tables will be setup showcasing various open source related companies and non-profit organizations. Non-profit organizations can get an expo table for free. See our website for more information.

After Party:
There will be an after party on Saturday at Threadless. More details will be posted soon on our website.

Hack-a-thon:
We are really trying hard to setup a hack-a-thon like we did during Flourish 2008. We are currently trying to setup something in association with the Python Software Foundation. E-mail me directly at joel@flourishconf.com if you are interested in participating in the Flourish 2011 Hack-a-thon.

Registration is Open:
Our website is http://www.flourishconf.com/. Registration is now open! Registration and attendance is FREE!