TL;DR: The CFP deadline is right around the corner, did you apply? Click me!

Running a conference can be a complex task with a number of confusing choices to make. It’s hard enough when you are running a conference in your own country, but it gets even more confusing when you’re running a conference in a different country! We wanted to share a bit about how RustFest works that way in hopes that we might help people looking to run their own events.

So how does RustFest work? Well, it changes depending on where the conference is!

Organizers

Every conference is different, just like every organizer is different. We all bring to the table a different vision for the event. This is encouraged, as it’s the source of many great ideas!

With each event some organizers will join, and some will leave. This is the natural flow of things and should not be considered a bad thing, as long as everyone is treating each other respectfully. We’ve been adopting the idea that we’d like most of our local organizers to be part of the event before theirs if possible. We tried to do this in Berlin, but our Ukrainian organizers were not able to make it (visa issues). We have been able to do this with Zürich though, with three of our local organizers participating in Kyiv. Doing this ensures a continuity between events, while still allowing them to be unique in their own way. We’re also doing this for our next event at a (as of yet) undisclosed location.

Also, having local organizers in the country the event will be is a key to putting on a good event. Not only do they have the local knowledge of where is good to be, eat, and visit, they also typically have, or can form, a local entity to help things be more simple. Best of all: They get to show off their city and their local community.

This means for Rust Zürichsee, two upcomming meetups until the conference. Looking for a place to talk about your cool project? Ping me on Twitter.

Visas

Be sure to know in advance if any of your organizers need a visa and help them start applying right away! It can take months to get a visa in some cases and at times can require a letter from the organizing team or a local company. Not only will doing it early help make sure they can attend, but it will give you good practice when one of your attendees might need a similar letter.

Speaking of Kyiv. We plan another meetup in Kyiv on September 2nd, and we’re looking for presenters! Would you like to come over and give a talk? Drop me a line at andrey at rustfest.eu, or reach me out on Twitter.

Leaving a Legacy

One of our goals with RustFest is to enable and build local community as well as international community. We think that some of these choices we are making in how we organize RustFest will help enable and grow the local community as well. For me, it’s always amazing to bump into someone who was at RustFest Berlin and instantly have a connection. We hope others can experience that too, and that our local communities can flourish to go on to host their own events.

Instead of building a raft to cross a stream, sometimes it’s better to put a bit of extra work in to build a bridge so that others can find their way.