Mikko Heikkilä

Seven ClojuTRE Conferences in Seven Years

2018 is the seventh year of ClojuTRE, and the event has grown bigger every year. ClojuTRE 2012 was size of a small meetup, around 25 people, and in 2017 over 300 people attended. From the beginning our aim has been providing affordable, friendly, and fun conference for everyone interested in Clojure, functional programming and the future of SW dev in general.

Organising ClojuTRE has been huge fun, but also a lot of work. We are a small business operating from the middle of nowhere (shout-out to our friends at JUXT, London/Milton Keynes), and our resources are limited. Our work in organising the conference and making things happen costs approximately 40 000 € per year and 3rd party costs, which are covered with support from sponsors and ourselves, accounting for another 40 000 € per year. Needless to say, the conference is non-profit.

This year we're doing two things a bit differently: location and ticket pricing.

LocationLink to Location

ClojuTRE was originally Clojure Tampere. Just to keep things moving, we decided to organise ClojuTRE 2018 in Korjaamo Helsinki. Some folks considered it being heresy, since ClojuTRE is essentially Clojure Tampere (TRE being the abbreviation of Tampere). We'll be back in Tampere next year. Or in Oulu, or Turku – who knows. We'll see about that.

Ticket pricingLink to Ticket pricing

Previously ClojuTRE has been free for all. Organising a free conference with great international and local speakers, free food, beer and sauna is not cheap, and there's limited amount of sponsors with limited budgets to support. Last few years we've asked the attendees, how much they would pay for a ticket and the most popular answer has been "50 €".

So here we go: regular tickets will cost 50 €. The attendance will remain free for all students, unemployed, underrepresented and disadvantaged. We believe this approach is fair, and still very affordable for anyone working the business and free for those who cannot afford it. Tickets are for sale now – please register at Eventbrite.

Awesome speakersLink to Awesome speakers

Each year ClojuTRE has been bigger, better, and more fun than previous years, and we believe 2018 won't disappoint in those departments! We have had super talented speakers and keynotes from Zach Tellman, David Nolen, Luke VanderHart, Robert Virding, Sam Aaron, Bodil Stokke and our own Jarppe Länsiö.

This year, we have Nada Amin as a keynote speaker – and we are really excited about that!

If you are willing to give a talk, don't hesitate to submit your proposal. We have been supporting our speakers with covering some of the travel and accommodation expenses, and that will be our purpose also in 2018.

See you in HEL!

Mikko Heikkilä

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