Hey. I'm Mitchell Davis, a Laravel developer and cofounder of sixsides.co. We are helping you build your community through events. Today, I'm not joined by Gavin because he's well, he's actually back from Fiji at the time that we record, but he's not available today. He's been in Fiji for the last week, and he'll tell you about that next week.
Mitchell Davis:So I put out the feelers. I've reached out to my network, and I thought, who better to talk to than our very customer for Six Sides, mister Michael Dyrynda, organizer of Laracon AU. How are going, Michael?
Michael Dyrynda:Hello. Good. Good. Thank you. Thanks for having me on.
Mitchell Davis:Thank you for agreeing to do it. Otherwise, it was gonna be a half an hour of Mitch just talking to himself, which I've never really been able to do. I've always wanted to do, like, a Caleb Pausio Notes on Work style show. And then I just I start recording, and I'm like, I don't wanna listen to this. So anyway.
Michael Dyrynda:It's easier it's easier and more difficult than you would think to to do something like that. But, yeah, you're right. Caleb does do a very good job of talking to himself and sipping his tea. So shout out to Caleb. He would never hear this, but shout out to Caleb.
Mitchell Davis:He might. Hey. You'd you'd never know that. I've got I've got admissions.
Michael Dyrynda:When he finally runs his LiveWire conference, he'll
Mitchell Davis:hear this. That's right. 100%. So how are you going, firstly?
Michael Dyrynda:Going well. Yeah. In the thick of it. At the moment, we just opened ticket sales for LaraCon AU twenty twenty five a week ago at the time of this recording or just a bit over a week ago, and and things are moving quite well. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Yeah. We've we've knocked over, like, a quarter of our total venue capacity already in the last week and a bit. So that's that's always good to see. Tickets move quickly.
Michael Dyrynda:And then make you
Mitchell Davis:feel a bit more, like, confident or less less
Michael Dyrynda:stressed maybe? Look. Initially, they they kind of fly off the shelves kind of thing, and then they peter out for a bit. And then we intentionally put tickets on sale now to give people that are, like, trying to get budget approval and things like that ahead of end of financial year
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:The opportunity to get those approvals either to, you know, soak up what's left of this year's budget or make sure that it goes into next year's budget. So we kind of split the early birds between financial years to to kinda get that stuff across the line. But we've we've done a little bit of experimentation with ticketing this year as well to try and segment the tickets a bit more clearly, I think, just to kind of give individuals, solo devs, freelancers, people that are, like, employed but are not that don't get company support, like, giving them the opportunity to to have crack at the early bird tickets and kind of nudging. Like, we're not restricting anyone, but we're kind of nudging companies towards, you know, paying the the standard price tickets and and kind of leaving the early birds alone. So it's been it's been a, you know, interesting kind of I don't know if this is gonna go well.
Michael Dyrynda:Are people gonna complain about it? Are people going to, like, skirt the system and and, you know, buy the early bird like, obviously, we can't stop anyone. It's kind of like the Apple Education Store. You know? Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Sure. This this is for education, you know, students and teachers and things like, yes, of course. I am a student slash teacher. You know, people people do that kind of stuff. So I'm a student of life.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Always learning. So it's yeah. It's it's been a good, you know like I said, we've we've knocked over a quarter of our total venue capacity already, which is which is very good. And then, you know, now it's just the endless cycle of and and balance of sending lots of emails and lots of social media and all of that kind of stuff and hoping that, like, people are receptive to the comms and not getting sick of it.
Michael Dyrynda:Oh, yeah. That's right. I gotta buy those tickets. Oh, that's right. I gotta chase up the approval.
Michael Dyrynda:Oh, that's right. I gotta get that in the budget. Not Yeah. Oh, another email about LaraCon. You know?
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. So we we don't we're not seeing, at least yet, any sort of drop off in in subscribers for for that kind of stuff. So for me, because I'm constantly repeating the message and I'm conscious of the fact that I'm constantly repeating the message and finding, like, slightly different ways to say the same things repeatedly. It's you know, to me, it's repeated and it's obtrusive, but the thing that I have to keep reminding myself is that, know, with algorithms, different social networks, people saying things at different times, LinkedIn especially, it's like, here is this amazing thing, but it actually happened three weeks ago. Like, you we have no control over when people see it.
Michael Dyrynda:So, unfortunately, you know, some people will see the same things over and over again. And I I I see the same people retweeting and commenting and and whatever else on things. But there's also, like, a huge part of the audience that we don't see or or don't see that content because it gets, you know, pushed down the algorithm or whatever. So yeah. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:And you've you've got no idea
Mitchell Davis:You got no idea what the state of mind is of someone when they see that email anyway. They might not be might be a bad day for them or something like that. So, yeah. I guess for you because you are the one in control of sending all of this stuff out, you might have a feeling of like, oh, man. I'm really like I'm just banging the drum here.
Mitchell Davis:I'm saying the same thing over and over. But, yeah, it doesn't as a consumer, as an attendee, like, doesn't come across that way. It's not annoying or anything.
Michael Dyrynda:It's like,
Mitchell Davis:oh, yeah. That's right. I I still haven't paid for tickets yet. I've I've gotta do that. Right?
Mitchell Davis:So when you send emails, it's like, oh, that's right. I really gotta get on and do that before I miss out. So it's all really helpful.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. And, like, I look at my own inbox, and there are emails there from, know, April that I'm like, I'll get to that. You know? My my inbox is a to do list. I'll read that.
Michael Dyrynda:And so I I totally understand the elder perspective of, you know, I I'll keep that keep that for later. I'll, you know, that'll bubble up. That'll bubble up. So Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:We're we're scheduled through until, like, the July at the moment with with email content. So, you know, sequencing things out and things like that. So
Mitchell Davis:You're a big Bento fan now. Right? Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Big Bento. Yeah. I I actually said to Jesse who who founded Bento that, like, I've used other tools in the past, and, like, I've just used them to send emails, but Bento's the one that's really clicked with me in a way where I am actually looking to leverage the tool, the sending email. Yep. And so looking at ways to fire events into Bento from our ticketing platform, from our CRM, tagging subscribers, targeting subscribers, you know, sending different content to people based on how they're tagged and things like that.
Michael Dyrynda:So, yeah, I don't I don't know what it is, you know, whether it's specifically the tool or I've just, quote, unquote, matured as an operator in terms of, you know, reaching this point where I think we can use the tooling more effectively. You know, is it just a timing thing that that now is the time to do it? So it's it's definitely been good, though. But like all social media, email is very much the same. People don't reply to emails.
Michael Dyrynda:People you know, you you see be you know, you don't know how much people are actually reading the emails or taking it in. You can see clicks and things like that, but you don't know if clicks are really just, you know, Gmail prefetching links and things like that. So until until a click results in a ticket sale, like, you you don't really know. And and like I said, at this time of the year, it's really just getting the message in front of people repeatedly so they can either get their approvals, submit their approvals, whatever. And and, you know, last year, I think we sold the majority of our tickets between, like, the the July and the and the September.
Michael Dyrynda:Like, that was the pocket which tells me, I think, especially for companies, that that's when their budgets have gone through and have been finalized and they're ready to start spending in the in the next financial year. So yeah. There's always the early wave of, you know, individuals and things like that or or what do they they call them? Super fans. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Well yeah. They're like, you know, the super fans that are like, yeah, I'm gonna get on that. I'm definitely going and things like that. So yeah. And the experimentation has been interesting as well.
Michael Dyrynda:So
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Because I I did see you've put up on the ticket sales. You've got, like, different sponsorship tiers in there now as well as a part of the ticket, not just reach out for the the, like, sponsorship options. You know? How's that going?
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Well, sponsorship was a a focus of us this side of COVID. You know? COVID happened in 2020, so we didn't do LaraCon twenty twenty, twenty one, twenty two. '23 was the year back.
Michael Dyrynda:And so the the the shift for us in that time, that year 2023 when we came back was to focus on the speaker experience to really make that as good as it could be. And and, you know, you had that experience last year where I think we got it fairly well buttoned down in terms of, like, making sure that we, as a conference, can support the speakers in a way that the only stress they have really is in putting the talk together and then delivering the talk. But I I don't want you to have to stress about accommodation, about travel, about getting to the venue, about what you're gonna do when you're in Brisbane as it were. So I think we really buttoned that down in Sydney in 2023. And then we were sort of already looking to move venues, but not really sure where.
Michael Dyrynda:And then our hand kind of got forced in 2023 to the point where we had to look around for a new venue last year in 2024, and we ended up at QUT's Gardens Theatre in Brisbane. Yep. And that really helped us elevate the attendee experience. We had a a bigger theater. The seating was more comfortable.
Michael Dyrynda:We had foyer space that we could actually use for networking and catering through the day where like, we didn't have that in Sydney. So being able to really improve things for attendees, you know, give them extra. Necessarily, it meant, you know, you're catering. Well, catering for us you know, the catering component alone was, like, four or five times our total venue hire expense in Sydney. You know?
Michael Dyrynda:So, necessarily, the cost of the tickets went up. Yeah. But we we did a whole lot more for our attendees. You know, we did more networking, so we had networking events Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. And and and then a like, we had two on Friday, which was Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Which was too much. We dialed that back this year. You know, you and I riding Lime scooters through Brisbane to go from one one of these events to the other. So
Mitchell Davis:At, like, 12AM or something coming back. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Was a big note. So, you know, last year, the the focus was on attendees. I think we've we've nailed that kind of experience as as best we can. And there, you know, there are things internally that we went through and reviewed, and we're like, okay.
Michael Dyrynda:We need to pair some things back so that, you know, we're not doing that networking event on Friday night because I think it just got too much for people in the end.
Mitchell Davis:Yep.
Michael Dyrynda:But the the Wednesday night thing, I think, worked out really well. And this year, we're gonna do, like, a quiz night. So it's not just meet up at the pub and awkwardly look for other LaraCon attendees. Yeah. Now it's now it's like, okay.
Michael Dyrynda:Go to this venue, and that they run, like, food and drink specials normally. So it's like go there whenever you get into Brisbane. Once you're settled into your hotel, go there, meet up with people. And then in the evening, we're doing, a quiz night. So it's it's a networking function with a purpose.
Michael Dyrynda:You're not just going to the pub. You're now going to a pub. We're trying to get people to kind of engage with each other. Coming back to Brisbane again means that that there's, I think, a better chance that you'll be seeing the same people that you saw last year because there's, you know, a known quantity around where I'm going, what I'm doing in the same way that, like, LaraCon EU is is typically always at the the the museum of music or the music music bell, whatever the venue is called in Amsterdam. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Like, they've been there for three or four years now. So I think where we are is is a really good spot to, like, keep coming back to Yeah. Just in terms of, like, amenities, in accommodation, in transit, you know, getting there with public transport and whatever else. It's really well located, and so we can start to, like, make ourselves a little bit of a home there and do some more interesting things. So doing the quiz night means that the people that you made friends with last year, you know, you could be like, hey.
Michael Dyrynda:Do you wanna form a team? We'll go and do that thing. If you're traveling as a as a as a dev team, do it as a bit of a a team building experience. We're gonna get there a little bit earlier on Wednesday, and we'll go to this thing on Wednesday night, have a bit of fun, you know, do some stuff, and then the conference over two days. And so this year, our focus is on sponsors.
Michael Dyrynda:We we had the foyer last year, and and we kind of made made the the focus last year with that foyer space was, like, to enable networking, to do catering, to do all that kind of stuff. Well, this year, we're trying to actually get our sponsors who have not typically wanted to exhibit to actually come and exhibit in the in the foyer. So Yep. The focus now is trying to get those level of sponsors in where they're gonna come, and they're gonna do more than just be, like, silent Just stand there awkwardly. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:So, Tixl is is coming in. We've got another two unnamed. We're still waiting to to finalize some things with them. So not ready to name names on those other sponsors just yet. And then who is the other one?
Michael Dyrynda:I'm sure there's another one, and I'm gonna, you know, obviously, get myself in trouble by not naming them if I don't name them, seeing as we're talking about some of Clickhouse. Clickhouse is the is the other one. So they're they're actually you know, we almost had Clickhouse come and join us last year because Laravel was using Clickhouse under the hood for all of their night watch stuff. And so, you know, we almost had them across the line, but that fell apart at the last minute. But this year, they're coming and they're like, no.
Michael Dyrynda:We're sending a team. We'll bring three or four people. We're gonna set up in the in the foyer. So we we ought to have four sponsors in the foyer this year. We're trying to get another two or three in there because I I I want the attendees to engage with the sponsors.
Michael Dyrynda:I want the sponsors to engage with the attendees. I want to, like, make it worth their while being there and and make them actually want to be there. Yep. And so, you know, the focus is is then, well, how do we get the sponsors in the door? What do we help the sponsors do in order to engage with the attendees?
Michael Dyrynda:And and how do we make that, like, an enjoyable experience?
Mitchell Davis:I don't
Michael Dyrynda:want it to be forced. I don't want I don't want people to feel like they have to go and talk to the sponsors because I think last year, the sponsors that we had that were in the foyer, most people went and had some good conversations with them. So, you know, they weren't just there for the and and even, like, Maxxo, who were there last year, were not typically part of the Laravel community in any way, but they were there to to support the event. And they, you know, in spite of their not being our, you know, core kind of demographic in terms of sponsors, I think they had good conversations with people and especially with, like, lots of agencies that you would have these conversations with with with attendees, solo devs, agencies, things like that, where they might get asked the question, like, who who should we use for phone systems, or can we can we do SMS or whatever else? You know, Macs are not typically using Laravel, but still being able to leverage those relationships in a in a productive way.
Mitchell Davis:So Yeah. And they're still providing a product that can be used by all of the developers at the, you know That's right. Floor there. So Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Makes sense. Big big big focus for us is to, you know, not not just get more sponsors, but, like, get get the kinds of sponsors that would get the most out of engaging with the the delegates, but also for the attendees to get some value out of speaking with those sponsors as well. And I think I think we'll get there. And, you know, we're still five months out, almost six months out from from the conference, so there's still time to to bed that down.
Michael Dyrynda:And, you know, we're doing a bit more in terms of providing actual booths to the sponsors and things like that, more more than just, like, table and chairs. Well, if they want you know, we'll get TVs in for them. We'll, you know, we'll do branded tables this year and things like that. So just elevating that experience a little bit.
Mitchell Davis:How do you see your responsibility as the organizer versus the sponsor's responsibility to help them try and make it engaging? Is it by providing, like, hardware and, like, physical aspects there that they can brand up and all of that. Is there anything else that you're thinking is your responsibility, or largely does it then come down to, okay, the booth looks great. Now it's up to your people to talk with these people. You know?
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:I mean, ultimately, it is up to the representatives to to have the conversations with the attendees and and you know? But my I think my responsibility is to give them something that kind of pops a little bit, and that's why we've gone with this, like, branded setup where, you know, we'll provide the table, we'll provide the chairs, but the table will provide with, like, a branded tablecloth, like a flex tension thing that, like, will put your logo on and you can choose the color. And then, you know, I'm not gonna do anything with it after the event. So it has to be something that's, like, not LaraCon specific. Sure.
Michael Dyrynda:So that, hey, if you choose to exhibit at another event in the future, we've got this tablecloth and this pull up banner. So those and and and that way, they don't have to go and look for their own vendors or anything like that. If if they need design help or anything like that, then then Nucleus is available to to kind of do that kind of stuff for and for for the sponsors. And then the sponsors are, of course, welcome to bring their own things. If if they've got banners from other events and things like that, then they can bring those along.
Michael Dyrynda:But they've also got these these new ones that they get to take home with them at the end of the event as well. Yep. But what what I don't want is for the sponsors to kind of get sort of stuck behind their you know, in their booth and just, like, on their phones and Head down.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Don't talk to me.
Michael Dyrynda:Head down. Like, they're just there because their company decided, hey. We're gonna sponsor this thing. But the the you know? So we wanna try and make sure that they they actually engage, and we wanna give we want that to be a fun interaction between the the delegates, you know, the attendees, and and the sponsor representatives as well.
Michael Dyrynda:So, yeah, ultimately, it it comes down to the sponsors and and what they're there to do and and what they want want to do. And we saw, like, Laravel last year was I mean, Laravel was Laravel, so it's probably a terrible example. But, you know, they got out there and they were they were showing off Nightwatch and they were talking about stuff and they brought swag. And this is the kind of stuff that we see at, like, Alarcon US and Alarcon EU, but we haven't historically seen number one, because we never used to have the space for it. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:But number two, we haven't historically had the kind of sponsors come to the event that that want to exhibit. Like, even the sponsors that had time on stage didn't like, they don't even want time on stage because they don't you know? And and, you know, they may not be actively recruiting or actively selling their services or products into a Laravel audience, but just having a presence at an event like this, and I had some good feedback from a from a past sponsor as well that are looking to come back again this this year that, you know, that whilst they've not actively been recruiting or anything like that, just their presence at the event is noticed by the community to the point where over the past, I think their sponsor sponsorship was back in 2019 when they were on on the board, and then they they upped in '23 and and '24. Just just being present is enough for the community to community to actually see that. And so when they've been when their attendees have been, like, looking for employment and things like that, they've gone, oh, yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:I know this company, so I'm gonna go and apply at this company for a role. And the feedback that I got from that company was that, you know, the the number of candidates that they got through their process that got to technical interviews, that got to meet with the hierarchy of the company, you know, the the ones that came through the conference were of a of a higher quality than, you know, people had just, you know, come knocking through LinkedIn or or whatever other avenues that they had there. So you know? And and when you consider companies that are, like, looking for that quality of developer, the, you know, the kind of developer that is self funded or looking to do their own personal development or going to their company, you know, that kind of stuff, well, yeah, of course, this is the cream of the crop in that regard, but they're also paying attention to the kinds of companies that are that are exhibiting, that are attending, that are participating, that are just being part of the community. And so when you consider those kinds of companies would spend, you know, 10 or 20% of of an annual salary for a recruiter, well, then the cost of the sponsorship doesn't look that much where you get four or five developers over the course of two or three years.
Michael Dyrynda:You know?
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. You look at the ROI that way. It's like, okay. If the company is looking to invest in the community, the community is more likely to look favorably on on those kinds of companies as well. So
Mitchell Davis:Game recognizes game. You know?
Michael Dyrynda:That's exactly right. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:To to condense the last ten minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Are you looking I know we as we were like, we haven't even talked about, Six Sides yet. We'll get into that in a minute.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. But as we were talking with you earlier in the year and particularly with Gavin's background, he's been to tons of events at as a sponsor and things like that. And he was kind of giving you a little bit of advice there on, okay, maybe you could go after some different businesses maybe than what is who has sponsored you before. Yeah. And using things like a polo and stuff.
Mitchell Davis:We've talked about on the show before as well. So was some of that stuff helpful to be able to find some different sponsors?
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Yeah. We I I have used Apollo, and it it's hard. Right? Because Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:The kinds of things that you need to say in those cold emails to those kinds of people are the kinds of things that get flagged by spam filters. Right? Yeah. I'm looking to you know, especially when it's a cold email. Like, you try and inject your own personality into it, but you're still saying the kinds of things that sound like spam.
Michael Dyrynda:And real like, realistically, you know, not to not to kind of sugarcoat or anything, but it is. You're you're spamming these people. You're you're contacting them out of the blue. So I was like, I don't know that I wanna do this. It's a bit you know?
Michael Dyrynda:If I was receiving those emails, I would be a bit like, you know, mark as spam, delete email, kind of Yeah. Go away. But after a while of, like, looking at these companies and looking at at the kind of roles that these people are in, field marketing, events, just marketing in general, like, these people in these roles, this is what their job is.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:So once it kind of clicked to me that, like, no. These people I'm actually I'm I'm not gonna say I'm doing their job for them. But by reaching out to these kinds of companies, right, and these people in these kinds of roles, that's that's what they do. They look for events that they're gonna attend. And and, you know Marketers leave.
Michael Dyrynda:Right?
Mitchell Davis:They're getting in front of customers. So you're helping enable that.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. And and so, like, the the symmetry there of them wanting to come and exhibit in front of a Laravel audience. And Laravel, you know, my job as a as a conference organizer is to find the kinds of companies that would resonate with the community meant that this was actually a a good approach. And it it was difficult because some people would reply straight away. Right?
Michael Dyrynda:I had three or four that replied straight away. Not this year. One company was like, we'd love to do it, but we're triple booked for that week. You know, we can't we don't have the people to send. The kinds of companies I think that that Laravel developers would would recognize are US based companies.
Michael Dyrynda:Mhmm. It's very difficult to get a US based company to send people Yeah. To Australia where they don't have where they don't typically have a base of operations. They don't have an Australian office. They don't have people in Australia, things like that.
Michael Dyrynda:So there there are some organizations that that do. I think using this has kind of set the table for next year with with a few of them. You know, there was one that said, you know, we're we're just focusing on US this year. Try us again next year. This this other company that was triple booked, they're like, we'd love to be involved.
Michael Dyrynda:We'd like to support the community. Try us again next year. There was, you know, a couple of companies that were like, yep. Let's do it. And they're like, straight away, this is what we want.
Michael Dyrynda:And I actually had to pair one of them back. I'm like, oh, you can't have that because another sponsor has already taken that up.
Mitchell Davis:So Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Okay. Maybe next year then. And and and then there's, like, a whole bunch of sponsors that I have been emailing, like, once a week just like, this is happening. We wanna put tickets on sale here. We wanna launch there.
Michael Dyrynda:You know, this would be the best time to be there. You know, we want your logo on the website when we launch because that's when we're gonna naturally have the most traffic to our website. So it's the most visibility for your brand. And and, you know, the other other side of that coin for these people that are in marketing and events and whatever else is that they probably get heaps of these kinds of emails all the time. So they might not see them.
Michael Dyrynda:They might get you know, obviously, as I said, they get flagged as spam, so it's hard to to reach out to these people. And it's just like you just gotta keep going and hope, you know, that this is the email that either doesn't hit the the spam filter or this is the email that, you know, gets in the spam filter, but it happens to be at the top. Yeah. When you know? Because I occasionally will go through my spam folder and be like, you know, is there anything here that shouldn't be here?
Michael Dyrynda:So, you know, again, same same as before with the social media and the emails, contacting sponsors is the same kind of thing. It's just you gotta keep doing it unless unless you have a direct line to someone at a company. And this is where it's like looking at what the other Laricons, you know, the kinds of companies that are sponsoring the other Laricons. Can I find people at these companies? Contact them directly?
Michael Dyrynda:Can I leverage relationships that I have with people at Laravel to, you know, get in front of these people? Can I just ask them, hey? Do any of these companies do you think they would be interested in also sponsoring LariCon AU? And and maybe in future, we we look at, you know, a multi conference kind of thing where it's like, hey. Pay this amount, and you get to sponsor EU, AU, India, US, you know, at these different levels kinda thing.
Michael Dyrynda:And you get a discount, you know, for doing all four or doing two of them or doing three of them or something like that. So there's yeah. There's there's there's always lots of ideas. It's just a matter of getting getting it happening. I'm I'm very thankful that Laravel as an organization has grown, and they've got, like, people in place that are, like, specifically thinking about this stuff.
Michael Dyrynda:Because it was unfair on on Taylor to be like, I and he's like, well, you know, he can't think about all of these things. Yeah. He's he's running a company. He's got all of these employees. He's got, like, LariCon US is his event.
Michael Dyrynda:He's not thinking about all this other stuff. So it's great to have people that are thinking about marketing from a holistic perspective across all of the channels. Yeah. And so, you know, being able to contact those people and, you know, see see what we can do has been really good. So
Mitchell Davis:shout out to the marketing people at Lair.
Michael Dyrynda:Out to the marketing people. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:I got to meet some of them. And last year, and they were there that they were the people that were there in the foyer last year. Mhmm. It was awesome. We've Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Since had some some interesting conversations towards the start of the year. So Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Anyway it's, like, good having those people because it means that we can always guarantee ourselves a presence as well from Yeah. From Laravel because whether the whether they come and and I know that, you know, their marketing people have been going around to all of the events, whether all or some you know, someone's been at someone was at Laravel Live UK. Someone was at Lara LaraCon India. Someone was at LaraCon EU. There'll be people at Laracon AU.
Michael Dyrynda:I mean, we are very fortunate now that Laracon that Laravel has an APAC team of, like, 10 or 12 people now, I think.
Mitchell Davis:Pretty big Australian presence now. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:You know, all of those people will be there. I joked last year on the stage with the panel that, like, we had four people on that panel, and I said something along the lines of, you know, at some point in the future, we're gonna have a panel up here that is just APAC people. And I think this year will be that year, you know, twelve months
Mitchell Davis:on. Really?
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. You know? It's it's just gonna be, people from the APAC team, and they've been working super hard. You know? Nightwatch is right around the corner.
Mitchell Davis:And Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:So, yeah, it's it's, it's great to see that from, you know, just Jess and Tim, like, two years ago. You know? That's all it was. To see a team of 10 and not not just engineers, but, like, you know, full stack people, front end people. There's, like, product managers and designers.
Michael Dyrynda:Like, they've they've got the whole, like, a self contained team.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:So it's it's really cool to to see that kind of growth.
Mitchell Davis:It is. It and it feels really good because as an Australian, it feels really good to have that. We're involved. I've always kind of felt that, okay, as an Australian, we're a bit detached from what's going on. I guess especially in the Laraval scene and a lot of it is US based and then of course Europe as well.
Mitchell Davis:It's quite easy to feel a bit detached. Yep. But having our own people and you're right 10 or so people that are not that they're all Australian, right, on the APAC team, but there's quite a few of us. Yeah. Majority.
Mitchell Davis:Good. Yeah. It's nice to be to be in those conversations. You know? Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Anyway I I don't know I just think there's something really nice about it and I'm sure a large part of that has come from you running the conference here. It has kind of put us on the map of okay, we're we are serious in the Laravel community. Australia in particular is quite serious about it to the point that you're able to get us up to a top level billing. Like, there's no higher level than Alaricon. Right?
Mitchell Davis:And we are one of four and that's all come from you. So as a Laravel developer, I'm super thankful. I loved it when we were in Sydney because the travel for me personally was was a bit easier. Yeah. But I think the venue is much better, and and what you set up last year was outstanding.
Mitchell Davis:So I can't wait for whatever you got in store this year.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Sydney Sydney was a good spot, but, like, now that I have I in fact, I have never there has never been a LariCon AU where I haven't had kids. Eli was born in in June, and the LariCon AU was in October of twenty eighteen. Right? So LariCon is my excuse to travel.
Michael Dyrynda:So it's never gonna be in my hometown. It's never gonna be in Adelaide. It's always gonna be somewhere else. And I think, like, it was it was it was gonna be Sydney for the foreseeable future. You know?
Michael Dyrynda:We were gonna stay there until we outgrew that venue. And, unfortunately, our hand was forced. So, you we moved to Brisbane. I think now Brisbane, this this will probably be our home for the foreseeable future in the same way that Larraconte U goes back to the same place. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:I think we have the facilities, the location, the you know, all of the amenities are there.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:And, you know, for those those who attend and it's like, oh, I'm going to the same city. I'm going to the same venue. I'm going to the same afterpart. Like, the the thing the thing to be mindful of for for me, for attendees who might ask that question, I guess, is there's only so many things you can do with 400 people. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Right? We after dark at at strike and holy moly is something that we keep going back to because it is genuinely a good night. Yep. There's there's lots like, people can do their own things. They can bowl.
Michael Dyrynda:They can do laser tag. They can do mini golf. They can do karaoke. They can just sit and have a a few drinks. You know?
Michael Dyrynda:Once you go beyond 400 people, the the things that you can do are very limited. You can't go go karting with 400 people. Yeah. When you're looking at venues that will hold 400 people, it's it's function venues. It's pubs.
Michael Dyrynda:It's hotels. It's that kind of thing, which is not the kind of environment that that we wanna set for our audience. You know? We it's not just two hours of drinking. Right?
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:There's gotta be not everyone drinks. Mhmm. And so we want to have an environment where people can do things that are not just drinking. And so that that means, you know, yeah, okay, we're going bowling again, but, like, we're going bowling again. It's actually it's a lot of fun.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. And and you get to hang out with people and, like, you get to you get to go bowling with with Taylor. You know, people last year had bowling with Taylor. I'm not I don't think he's coming this year. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Okay. But, yeah, you you get to to meet these people and hang out with them and and do all this kind of stuff that that you wouldn't get to do. And I think I would I love going bowling with my friends. You know? Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:You only especially as you get older and you have kids and all this kind of stuff happens, it's harder to see your friends. And and to be able to go somewhere, especially now that I've got kids that are of an age that can go bowling, like, it's great. The the kids can go bowling, we can sit back and we can chat, or we can all you know, with our kids, we can go bowling. It's it's just a I feel like it's an inclusive activity. Like, most people can bowl.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:If you know? So it's Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Accessibility and and all of that kind of stuff is a big focus for us as well.
Michael Dyrynda:When you've got 400 people, you need to think about all of the different things that people can and can't do. So Yeah. Bowling is easy. Even even if even if you're in a wheelchair, like, you can get the the rail out, you can push the ball around the thing, and off you go. Like, it's just it's an activity that that anyone can do
Mitchell Davis:for the most any complaints? Because it sounds you sound a bit defensive about it. But, like, I as an attendee who has been to three now, I think Uh-huh. And doing that each time,
Michael Dyrynda:it's it's
Mitchell Davis:been a blast. It's fun as.
Michael Dyrynda:So Yeah. I don't I don't think I well, I mean, I haven't heard any complaints. People always enjoy themselves. So Yeah. But it's just, like, it's always a thing that's in my mind.
Michael Dyrynda:It's like, what if people you know, I I always think about it because what if people say this is okay. You're doing it one day a year. Yeah. You know? Once a year.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. This is just what it is. It's not like, if I could do something else, I would love to mix things up. And and this is why we're mixing up the the pre conference thing. You know?
Michael Dyrynda:I think
Mitchell Davis:quiz thing will be really fun.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. The the the metrics that we got from them from the venue last year was we had about 60 or 70 people turn up. Well, we've got a limit of 70 people seated to do a quiz. So, you know, you have to get a ticket for it, but it doesn't cost anything. But it's just so we know, okay.
Michael Dyrynda:We're gonna have 70 people there. Or we'll have 50 people there, a few extra people might turn up on the night because they weren't sure about their travel arrangements or whatever else. That's fine. But it's just you know, we're we're trying to we're trying to do the things that we can do, and the things that we we have to do the same, we do the same. So
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Yeah. Mate, I think it's gonna be awesome. So don't
Michael Dyrynda:I think so as well.
Mitchell Davis:So I wanna get into our history a little because we we've run really long.
Michael Dyrynda:That's alright. Don't
Mitchell Davis:know if you have a hard stop, but but I do wanna ask you a little bit as the customer of Six Sites, right, or as it was previously known to you, Event Kit. I wanted to get your initial like what were you thinking at the time? Let me set the stage a little. So for anyone who doesn't know the the history, this business Six Sides was born out of an idea that I had when I was prepping my talk as a speaker for LariCon AU last year and so it would have been around this time maybe July that I would have reached out to you and said hey this is what I'm thinking of doing it's an event app for LaraCon because I was giving a talk about building mobile apps right as a Laravel developer And we then kind of like came to you with like a bunch of ideas, different things that I was thinking about and I don't know that we've really talked about it. How did that you, of course, were supportive.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. But what were you thinking at the time? Were you like, oh, there's some risk here, or this sounds really exciting, or do you remember what was going on there?
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. There was there was definitely some risk to it because I think at this point, you had already been selected to speak, and you were gonna talk about building a mobile app as a Laravel developer. And I thought that was interesting. There there was a lot of it going around at the time. You you had a different approach to what was kind of, quote, unquote, in vogue in the community, but I think it sat very well in terms of the skill sets that people already had.
Michael Dyrynda:And I I think from memory, I was like, you you need to have something that that is tangible, that you can show to people that, like, this is an actual thing that you can build. And I think that's kind of when you started floating the idea of doing the app. And I think your original idea was a bit more all encompassing in terms of, like, full event management. Yeah. In term like, ticketing and and all of that kind of stuff.
Michael Dyrynda:And I said, I don't I don't need any of that. Right? I don't there there are certainly events out there that that want, like, one app that does everything. Yeah. We we were already, like, deep in the weeds in terms of integrating with our ticketing platform, and we had our own CRM for managing all of all of that kind of stuff.
Mitchell Davis:And And that's because you built that. Right? Because you're
Michael Dyrynda:a developer. Yeah. Because I'm a developer and because, like, I didn't wanna spend time doing all of these things manually. I'm like, I'll just build this out. And and that has served us well now, at least for the last two years.
Michael Dyrynda:And and this year as well, I've done a bit more, and I've automated a bit more Yep. To it. And and, you know, in terms of, like, using Bento, we're using we're leveraging that for a lot of things as well. And and you mentioned before the, like, the different ticketing options. We've got sponsorship.
Michael Dyrynda:Yep. Last year, had, like, community sponsor was a tier, and it was just like a a low end ticket, and it was, like, $500, and it was just like your logo on the door. That's all it was. And then this year, I was like, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do what I was gonna, like, talking about or thinking about bundling it with some swag and and doing that similar to what LaraCon US was doing. But when I looked at, like, the the economics of it, I'm like, we can't really justify the cost of all of these things and the ticket for the price.
Michael Dyrynda:I I don't have a series a behind me to to kind of, like, smooth over the cost. So, like, I have to consider this in terms of, like, actual costs. So I I was gonna get rid of the the community sponsorship entirely. And I thought, no. I looked at last year's sponsors, and I think probably about three quarters of them bought the sponsorship, but then also went on to buy a ticket to the conference.
Michael Dyrynda:And then the rest that didn't, they were, like, overseas companies that, like, they just wanted to Larajobs and Laravel News, like, they just, you know, wanted to show some support, but, obviously, they were not coming to the event. So take them aside. You know, I've still got, I think, eight or nine sponsors that wanna put their logo on the door, but also buy a ticket. We'll be enabled that. Like, okay.
Michael Dyrynda:Let's automate all of that. And this is all the kind of stuff that, like, I just think of. I'm like, okay. I'll just go and do that. Which is not the kind of thing that I can go to Six Eyes.
Michael Dyrynda:Hey. I just wanna, like, slap this in there and, like, have it work. Right? So this is where I kind of said, no. What I want for the app is like, we wanted to do the game.
Michael Dyrynda:I don't know what the game was at the time, but I wanted to to have the game have the app be a centerpiece for attendee engagement. Last year, we really wanted to drive the networking piece home, and we wanted to figure out how we could do that in a way that would actually get attendees to have meaningful engagement with each other, not to just, like, hey. You know, have an awkward conversation as developers are loath to do. You know? Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:You know, what's your name? What do you do? Stand around for a little bit until, oh, I've just gotta go over there or something, yeah, and shuffle away. And and so that's that's where, I think you you came up with the photo game idea in the end. So, you know, you you brought that to me, and I was like, okay.
Michael Dyrynda:Well, let's let's do this and and then leveraging some technology that you had used in some of your your agency work in terms of being able to identify who is in the pictures and then tag them. And then, you know, there was the whole point system, and then we added, like, all the different stuff. So yeah. And this was, like, one tiny component of that. And and then we did, like, the the audience interaction with with q and a and surveys and all of that kind of stuff.
Michael Dyrynda:Like, that was fantastic because we had done that in the past, but it was kind of like a a bit of a janky experience in terms of, like, asking the questions. There was no visibility. Like, once Mitch had asked a question, I couldn't see, you know, so then we had people submitting the same questions, and there was no way to kind of collate them. So putting that into the app was really good. Like, those kinds of things that that help make the audience feel engaged with the content that's being presented on stage.
Michael Dyrynda:Because sometimes you go to events, and it's just like person comes on, they talk. There's a bit of q and a from the audience. It's always a bit muffled. It's a bit garbage.
Mitchell Davis:Like Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Or there's always, like, that one person that's, like, you know, trying to prove that they're smart and make their friends laugh and whatever else. So we want the audience to, like, feel compelled to be engaged with the speakers and Yep. To listen to the talks and ask good questions. We don't wanna put the speakers on the spot because we don't want the speakers to feel like garbage because I don't know the answer to that question. Oh, this you know, they've asked me something out of left field that trying to be a smart ass whatever.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. And so and then, like, the upvote system means that everyone can go and then be like, oh, I don't need to ask this question because such and such has already asked it. I'll just give it a thumbs up. You know? So for for for me, I was like, this is I I wouldn't know how to build this.
Michael Dyrynda:I wouldn't I mean, I've spent too much time building all this other stuff. I don't have time to figure out how to build a mobile app, and Mitch is, like, handing this to me on a platter. Like, here's what I've already built.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:I I do think that our ambitions got a bit away from us in the end, and there were, like, things that like, we had this huge list of things that, like, we just didn't have time to do. Like, moderation of things was like, hey, Mitch. This doesn't look good. We should delete that. Okay.
Michael Dyrynda:Mitch, go and go and delete that from the database now kind of thing.
Mitchell Davis:So No. I no. Was able to do delete comments. I could delete all user provided real time stuff. So we could delete photos, and we could delete comments.
Mitchell Davis:And only you and I had access.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Everyone else was out.
Michael Dyrynda:That's right. Yeah. So there was there was no, like, flagging or reporting or anything like that.
Mitchell Davis:That's right.
Michael Dyrynda:You know? And and we've had those discussions now. They're like, oh, yeah. We're effectively building, like, social media here where you do need people be able to to report stuff, and you need people to be able to moderate things and and content and things like that. It's like, what do you reveal?
Michael Dyrynda:What do you you know, what is assumed safe? Privacy policies. We're not, you know, we're not training AI models on your your face. On
Mitchell Davis:your face. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:We're just, like, using it to, like, fingerprint your your face for the purposes of tagging.
Mitchell Davis:Yep.
Michael Dyrynda:And we then took all of the professional photos that we had taken of the conference. We tagged all of those so people at the end of the event could go into the app and, like, find all of their photos and then, you know, download them.
Mitchell Davis:And That's it. And then we got rid of all the face data. Yeah. Yep.
Michael Dyrynda:And like, you know, that was a big big concern for me because I don't know. We don't really.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:I mean, technically, at our size, we're not covered by the Privacy Act. Like, we're not we don't fall under the purview of the Privacy Act, but it doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do. So, like, I'm still thinking about it. I'm like, Mitch, what if what if what if and then, you know, we had a couple of other people, you know, spread their dissent as well. And then, you know, I know you got a big comment about
Mitchell Davis:questions, but everyone everyone was really good with it. Yeah. And I think, like, people embraced the spirit of what we were trying to do. I think, honestly, it probably really helped, and we we had a big uptick in usage after I gave my talk, and I was able to be who I am genuinely. I think that came across pretty well.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. I watched your talk a couple of weeks ago, and I'm like Did you? There's a lot of nervous energy in this talk, but it's like just Mitch being Mitch. And I think, yeah, you're right. It did it did help allay anyone's, like, suspicions or fears or anything that, like, this is some giant machine.
Michael Dyrynda:It's no. This is just,
Mitchell Davis:like This is me and
Michael Dyrynda:Chris working
Mitchell Davis:on this thing.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. It's just a a guy and his mate working on an app that they thought was cool, and they had the opportunity to present it in front of a big audience. And, like, you've had, like, a big audience. You've had conversations with other events. Like, you mentioned you've had conversations with Laravel on the back of it.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. And, like, it's gone on to be a thing. Like, this is a business that you're running. This podcast is business because, you know, because you had the opportunity. And, I think, like, twenty years, whatever, whenever Laravel burns to the ground, and it's not a thing anymore, and, like, I will look back fondly, always look back fondly on the opportunities, not the eye, the opportunities that LaraCon afforded people who wanted to put themselves out there.
Michael Dyrynda:You know, I will always Jess gives me too much credit for it, but I will always look back fondly on, like, Jess being the only female attendee at LaraCon twenty eighteen Yeah. To, like, being the Australian working at Laravel with Tim.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:To to now leading that APAC team. Like, I will always look fondly on that. Yeah. I will always look back fondly on, you know, this this interaction, this friendship that you and I have built now on the back of of this, that, like, you know, he was Mitch as an attendee. He was Mitch in 2019 going, I could do that.
Michael Dyrynda:2023 going, yeah. I could be on stage. I could be giving a talk to, like, Mitch now having a business on the back of actually putting himself out there and getting on stage and and giving that talk. Yeah. And, you know, I get to I get to go on stage as the the organizer and the host and, like, goof off for two days and have a lot of fun.
Michael Dyrynda:But, like, by the time the conference starts, my job is effectively done. Yeah. The train is on the tracks. It's set off and like It's
Mitchell Davis:over to other people now. Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:I can't do anything. If there's a good talk, nothing to do with me. If there's a bad talk, I can't do anything about it. And, you know, it's I just go out there and have have fun for two days. And at the end of the like, when everyone goes home, I'm just, like, crash, and I'm exhausted.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. So, you know, it's and and, like, last year, I will have fond memories of people using the app and taking photos and, like, actually having conversations with each other and having a reason to do it. And like, we were very deliberate. You know, we didn't want people to just take drive by selfies. And by and large, people did not take drive by selfies.
Michael Dyrynda:Yep. I we we encouraged over and over actively and often people to use the app as, like, an icebreaker to go and talk to someone to, like, hey. You know, do you mind if I take a photo Yeah. As part of that conversation? And a little bit different, I think, for me as the organizer and you and the other speakers as speakers because people get a bit funny about, oh, it's the famous person because they were on the stage.
Mitchell Davis:Sure.
Michael Dyrynda:Anyway. Yeah. So, like, those are the kinds of things that, like I said, in ten years, twenty years, I'll always look back fondly. Not not that I had a hand in any of it. Like, I don't I don't describe it to take any the credit.
Michael Dyrynda:But I I just like giving people the opportunity. Yeah. I I see LaraCon AU as, like, a low key, low stakes launching pad for anyone who wants to put themselves out there. Yeah. If if you can convince me, you know, I'll give you the opportunity to go on stage, and then it's up to you from there.
Michael Dyrynda:What happens from there? You could be a Jess Archer, and you could end up working for Laravel. You could be a Mitch with a business that is now, like, you know, in its infancy off the ground because you put yourself out there and presented it. And you could be someone like Dave Hicking, who's been in the Laravel community for as long as there has been a Laravel community and only just now, right, put himself out there. And he's spoken he spoke here.
Michael Dyrynda:He spoke at LaraCon India. He spoke at he's gonna speak at LaraCon US this year. He now just started a role as the partner engagements person at Laravel. You know, people like that. People like Risa Jackson who had never spoken at a LaraCon who, you know, came and spoke here, then went and spoke at LaraCon EU, LaraCon India, and LaraCon US all in all in the year.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:Like, the the the inaugural The grand slam, I think. You know, people like that that that went on and did amazing things, you know, it it makes me happy as an organizer that, like, I saw and and, you know, gave them the opportunity, and what people do with that from there is entirely up to them. Yeah. But I like being being small enough, I think, is the key. Like, we are small enough that we get to take those kind of chances on people, but also we are big enough that when those people do well, they get presented with other opportunities as well.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Yep. Totally. It's I I think it's a really cool position that you have created for yourself. This was your idea to start this.
Mitchell Davis:Taylor didn't come to you and say, oh I wanna put something in Australia who's who's gonna do it? You know? Yeah. You've you've done this so yeah props to you mate And it's it's awesome. You're right.
Mitchell Davis:We have formed a friendship. It's really great knowing you and getting to bounce ideas off each other and kinda see what's going on. And that was like, I think one, giving my talk was probably the biggest highlight of last year, but then like, of the conference last year, I mean. But two, doing the, like, the scooter ride and stuff with you was another, like, huge one. And it was yeah.
Mitchell Davis:It was, like, midnight or something like that on the last day after the last networking night. And, yeah, I just like that was really fun. That was a great way to, like, cap off the oh, you're back. That was a great way to cap off the the conference for me. So it's been awesome.
Mitchell Davis:I can't wait to see what you've got going on this year. And, yeah, mate, bring it
Michael Dyrynda:up. Hope it lives hope it lives up to the hype. I'm sure it will. Last year, so it's a it's a tough act
Mitchell Davis:to follow-up for sure. This year.
Michael Dyrynda:Not doing fireworks this year. No.
Mitchell Davis:No. That's that's
Michael Dyrynda:We are we are doing yeah. We are doing we are doing things this year. You know, we're we're we're mixing it up. Like I said, we're we're trying we're experimenting with ticketing. We're experimenting with networking.
Michael Dyrynda:We're experimenting with hopefully, there are no fire alarms go off this year because I think that
Mitchell Davis:killed the mood
Michael Dyrynda:a little bit on Friday night. Like, people came out because it took so long for them to, like, you know, obviously doing the right thing, checking that the building's not on fire and everyone's safe and whatever else. But I think that took just long enough that people ended up going home for the night, calling it, you know
Mitchell Davis:So A bit of a dampener.
Michael Dyrynda:So hopefully, not the So I've I've I've I've asked QUT if they could just, like, not have any fire alarms go off this year. And that would be great.
Mitchell Davis:Alarm system.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. Make sure that everyone that's right. Make sure everyone is, like, kicked out of the adjacent buildings before we're there so
Mitchell Davis:Yes.
Michael Dyrynda:We don't have any issues. So Fingers crossed. Looking forward to another good year.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Totally. Well, it's it's a great privilege to be running Six Sides again for you this year. Looking forward to it. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:I can't wait to show people what we've been working on because it will be great. We got so I got so much feedback from so many members of the community because they could see what we were doing. They could of course see a lot of the opportunities and great things that we could add and, yeah, had so many conversations with people who would come up and suggest, oh, you could do this. I was like, yep. Absolutely.
Mitchell Davis:I know we could we could. I tried. I ran out of time. I had a talk
Michael Dyrynda:to prepare. That's right. If I wasn't preparing a talk and building this three months before a conference for 400 people, then show up. Nave Nave had twelve months.
Mitchell Davis:Have you That's right.
Michael Dyrynda:Have you done your event already, or is it
Mitchell Davis:still So we've got so we now have three customers that are confirmed. Two have actually, like, signed and paid, and we're waiting to send another to send the one an invoice, which will probably happen either today or early next week to be locked in. That event is in August. Yeah. So late August.
Mitchell Davis:So we've got to make sure that we're, like, of course, fully up and ready to go by, like, late July.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. And that's really exciting. Your event since LaraCon as Six Sides.
Mitchell Davis:Exactly. Yeah. So that'll be the app in the App Store and new infrastructure over in Europe and work I don't know how closely you've been following the show, but the last few weeks, I've been going through about our new infrastructure and databases, and we're using Cloudflare heavily and all this sort of stuff. So it'll be very exciting. I don't believe either Gavin or I will be traveling over there for it.
Mitchell Davis:It's just it hasn't worked out as far as the budget goes. So Yeah. That will be quite interesting to have our event under all of this new stuff run-in a totally, like, opposite side of the world, where neither of us are there, but, I'm just pretty confident.
Michael Dyrynda:Fortunately, you you work for yourself, and you can just, like, stay up all night to to match with time zones and things like that and then sleep the next day. So I think you'll be okay. And and, realistically, like, anything anything that you would have been fixing in person, you can probably still address better.
Mitchell Davis:But yeah. From here.
Michael Dyrynda:Yeah. From here because someone would just send you a message, and you'd be like, alright. I'm on it. And then, like, you won't have that person standing over your shoulder, like, to fix this affix. Like but I don't I I mean, I don't know if there's anything that you specifically set up for that event that that is different to what you've done for us, but I don't I don't think there's anything in the application that is, like, super critical that, like, if it's not available, the conference doesn't work kinda thing.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. I'm very glad we're not on the critical path Yeah. Because that would be a whole new level of stress. So, of course, the app needs to work. That's what people are paying us for, but you're right.
Mitchell Davis:At least it will not cause, you know, couple 100 people to have a really bad time.
Michael Dyrynda:So Yeah. That that would be the kind of thing that would be problematic if you were, say, for example, doing ticketing for the event and, like, your database goes down as they're trying to check everyone in. So
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. That's right. So we are working towards all of that stuff. Like, I I I do still want to do ticketing and and get involved in the entire system so that we can be one app for those events that that want that. Right?
Mitchell Davis:But it's way too early days, so this is gonna be, you know, over the next year or two, we will expand out our suite of things that we offer. So
Michael Dyrynda:I think there are def there is definitely scope for that kind of functionality in your application, and I think there are certainly events that would use that kind of app. I had been to events where they've got, like, a white labeled thing that is, like, you go in and you check-in, and you've got all of your contacts in there and all of that kind of like
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. I think
Michael Dyrynda:you're well positioned to build that kind of stuff, but I think you're right. It's it's over the next year or two kind of thing as Yeah. As you, like, build out the core of what the app is, you know, the stuff that we used was core to us. And I think core to other things, especially if you're trying to get attendees to be engaged with the presenters, I think that side of things, you did really well. And so get that stuff done and then work towards ticketing because ticketing's a whole other base.
Michael Dyrynda:And it depends on, like, how popular the event is, like, how much you're gonna have to worry about an event that's gonna sell out within twenty four hours?
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. You know? And that
Michael Dyrynda:volume of traffic, is that gonna be problematic? But, again, that's separate to the app. So that's a whole other aspect of the infrastructure and the application that you'd need to build out that, you know, you probably don't wanna do any rodeo because that's
Mitchell Davis:how No. No. Definitely
Michael Dyrynda:go well. You know, if it doesn't go well, that's also potentially your last rodeo. So Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. That's right. There's a lot more risk involved with that side of things. And the people aren't coming to us to be a ticketing platform because that's somehow our unique value prop. Right?
Mitchell Davis:No. We provide a really great experience for all of the different the six sides of the event community. That's what we're building this business on. And so far, that's resonating really well with lots of people that we're talking to Yeah. Absolutely.
Mitchell Davis:And actual customers like yourself. So we'll get to all of that stuff, but it's by no means Yeah.
Michael Dyrynda:It's not coming soon. If anyone is looking for a glowing endorsement, last year we got it for free, and this year we paid for it. So, you know, we were we were happy we were happy to to do it again and and happy to, like, be in a position to, like it's a privilege for us to pay for it that, like Yeah. Yeah. You've you've done enough based on the the goodwill of of the free product that you delivered last year to be like, yeah, we would pay for that to do it again.
Michael Dyrynda:So
Mitchell Davis:Mate, I appreciate it. I can't think of much of a better way to, end on that. So thank you not only for being our very customer and taking the risk and and being along for the whole journey, but for recording with me today, it's awesome. I'm sure Gavin will listen to all of this.
Michael Dyrynda:Taking notes. You have feedback.
Mitchell Davis:That's right. Yeah. See how he feels on on next week's episode. Yeah. Mate, thank you very much.
Mitchell Davis:Where can people find you online, and anything that you want to plug?
Michael Dyrynda:Well, come to Laricon AU in November. You can buy tickets at laricon.au. I'm on x at Michael Dorinda. I am on blue [email protected], and Laracon AU is available in all those places. You can find me on LinkedIn if that's your audience.
Michael Dyrynda:I don't know. I'm I'm Michael Dorinda on on, LinkedIn as well. You could find me at Michael Dorinda pretty much anywhere.
Mitchell Davis:You'll come up. You're on Google, so you'll be right. I will have all of that in the show notes. And, yes, if you are somehow still on the fence about LariCon AU as a Laravel developer or anyone in the web development scene regardless of whatever your specific role is, come along. It's an awesome time, and I will see you there.
Mitchell Davis:Thanks, Michael.
Michael Dyrynda:No worries.
Mitchell Davis:It's been awesome having you on the show, and I'll catch you in November. Yeah. See you. See you.
