Open CLA Summit for everyone (willing to pay), or bring back the Power User Meetings

[Mads]

I have to admit that I envy everyone who has access to the CLA Summits. For me the main benefit of taking any certification would be to be able to join the CLA Summits, but that's just enough to justify the time and cost involved (it is not that it would not be useful for me or the company, but we manage quite well without it).

I wish the CLA Summits could be open for the non-certified attendees, even if it required a ticket fee to cover NIs costs (as such outsiders would obviously not have contributed there having not paid for any certifications). Having a ticket fee would perhaps also be good to make sure only "relevant" people attended (although I do not see any reason how it would hurt or be possible to attract the "wrong" kind of people anyway).

I used to attend the local NI Days and LabVIEW Developer Days every year, but for many years now the only benefit of doing so is to get a feeling of the growth or demise of the local user base, and perhaps pick up some unofficial news. The techical level of the presentations are mostly geared towards people with little to no experience with LabVIEW, and here in Norway they have also started to cut out NI Day. - A couple of years back NI held "Power Users Meetings", and kind of  CLA Summit "Light", which I was very glad to be invited to, but I guess NI decided to use the interest for such gatherings as a way to push their certifications programme, so today there are no such meetings. 

I think the customer loyalty- and community strengthening value of having "Power user" events like these available for non-certified users would outweigh the possible reduction in certification sales...and could also be adjusted by using the aforementioned cost (ticket) -arrangement.

[Mads]

An obvious alternative here would be to raise the technical level of the currently available conferences like LabVIEW/NI Day of course, but personally I would prefer to see both that - and conferences/meetings specifically targeted at the more experienced users.

Some might reply that I could always go to NI Week...and I could, but that costs quite a bit more than the more local/regional alternatives, and there is also a value in having more local alternatives in general - to attract more of the "locals" 😉

[AristosQueue (NI)]

a) I've asked a moderator to move this out of the LV Idea Exchange. It has no bearing on the LabVIEW product and doesn't belong in this forum.

b) Money does not prove that you know what you're doing, and a big reason that the CLA Summits are successful is that we can have the advanced conversations without slowing down for those who are still learning. I'm not opposed to NI doing something else additional, but the CLA Summits are working great as they stand. Go get your certification. I had to do it, Darren did to. Certification is, I believe, key to why the CLA Summits have turned out to be so valuable.

[Mads]

a) It has great bearing on the LabVIEW society/ecosystem. If there was an idea exchange more suitable I would have posted it there though.

b) Of course, the fact that people would be willing to pay to attend does not say anything about their abilities. It does say that they are interested in more advanced content though, and I think it is unlikely that the additional attendants would cause any trouble. But hey if you only see value in catering for those who want to run through the certication programme then that's your prerogative. I'm not sure it's a good attitude towards your customers, but I'm just representing one of them...

As I say in the original posting it would not need to be the CLA Summits. The core of the request is to make it possible to attend similar meetings without the certification requirement (some people without certificates might know what they are doing...).

[Mads]

If you are afraid of having unknowledgable people at some of these events you could put a Kudos-requirement on them instead...;-) A nice way to give something back to the contributors here at ni.com.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> But hey if you only see value in catering for those who want to

> run through the certication programme then that's your prerogative.

*sigh* I was afraid you'd take it like that.I almost didn't reply to this thread at all because I really didn't want to get into all the details.

Obviously that's not my interest. It might be NI's interest, but it isn't mine, and I, as Aristos Queue, am helping to shape the future CLA Summits. And it is my contention -- based on experience from several other types of user gatherings and many years now of CLA Summits -- that the CLA Summit as currently operating serves the entire community better than an open summit would. The environment is fundamentally different when attendees come as *students* versus coming as *peers*, and I see no way to compensate for the shift, so it is better for the entire community that the CLA Summit continue to have a bar on attendence that can only be met by proven skill.

If I just tell you, "I believe you've missed something major, please re-analyze the situation in light of my comment above and attempt to change your position," does that suffice as a reply? I'm not sure I can communicate the details behind that conclusion over e-mail... too much ephemera from the experience of the event and its aftermath. If you cannot convince yourself by looking at the events in a shifted light, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to give an argument that suffices. There's a whole lot of "intuitively feels from experience" and not a lot of "hard measured data" in my argument.

[fabric]

I've never been to a CLA summit but I would if one happened in Australia. 

Not sure if that qualifies me to "vote" here, but I think it would be great if lapsed certifications were good enough to get in the door. (Surely that satisflies the peer argument...)

[Ben]

If you look at how the house and senate are set-up there is a gallery that are allowed to watch but not say anything.

That model could be a win-win-win in that;

The conversations stay high-level

Non-certified can attend, listen learn, and network after hours

NI makes $$$

Otherwise ...

Spoiler

You could grow a beard, start talking about The End Of The World As We Know It, and make me an offer on my propellar beanie so you can pass yourself off as Ben (smiley-wink)

Ben

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> If you look at how the house and senate are set-up there is a gallery that are allowed to watch but not say anything.

I'll counter with the arguments why the Supreme Court doesn't allow cameras in the courtroom -- the justices are (rightfully in my opinion) concerned about performance showboating for the audience. 

Personally, I'd feel awkward presenting to a room of architects and ignoring the people sitting behind the glass or even on the other side of the camera. I've said before and I mean it -- my presentations are very different when I know they're going to be video taped for a larger audience than when I'm presenting to an audience that I can read and interact with directly and the video is only being made so those present can refer back to it. I do not give the same content because, as I said in a recent CLA Summit presentation, mentoring is not the same as teaching, and doing one for an audience of the other can really mess up students.

[Ben]

Audiences are allowed in the Supreme Court as well.

Think Mega-Bucks for your performanaces Stephen and the bonuses aimed right at you.

Ben