Speaker code of conduct
All speakers at an IT MegaMeet event are expected to follow the IT MegaMeet code of conduct.
Purpose of an IT MegaMeet
The purpose of an IT MegaMeet is to bring the local IT community together. To celebrate the often thankless efforts from the many people that freely devote their time to run and maintain community groups. An IT MegaMeet is not a business event to showcase business innovations. It's about the community, the groups that make up that community, and the technologies they use.
Spirit of the event
One thing to keep in mind if the aim and spirit of this event. The IT groups in and around Bristol are ran by volunteers, the groups are about the technology and socialising with people who understand and are interested to talk about such topics. People who give their time freely, for the good of the community, without interest for business or self promotion. The ideology of open source itself is very much the same. This is the spirit within which the MegaMeet is built.
Speakers
Unlike national or business oriented events, the IT MegaMeet organisers do not buy in big name speakers. Instead speakers are put forward from the various community groups. That isn't to say that a group can't decide to put forward recognised speakers. If someone from outside of the community groups has found this event, and wants to come to speak, they have the option of sponsorship to buy into the event.
Speaker introductions
Speakers introduce themselves as being a developer/programmer/software engineer. Introducing themselves as being from a particular company, would be classed as promotion that company, and would require sponsorship. So and introduction of "My name is Lyle Hopkins, I work at XYZ co coding Perl" would require sponsorship. "My name is Lyle Hopkins, I'm a Perl software engineer from the Bristol and Bath Perl Mongers group" would be correct. The focus is on the groups and the technologies.
Talk content
Talks should be focused on the technology. Mentioning of any business or showing a company logo would require sponsorship. Showing a Perl, Python, PHP, Mono .NET, etc., logo is perfectly acceptable as it's focusing on the open source technology.
What's in it for me?
In case you were thinking of speaking, and after reading this your thoughts are "What's in it for me?", then you probably should not speak. Ask yourself the questions "Why do people contribute to open source?" and "Why do people volunteer to run the local IT community groups?". It's about giving your time to create something great for the community, and the technologies that you likely earn your livelihood from.