Contributor Summit planning

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

For the past several years, we've held a Git Contributor Summit as part
of the Git Merge conference. I'd like to get opinions from the community
to help plan future installments. Any feedback or opinion is welcome,
but some obvious things to think about:

  - where, when, and how often?

    Plans are shaping up to have Git Merge 2019 in Brussels right after
    FOSDEM in February (like it was two years ago), with a contributor
    summit attached.

    Are there people who would be more likely to attend a contributor
    summit if it were held elsewhere (e.g., in North America, probably
    in the Bay Area)? Are people interested in attending a separate
    contributor summit not attached to the larger Git Merge (and if so,
    is there any other event it might be worth connecting it with,
    time-wise)?  Are people interested in going to two summits in a year
    (e.g., Brussels in February, and then maybe some in North America
    later in the year), or is that diminishing returns?

  - format

    For those who haven't attended before, it's basically 25-ish Git
    (and associated project) developers sitting in a room for a day
    chatting about the project. Topics go on a whiteboard in the
    morning, and then we discuss each for 30-60 minutes.

    We could do multiple days (which might give more room for actually
    working collaboratively instead of just discussing). We could do
    something more formal (like actual talks). We could do something
    less formal (like an all-day spaghetti buffet, where conversation
    happens only between mouthfuls). The sky is the limit. Some of those
    ideas may be better than others.

I hope this can stimulate a discussion on the list, but of course if
anybody has private feedback about past events or future planning, feel
free to email me off-list.

-Peff