Since it was announced in November 2013, Laurent Boivin and I have been busy with the organization of the Perl QA Hackathon 2014, securing venue, accommodation, catering, sponsors, invitations, etc.

During this seventh edition, as usual, the participants will be giving their time, knowledge and experience to the Perl community for four days, hacking and arguing about QA (quality assurance) and CPAN toolchain. In return for their time and valued experience, we want to make this event as cheap as possible for them to attend, by covering their travel, accommodation and food to the best of our abilities.

This is where sponsors come in. The event is sometimes a hard sell for corporate sponsors, because there are no real recruiting opportunities, and the attendance is relatively small (30 people this year). To a corporate sponsor, the QA Hackathon is usually much less attractive than a conference-like event, like a workshop or a YAPC. We still managed to secure a few of them, and are looking for more, don't worry.

Given this is an event that is improving Perl, for the community, by the community, we were thinking that we should ask the community for help too.

Here's what you can do to help:

If your company uses Perl (for free, as you might want to remind them), maybe they could consider sponsoring the hackathon, because it's one of the few events that actually make Perl and CPAN better. Explain your management that this is a way for them to say "thank you" to the Perl community, while investing in Perl and CPAN improvements.

Maybe you, as a member of the community, want to support the hackathon too. We have a PayPal button and accept donations in €, $ and £. No donation is too small!

In both cases, check out http://act.qa-hackathon.org/qa2014/donate.html. The page has all the contact information needed to get in touch with us. And if you hate PayPal, it also has the French Perl Mongers bank account information, for direct transfers.

The money collected (see our public budget page) will be used to cover the travel expenses, the accommodation and the food for as many non-sponsored participants as possible. To make Perl and CPAN better. And don't worry about giving too much: as it has become the tradition since the 2011 edition in Amsterdam, all the surplus money will be donated to kickstart the next Perl QA Hackathon. :-)

Thanks!