Fair point
It’s a legitimate point. But really, I am not seeing a conflict. LOTE4 weaves quite well into what people are doing: Kiderwind, for example, emerged as a project as a result of @Marc working on his solar tracker in the unMonastery; LOTE4 is only a waypoint, in which the group gets some help from Leo and others to make a step forward with the software. Similar arguments can be made for most – probably all – hackathon tracks and conference sessions: they are all weaving into one project, sometimes more than one. Some sessions feed into the unMonastery, as a container of projects, and/or Edgeryders itself, as a community of projects. In other words, the conflict disappears if you focus on LOTE4’s content instead of its organisation.
The tradeoff is always the same – and this is the 4th LOTE, we’ve been there: getting together in real life boosts everyone’s energy, but takes time and effort. So far it’s been worth it, but of course you are right, it’s a struggle. What would you suggest?