FSCONS 2011/Comments Sandbox

Purpose of this page

Hi all! I thought I would collect some comments on what I thought went really well, and what could be improved for next year here. Please feel free to do the same!

-- Skymandr

skymandr's comments

First of all: thanks for a great conference! I'm positively surprised at how well the teams functioned, despite this being the first time that most of us met. I was also very impressed with how the café and the social area(s) turned out (and with the selection of beer). Over all, my impression is that this went mostly very smoothly and efficiently, and it was pleasure working with you!

Here are some things (in the shape of a boring list) that I think could be improved for next year (order of appearance):

• Ventilation: For next year, a good idea would be, I think, to put "Peleas help me keep the air fresh -- press me!"-signs by the forced ventilation buttons, and perhaps also have a map where they are marked.
• Maps for volunteers are a good point over all -- something showing just where what should be done so that work can be coordinated easier. It could well be in analog format, so that waste bins, table stores etc., can be added once we know where we put them.
• Set workteam meet-up point at the beginning of each shift (thinking of the venue team, mostly), so that the work can be coordinated. It went very well anyway, but I think we can do even better.
• The reserved-for-accessibility 2nd row was not respected, probably due to lack of information. A simple note by the outer edges, saying it is made broader for access could fix this, though it has to be phrased in such a way that it doesn't deter people who don't need the extra access from sitting there, since that would be a waste of space most likely.
• Though the "fire"-escape went smoothly, I think us volunteers could probably need some extra training in what to do when the alarm sounds (i.e. don't keep emptying waste bins, but get everyone out, then get out yourself). I think many didn't even realise that this was what the alarm sounded like.

Thanks for this weekend!

-- Skymandr 10:46, 14 November 2011 (CET)

Jonas' comments

• Maps: we need to ensure there are proper maps, finally, which also indicate the restaurants in the area, as well as facilities on site.
• Social event: The social event on Sunday didn't feel like it had any particular purpose this year. Remove in favour of self-organised pubcrawls?
• Social event: There was no clear break between the program and the social event on Saturday. It needs to be a very clear break between them (change of venue, or change of setting) to ensure that people can contextually switch from program mode to social mode.
• Program: The program was long. Very long, with talks/lightning running until 19. That seems too late: 9 hours of content is plenty. Reducing the talking time for each speaker will reduce the length and allow for more time for reflection and discussions.
• Volunteer teams: We might want to consider having volunteers work in teams of four. I think that would make coordination easier during the conference, and it would make scheduling much easier. The venue team, for instance, might not be one team, but split into three teams of four persons each. During setup/teardown, each team can care for one particular area, and so on.
• Streaming: The streaming worked well with having a dedicated cam for this. Separation of responsibility (streaming vs recording) was a good tactic to apply to manage everything. Perhaps for future years we can have the streaming camera always-on, even if there's no activity in a room.
• Talks: Do they need to be 45 minutes? Last year, 30 minutes seemed fine for a lot of speakers.

Erik's comments

• Maps like Jonas say but more in the topic where shod this table go. not only when we unpack but also when we try to return everything to the right place.
• I think the speakers was great but i have trouble to know what the speech i about maybe add longer text and remove the hard words example "PyPy in Production" "how to work whit the Python interpreter PyPy" the the people that don't know what PyPy is also have a chance to know if they want to hear it.