[FOSTEL-List] Re: Structuring the FOSTEL summit

[Craig Southeren]

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:25:18 +0100
Dave Neary <dave.neary at wengo.com> wrote:

..deleted

> > I would like to propose a different organisation that is more like we
> > have had previously.
> > 
> > Rather than having a few big BOF sessions, I would propose having
> > smaller, but more, presentations on specific topics or projects
> > throughout the summit. The idea is to offer a wider scope of topics, and
> > to provide attendees with the choice of either attending a presentation
> > or spending time spend with other attendees.
> > 
> > I think it reasonable that each major project should be prepared to
> > provide at least one presentation on their work. Over two days we should
> > be able to get at least 10 presentations on a single stream, and that
> > would require no more than one hour from any one team.
> > 
> > We could leave a few slots on the second day free for topics that are
> > raised by the attendees during the first day.
> > 
> > Note that this organisation requires that the venue have seperate
> > presentation and collaboration area(s). I would expect the collaboration
> > area(s) to be filled with people and computers either coding in groups
> > or talking. People attend presentations when and as they want to. 
> > 
> > In the past, the collaboration areas have been active until very late at
> > night, and contain large numbers of empty beer cans every morning :)
> 
> We're likely to be constrained by the facilities - we're not going to be
> in conference facilities in a hotel (that's a possibility, but I don't
> think our budget will hold up to it). We will be in a university, which
> we will get for next to free (we will have to pay for security,
> probably). I'm also not sure yet how many meeting rooms we will have in
> addition to the lecture theatre.
> 
> That means that we won't be able to stay there very late.

That's a big shame. 

Most of the good work and relationship-building at the previous FOSTEL
conferences was done at night and into the small hours. But that was
when we hadthe conference over several days. With a two day conference,
there will only be one or two nights, so perhaps this will be less of a
concern.

However, I know of several people who are intending to arrive before the
conference and stay after. So perhaps it won't just be one night after
all :)

On this subject, how many nights are you planning for? One, two or three?
 
> However, we will have several rooms we can break out into, and I really
> like the idea of having convergence sessions where we will have most of
> the attendees together. This format worked really well last year -
> everyone got a high-level view of what was going on elsewhere, and for
> smaller projects, we had a lightning talks session which fulfilled every
> goal you hope for from lightning talks - most people were at them, and
> we got 12 5-minute presentations, which let people have interesting
> conversations and BOFs afterwards. Perhaps having one hour for lightning
> talks might be the best way to address the concern you have and give all
> the participating projects a say - otherwise we will spend the whole two
> days in conference sessions, or the talks which are given will be poorly
> attended.

I agree

> I prefer to have a small number of high-quality interesting talks and
> then get out of the way and let people have conversations.

Some people need a full hour. Other people only need 5 minutes. We
should give the presenters a choice, but I think every project that
attends should give something as the "cost" of being invited :)

Also, I don't see any problem with keeping a continual stream of talks
going. People can decide whether to attend or not. The crucial point is
to have a published timetable that doesn't change at the last minute so
people can plan where they want to be. 

We don't really have much time to get everyone in

Some people may decide not to attend any talks and keep hacking away.
Some people may decide to attend all the talks. Either way, that's OK :)

What does everyone else think?

   Craig

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 Craig Southeren          Post Increment – VoIP Consulting and Software
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