[FOSTEL-List] Re: Structuring the FOSTEL summit

[Dave Neary]

Hi,

Craig Southeren wrote:
> 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.

I'm planning on helping people build relationships alright :) I want to
basically book a restaurant for a meal for everyone on Wednesday
evening. And the format will lend itself to relationship building, I hope.

> 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?

I will be block booking the hostel for 2 nights, Tuesday and Wednesday.
If people want to stay on a third night and fly out Friday, please let
me know.

For the hotel, I will try for a group rate, and will keep you all posted.

>> 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

OK - let's do that. After lunch on the first day works for me.

> Some people need a full hour. Other people only need 5 minutes. We
> should give the presenters a choice

The presenters will choose as much time as they can get, and most of the
presentations you see in a technical conference just aren't interesting.
I really don't want to sit through 2 days of bullet points.

> 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?

I'd like to avoid unending discussions about the format, but I am open
to changing. I don't think that continual presentations will help us
achieve our goal of increasing co-operation and synergies between
projects, and for that reason I heavily favour spending over 50% of the
time in interactive mode, and under 50% of the time in broadcast mode.
It will allow me to exercise ruthless quality control, so that all of
the presentations are interesting to all present - which would be
impossible otherwise.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
OpenWengo Community Development Manager
Email: dave.neary at wengo.com