Mailman 3 September 2012 - Inpycon

PyCon India 2012: "I am not getting what I have been promised"
by Abdul Muneer Oct. 3, 2012

Oct. 3, 2012

Hi, I came to pycon with the expectation and excitement that this is going to be the best pycon so far. Even though there is one more day of the conference to be over, it doesn't look like that is the case. I haven't been able to make any contribution to organizing this python, perhaps considering myself not to be of any match to the vast talent and enthusiasts we have. But still I have deep love for Python and seeing how this event has turned out, I feel a frustration that it could have been a lot better. Here is a listing of my general feedback, focusing on the negatives: *1) Tutorial quality sucked big time* - *Tutorials require more skill and preparation than a conf talk. Few had it.. * - *The stress in tutorials is for learning and it should not be compromised at_any_cost.* How do we do it? Accept proposals only from those who are known to be good presenters. Perhaps they should have presented a couple of talks in other events. And/Or pull in great people whom we know and get them conduct few sessions. One session that I attended was so much boring that people will leave that session with their love for that topic diminished. This is in spite of that person having tons of experience in that field. We do not want such people in tutorial. They can present a conf talk on some work they have done, but not a tutorial session. But in contrast when another similarly experienced person took a session on basics of Python, it was admirable and people clapped with appreciation. We want more of such people.* * *2) Setup was embarrassing. * - *Internet* - *AV setup* 1. Just how many times did the default mic work perfectly? Either issues with volume, or feedbacks, or they may have to change to hand mics etc.. 2. Issues with connecting laptop to projector 3. Power failure/ display going blind.. happened in Nick's talk on python 3.3* * - *Acoustics* 1. The halls and classrooms had echo.* * *3) Talks* - *Should be charming.* On Day 1 I could attend an awesome session on "Automated data analysis with Python" by Anand S. Wish all talks were that charming as against a) just reading out the slide or b) just typing the code and speak out what he is typing. 4) *Tight schedules* Where is the time for lightning talks, hallway chats? Perhaps we should have just 3 parrallel classes and 1.5 hour per sessions. One class always should be in the main hall. e.g.: Python 3.3 features were not covered in one hour as time was insufficient. Some other speaker felt one hour is too short to tell anything meaningful in his topic so he ended his talk in half an hour or so. I think the schedule was fixed after the topic was submitted. Probably we should fix a format up front so that those who plan to submit anything can plan around that. The general feeling that I have can be summed up in one sentence - "I am not getting what I have been promised". We had superstars like Jacob, David, Nick. We had a handsome list of sponsors. But did the conference raise to expected high level? It hurts when young people like fresh graduates working in startups, people from other languages who are curious to python etc leave with disappointment. Last year was my first PyCon and that was an exciting experience. The keynote address was a rockstar performance from Raymond the speeches were good in general. My excitement made me pull in my wife, brother and friends to this year's pycon. I am already receiving the flak. Let's hope Day 2 will make up for all these. We know the effort the organizers put behind. You guys have pulled it off to this level from the brim of getting cancelled altogether. That is a tremendous work. But as hard as we worked, there were still a lot work that were not done. Let's start today itself and prepare for an awesome, admirable event next year. Regards, Abdul Muneer -- Follow me on Twitter: @abdulmuneer <http://twitter.com/#%21/abdulmuneer>

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Exit survey
by Noufal Ibrahim Oct. 2, 2012

Oct. 2, 2012

I was speaking to Yannick earlier in the night and he suggested sending out a link to an exit survey to all the participants. Feedback on the talks and tutorials, general comments and perhaps even some demographic data ("are you a student/ professional etc."). This expressed as a percentage is useful data for future sponsorships. It's possible to set something up like this using google docs or surveymonkey isn't it? -- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in

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Update "On Twitter" link.
by Bhargav Sept. 28, 2012

Sept. 28, 2012

Hello! "On Twitter" link on http://in.pycon.org/2012/ does not redirect to http://twitter.com/pyconindia. I think the following line has to be modified; https://github.com/ipss/pyconindia2012/blob/master/themes/pyconindia2012/te… Thank you, Bhargav.

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Need volunteers
by Anand Chitipothu Sept. 27, 2012

Sept. 27, 2012

Hi, We are in bad need of volunteers. Vijay was the only person at the venue handling all the stuff. Abdul, Satyakam and I are at hasgeek looking at registration and video recording setup. We are going to be at the venue by 7:30AM tomorrow. Please try to come early and help. Anand

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Arrangements at the venue
by Anand Chitipothu Sept. 27, 2012

Sept. 27, 2012

Hello everyone, We need lot of help with arrangements at the venue. If you can, please come tothe venue around 3PM. Anand

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Schedule PDF
by Anand Chitipothu Sept. 27, 2012

Sept. 27, 2012

Hi, We need to create a PDF of the schedule to include in the swag kit. Anyone interested to take care of that? Thanks, Anand

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printing badges
by Anand Chitipothu Sept. 27, 2012

Sept. 27, 2012

Hi, We need to print badges today at Print express. They have office in Koramangala and some other places in Bangalore. Can someone take care of printing them? Anand

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Temporary sim card
by Noufal Ibrahim Sept. 27, 2012

Sept. 27, 2012

One of the keynote speakers asked me about how difficult/expensive would it be to get a temporary sim card and a local number for the duration of their stay. Does anyone here have information about this? If so, please let me know. -- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in

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Jacob has arrived
by Noufal Ibrahim Sept. 27, 2012

Sept. 27, 2012

Jacob has arrived yesterday night. So, we have both of our keynote speakers safe and sound. -- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in

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Renting Computers
by Anand Chitipothu Sept. 26, 2012

Sept. 26, 2012

Hi, It looks like we may have to hire 2-3 high-end computers on rent for video recording. Does any of know where can we get them? If so, can you please speak to them and find out how much does it cost per computer for 3 days? Ramdas, I remember that you mentioned in some earlier thread that you can get some for rent. Can you please check with them and let me know how much does it cost? We initially thought of buying computers and sell to hasgeek after the event. HasGeek trying to get some other better video recording equipment and we are not completely sure if they'll reach in time. As a backup plan we need to hire some computers. Kiran, can you please let us know what configuration would be required? Anand

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