Atul Chitnis has a blog post about the rather stringent speaker screening process for foss.in. I think there are things there which we can import http://atulchitnis.net/2012/are-you-a-foss-in-speaker/ Noufal Ibrahim <noufal@nibrahim.net.in> writes:

This feedback is useful. I'm making a note of all the stuff I get and will bring it up at the AGM today afternoon.

Also, I think if we plan sufficiently in advance, we can take care of the issues you've mentioned reasonably well.

Abdul Muneer <abdulmuneer@gmail.com> writes:

...

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> _______________________________________________ Inpycon mailing list Inpycon@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon

-- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in

Anand Chitipothu <anandology@gmail.com> writes: [...]

Yes, we should be very strict about screening process next year. We should make the first timers present their talk at a local usergroup meeting if they are first time speakers.

If it is a tutorial, we should only allow experienced speakers. They should have proven experience of delivering such tutorial already. They try giving the tutorial at a usergroup meeting or a college if they are not very experienced.

Since we are paying a honorarium for tutorial speakers, we should make sure they are very very good quality.

[...] The downside is that we might miss many potentially good speakers who are annoyed with the overly strict rules and will make enemies. However, I think that's a fair price to pay if the overall speaker quality improves. The attendees will benefit. -- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in