Hi all!

Thanks for the welcome Brandon. Nice to meet you Hobson. Ewa, I just requested to join the pycon-staff list. Thanks for the reminder!

I replied inline below.

On Jan 6 2017, at 5:33 pm, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote:

On Jan 6, 2017, at 3:46 PM, Ewa Jodlowska <ewa@python.org> wrote:

On Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 9:32 PM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote:

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* We should add a section about the Open Spaces to the PyCon website. There was a section last year but it looks like this hasn’t been transferred to this year’s website.

The work flow for the website is once something is ready to launch, we add it to the website. This way things do not get overlooked and go "stale". If you would like to let me know what text you want on it, I can add the page for you. After that you will have edit rights so you can change whatever is needed. Attached is last year's text.

Thank you for clarifying the work flow, Ewa! I think we can just re-use the text from last year and I will update the little bits that need to be updated for this year as soon as it’s up on the website. Does that work?

Two ideas I had that differ from what we had last year:

I wonder whether we should list an empty schedule-like thing on the open spaces page that lists room numbers and time slots... something that explains/conveys the fact that there is a schedule but we make it ourselves. Open Source Bridge does something like this for their "Birds of a Feather" day on the last day of their conference schedule on their website.
Should we move the Open Spaces page from Events to Schedule? I see open spaces as parallel to the main talk schedule and I missed them entirely my first year at PyCon because I thought they were one-off after hour events like the auction, dinners, 5k run, etc.

* We should continue tweeting about the Open Spaces using #pyconopenspace. Taking a picture of the board a few times day and tweeting it out for attendees to see would also be a good idea.

* We should write another blog post about the Open Spaces and maybe try to have it added to some popular Python newsletters to gain more visibility.

Ideas/To Discuss:

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* In general it might be useful to write a short script for registration desk workers indicating what information to forward to attendees, specifically things that may not be as obvious like the hallway track, what to do in the evenings, PyLadies auction, Open Spaces, etc. This may not be possible doing busy times but at least when time allows.

I'm going to chime in on two points and leave the rest to Brandon.

Point 1 is regarding info at registration: having the volunteers verbally mention all of these things will hold up the lines, especially the first day of tutorials and the first day of the conference, which are the two days that almost all people check-in. During the mornings there are super long lines with people trying to get checked in in time for their tutorials and/or the opening plenary. I do not want to strain that process further. Here we have two options to consider:

Agreed!
Have a short handout with bulleted FYIs. Open Spaces can be one of them. This handout can be given to each person that checks in. The downside is that it is just another thing that someone gets at registration. Not sure how effective it will be.
For those busy check-in times, have a short handout with bulleted FYIs. Open Spaces can be one of them. After the busy times, we can have the people verbally mention it. However, I am not sure how much we retain during that interaction. As an attendee myself (actually going to a conference this following week) I tend to be over stimulated at check-in and don't retain what is verbally said to me. I tend to go back through what was given to me to make sure I did not miss anything.
Personally, I think adding it to the printed schedule and to the Guidebook is the best way forward.

Good points! I agree that adding an FYI section to the printed schedule and Guidebook would work best.

Yes keeping folks at the reg desk informed is great, but I also agree that most folks are going to get through registration quickly and benefit most from an informational section in the printed schedule. A one-page "PyCon cheatsheet" aimed at first time or newer PyCon attendees could be helpful. Or maybe a very small grid representation of the empty open space board on the schedule print out (if it fits)?

* Can we keep the Open Spaces going during sprints? We could maybe add a column to the sprints board letting people add cards for Open Spaces. Maybe there is an extra room available. If not we could do it “pick your own location”-style.

From what I see, this tends to happen naturally. When Sprinters are onsite and they want to meet with a few people to discuss anything, they find their own space and it happens. In Portland we have an unusual amount of space available for Sprints, which will not be the case for 2018 and 2019. We can try it in 2017, but I cannot guarantee that I will have enough space in 2018/19 to give to this.

For 2017, the D rooms (if you visualize walking to the Portland Ballroom on the lower level, the D rooms were the small rooms on the right) can be used for this effort because in 2016 that section was completely abandoned during Sprints since there was so much space in the Portland Ballrooms. There was no need for people to be so far away from the rest.

I’d say let’s try it and see how people like it. If there’s no interest or we can’t do it again in following years due to limited space, that’s ok. Would it be possible to have the Open Spaces board up for the sprints too then?