[EuroPython] conference length

[Jan Murre]

+1

for going back to the original 3-day length of the conference, not to
criticize the organisation, it's just my personal preference.


On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 3:04 PM, Martijn Faassen <faassen at startifact.com>wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I thought I'd give my preferences for conference length in the future.
> It's just my point of view, but I had it for a while now, and I figure I'd
> better share it to be more constructive.
>
> For some years, EuroPython was 3 days of conference, with perhaps 3 or 4
> parallel tracks with talks. From what I recall from the early days, we got
> about as many talk submissions as we had talk slots available.
>
> At some point a few training days got tacked on to the beginning. We also
> gained a tradition of sprints before or after the conference, later on
> getting established at the end, where I think they should be. I myself
> greatly enjoy sprints as an opportunity to get to know people better and
> work with them.
>
> In the last few years EuroPython grew to a conference with many more
> parallel tracks, and more days of conference proper. 5 or so. And then
> sprints.
>
> I haven't been to EuroPython for a few years for other reasons. But when I
> peeked at the massive and long schedule I did feel rather intimidated. It
> feels a bit too much like a marathon to me. I prefer my conference to be
> shorter. I also feel such a long conference risks diluting the talks anyone
> finds interesting over a longer period, making the whole experience less
> inspiring. And while I enjoy the hallway track, I prefer doing sprints.
>
> I take it the training sessions got spread into the main conference and
> that's why it's longer. But I wonder whether the ballooning schedule is
> also because the amount of talk submissions went up, and following the
> pattern of accepting as many submitted talks as possible like we used to
> have, the conference felt it had to grow to more days and more slots too.
> If this is so, I think we should consider whether this is the right
> response to more talk submissions, or whether a better response is to
> simply reject more talks.
>
> I think this relates to the discussion on diversity of talks. On the
> preliminary schedule, quite a few speakers have two accepted talks, or even
> three. For a more inspiring conference, I'd prefer to see more different
> speakers, more viewpoints, not the same speaker multiple times, however
> good they may be, and however interesting the topic.
>
> Perhaps an exception can be made if a particular category of submissions,
> like trainings, don't get enough submissions otherwise, but if submissions
> > talk slots, I think 1 accepted talk per speaker is a good idea. To avoid
> people gaming the system to increase their chances they're accepted,
> perhaps 1 *submitted* talk per speaker would be a good idea too.
>
> For even more diversity of topics, throw in more wild card talks too that
> are only peripheral to Python, and not just for the keynote speeches. To me
> that's more inspiring. (I haven't studied the schedule in detail yet
> though, so it's possible they're there)
>
> I was told by @europython on Twitter I wasn't required to show up for 5
> days of talks. I can make my own, shorter conference. So do I cut off the
> beginning or the end? I'd prefer the sprints, so I guess I should show up
> in day 3? What if a talk I submitted gets scheduled to day 2, though? Or if
> I actually prefer seeing the talks on day 1 and 2? Now I have to make those
> difficult choices myself.
>
> Nobody has to care about what I want of course if it's just me. But
> perhaps I'm not the only one. And maybe bits of my analysis make sense to
> others. Nobody will find out if nobody talks about it, so that's why I did
> here.
>
> Thanks for doing all the hard work in organizing this; I know it's not
> easy.
>
> Regards,
>
> Martijn
>
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