[Inpycon] Some thoughts on talks

[Anand Balachandran Pillai]

Conference is over, we did a decent-good job and people are generally
happy, except the odd tweeter here and there. So time to reminisce.

I have (mentally) jotted down a few things I thought should improve
regarding talks next year. Before I lose track of them and we all lapse
into lethargy (till June 2011 :-), let me document it here.

1. Call for CFP at least 3 months earlier. Pycon US does it
3 months in advance (Nov 2010 for March 2011 Pycon). So
in our case we should schedule this in early May for a Sep
conf. That gives us enough time to scrutinize the talks and
do a more thorough review.

2. Have multi-tiered review process: Last year we had almost
no review, this year we had a 4 member group review. I am
suggesting 2 tiered reviews next year on where we first have
a screening round where we actually drop talks before even
rating them (not based on consensus, but perhaps base on
vote) followed by the second round where we rate the remaining
talks.

3. Number of talks - I took in quite a bit more than I could chew
this year, since well, I wanted to have as many talks as we
could pack in. I see that it is not a very good strategy and we should
prefer quality over quantity from 2011. I am thinking like 6-7
45 min talks with 5 minute interval between each talk. So if
we have 3 halls, we can have up to 36 talks for 2 days - good
enough and more if we select the talks well.

4. Interval between talks - We need buffer between talks which
we kind of learned the hard way in the last two days :) (A big thanks
to the talk co-ords Vijay, Ramki and Kunal). 5 minutes of buffer
seem fine and we should plan to wrap up by 5pm to leave
remaining 1-2 hours of sunlight for impromptu stuff.

5. Lightning talks track - We need to prioritize lightning talks
and perhaps have a hall dedicated for lightning talks and
sprints that could follow from it. So if people feel bored or
want to have a change there is always this hall available.

6. Tutorial tracks - Maybe have a lab or class-room for a dedicated
tutorial track where people could sign up for tutorials on anything
ranging from 1-2 hours.

7. Phone numbers - Finally this is a small thing which we missed
in the CFP form, but came back to bite us in a big way when
a few speakers went absconding. We had no way to contact them
immediately and well, we somehow managed things with impromptu
discussions. So next year onwards, CFP forms should have
cell numbers for us to reach the speakers in case of emergencies.

Suggestions, brick-bats etc etc welcome. Please join in the discussion
if your Pycon hang-over is over :)

-- 
--Anand
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