[Inpycon] PyCon India 2012: "I am not getting what I have been promised"

[Noufal Ibrahim]

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