[Inpycon] [RFC] Abolish QA Time

[Pradyun Gedam]

On Sun, 16 Jun 2019 at 8:05 PM, Vijay Kumar <vijaykumar at bravegnu.org> wrote:

> On Sunday 16 June 2019 07:05 PM, Pradyun Gedam wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 16 Jun 2019 at 2:27 PM, Vijay Kumar <vijaykumar at bravegnu.org
> > <mailto:vijaykumar at bravegnu.org>> wrote:
> >
> >     Please let me know your thoughts on this.
> >
> > It is important to note why PyCascades removed Q&A -- to "/make it a
> > more friendly environment for first time and new speakers/.", which is
> > especially relevant to PyCascades, since it is a single track
> > conference. PyCascades also goes out of it's way to be welcoming, and
> > has a substantial effort put into Diversity and Inclusion (they have a
> > Diversity Chair), so removing a potential area of stress for such
> > speakers is especially relevant to them. I don't think these points
> > apply to PyCon India, since the structure of the conference is
> > different and there are a lot of cultural differences in the audience.
>
> This actually applies to PyCon India, as well. Diversity and inclusion
> is a key part of our efforts too. We also have a Diversity workgroup
> that is putting in efforts to bring in speakers and participation from
> under-represented groups.


Indeed, I wasn't implying that there are no diversity and inclusion efforts
at PyCon India or that they aren't a positive influence on the conference.
I do think scopes of the D&I efforts are different since there are
substantial cultural differences in the audiences of the conference.

I also mentioned that PyCascades is a single track conference, which is
likely more relevant anyway.

> Eric Holscher's has a blog post [1] about a few approaches that are
> > better than "let anyone in the audience ask a question publicly". I
> > think we should support the ones that are relevant to us (I think it's
> > all of them are but I defer to the organizers to decide, since they'll
> > have to do the prep for them).
>
> Thanks for this link. The experience of other conference organizers is
> surely helpful. I think the moderated questions is a good idea. And I
> would personally prefer the low tech cards approach, over the Slack / IRC.
>
> > As another data point, PyCon US 2019 provided options for speakers to
> > choose from, 5 minutes prior to their talk (No Q&A, 5 minutes Q&A,
> > book a room after talk for Q&A). They received feedback that this is
> > good information to have, and that it should be communicated earlier
> > to the speakers (i.e. when accepted / when applying).
>
> This was another option, I was thinking about, as well. On a lighter
> note, PyCon India speakers have always had this option, by overrunning
> their time-slot, and ending up with no time for QA. :-)


The important part here is actively telling the speakers that they have
this option. ;)

Best,
Pradyun (on mobile)


>
> Regards,
> Vijay
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