OtherActivities
From MelbLCAWiki
Contents |
Introduction
Various other activites that should go on at the conf
- Bike Ride
- co-conf - a separate conference which shares dates with the mini-conf, they have their own budget and registration, eg Open Source in Government.
- Organised tour to a place like Phillip Island (penguins and all that) for the day after the conference ends.
- CBD Aboriginal Walking Tour - somewhere somehow.
Conference 'Party'
PaulWayper writes: In at least the two years previous to 2007, there was an unofficial 'conference party' that encouraged amateur performers and artists to play their work and talk. The atmosphere was relatively light and friendly, the numbers were only a small percentage of the total conference attendance, and people were encouraged to participate.
In 2007, Google hosted the official Conference Party. This involved a live act (Deprogram), playing the video of the CSE revue, a five-figure bar tab, and a couple of people being thrown out of the conference. The feel, to me, was one of a professional party rather than an impromptu gig. I asked the Seven team several times whether they wanted me to play, as I had done at the last two events, and they never got back to me. (It became academic, but I still would have appreciated some yea or nay). No-one else was asked to perform, no participation was invited, and the atmosphere, while light and friendly, still had the 'someone else is paying' thirsty overtones. To me.
I appreciate Google, or any other sponsor, putting on a big party. It's really great. But I missed the old format. If Google feels that a party is the best way of saying thanks for our community's support and the use of our software and developer time, then fine. But asking for more community input would be good too. And encouraging people to think outside the bounds of code is a worthwhile goal, too.
Feedback
Get people to rate each presentation they attended, and provide feedback to the speaker.
- Feedback is an important enough topic to get its own page. How are we going to manage it? Collate it? Report back to speaker? Can we use previous conference ratings to give good speakers "pre-presentation mojo"? (i.e. Put an asterix next to the name of any speaker who got a high/very high rating in 2006 or 2007?)
- I think stars next to "good speakers" would get far too toxic and far too political... --Jiri 13:44, 29 Apr 2006 (EST)
- We could do something extra funky like receive SMS feedback or web-based feedback (how many people bring laptops?).
- It would be good to have a strategy to maximise feedback as this is a major channel both for speakers to improve and for future conferences to improve (= value to LCA = improves our bid)
LPI Exams
Do we do these again, they were done in 2004 (were they done in 2005?), these went on at the same time as the miniconfs.
Why stop at LPI? We may be able to score a bulk discount if we work with other major vendors, eg. Cisco and Novell (Suse). Being able to get a certification for 75% of full cost may be a big attraction for some?
Lightning Talks
Quick 5 minute talks, should have a prize for the best few, must have timekeeping.
This is *very* popular at OSDC. Again, we should integrate this with pre-conference online community and BOFs. Definitely encourage people to sign up for lightning talks (with proposed topic) before the conference. This should encourage the more timid to see what kinds of talks are being done, and may encourage them to sign up. If possible, encourage people to submit sample presentations to the wiki.
In the past lightning talks have been done badly at LCA, particularly in 2006. Weren't too bad in 2004, ok in 2005.
Ideas on how to run lightning talks:
- Should be the only thing on (eg schedule as an afternoon keynote)
- Keep to strict 5 minute time slots
- starting from when they reach the lectern
- Be willing to give someone more time if they speak very well and the audience reponds very well (eg, the "how to negotiate with americans" lightning talk at osdc 2005)
- Open the room early and have speakers set up their laptops then
- Use the lecturn mic
- Announce one speaker ahead so they can be standing ready
Key Signing
PGP Key Signing, should have a process to ensure runs quick (people sign-in to the signing room?)
- Shouldn't this just be a BOF? --Nate
- In some ways it is, but the requirements are sufficiently different that it probably warrants separate planning. --Jiri 13:40, 29 Apr 2006 (EST)
BOFS - Birds of a Feather
Don't try two sessions like 2005, nobody stuck round for the second session.
- I would suggest that BoFs should be first-class objects - on the program, with topics and people (at least a moderator, preferably also several others), scheduled so as to avoid clashes on topics likely to have audience overlap, etc. Possibly have a stream of BoFs, which would allow us to assign them to a flat-room rather than a theatre and automatically give them appropriate prominence. --Jiri 01:36, 3 Apr 2006 (EST)
- Con: a stream would force all BoFs to be exactly an hour; BoFs have been known to go on for three hours or more (though in that case it's debatable whether it wouldn't've been better to cut it off at one).
Breakfasts
Do we want to run these?
This is an opportunity to engage with business people (who often go to breakfast briefings). Could be a separate source of funds (i.e. LCA delegates attend free, but Melbourne business people can attend breakfasts at a cost / special registration). You could get Gartner to talk about how wonderful Linux is (now that they actually think so :P)
Especially if we put up international speakers to speak there, in order to get better return on their air tickets...
Informal Networking
This is not so much something to be organised as something to be facilitated, or at least not obstructed. There needs to be some place people can talk to other delegates between talks or after the end of the day's program, use as the staging area for ad-hoc dinner trips, etc.
Geometry of spaces - ideally something like in Canberra, where the foyer to almost everything else had couches and was generally a pleasant place to chat (no draughts, no rain). Probably not much we can do about that except to keep it in mind (for instance, when selecting which set of rooms to use and which room to use for what).
Hours - ideally, it should be open well after the end of the talk program (or, if it must close early, there should be a designated after-hours alternate). That was especially noticeable in Adelaide, where the conference just died shortly after five (or maybe I just didn't find where everybody went?).
We can do a lot more to encourage this by online community too? Mailing list beforehand, wiki before hand, integrate the online community with BOF organisation to generate momentum before the conference. Encourage people to put a profile of themselves (with photo?) on the wiki so that people can get to know them before they arrive (especially good for new people?)
Concurrent events
Melbourne is not only the culinary capital, it's also the cultural capital. What other events are concurrent or near the conference? These may have dual value -- encouraging more people to come, and giving us a chance to leverage off them for a broader program (or encouraging their attendees to come to our sessions, especially broader ones that may be of more general interest -- eg. we could have an open lunchtime session each day?)
