Re: Omnibus points
Hi marc (2014.09.16_09:26:38_+0200)
> Stidias: Some years ago I was there. I vaguely recall it a building
> on the sport facility side of Stellenbosch, with basement parking,
> and 3 or so largeish conference rooms. In the back it had a very nice
> garden (summer) and some older buildings which could be used for smaller
> sessions. Having said that, I agree with Bernelle: Unless there are very
> special circumstances I'd suggest going with a venue in an area well known
> to the conference organisers: In Cape Town proper I (heh, more likely Bernelle,
> Stefano) probably know where to get a replacement for that tiny but
> critical screw that has just dropped out of an attendee's laptop or where
> to find good sushi - in Stellenbosch we would not.
My original preference for Stellenbosch was based on walkability. If we
were on UCT upper campus, we'd have to rely on Jammie shuttles / some
other transport to get people between talk venues, food, drink, and
their beds.
Of course, if the weather is awful, being 5 minutes walk from your room
isn't an advantage, any more.
Yes, I don't really know Stellenbosch, and suspect the rust of us don't,
either. If we can get a self-contained venue near restaurants and bars,
in Cape Town, I'd probably prefer it to Stellenbosch.
> Or maybe rent a community hall ? The southyeasters rented the Mowbray
> one, admittedly only for a day ...
It's an option. But it means we probably need to provide our own
Internet connection, find nearby hotels, etc.
DC11 in Banja Luka was essentially held in their city hall. With a few
other rooms in the building, used as hack labs, and the second talk
room. Attendees were housed in nearby hotels, but this was probably only
affordable because of government sponsorship.
I seem to remember the Cape Town BarCamp using a school hall quite
successfully, years and years ago.
> I have very little experience in these matters, but maybe the
> presenters should be asked "How many hours before your presentation
> can we put how many slides online ?" - so the guys who just want to
> tease would only put their title slide online, while people with no
> big ego put the entire thing online 24hrs in advance - this could
> allow people in different time zones to read through it and record
> questions on it ?
One can imagine this working for fairly formal "presentation" talks, but
not so well for anything that turns into a discussion.
I don't know how likely people would be to actually get their
presentations prepared in advance, or to go through the next day's
presentations in advance, leaving comments.
There has been an enormous discussion recently on debconf-discuss, on
how to allow DebConf attendees to avoid being photographed and videoed,
if they wish. Tweaking the format is definitely a way to achieve this.
But, all that said, a big benefit from the conference is getting people
into the same room, to talk things through. Any changes to the format
must be careful not to damage that.
Something else we've done successfully, is re-broadcast recorded talk
video during the non-talk hours, so that people in other time zones can
watch the day's (or day before's) re-run. And I guess chat on IRC, if
there are enough of them.
SR
--
Stefano Rivera
http://tumbleweed.org.za/
+1 415 683 3272
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