[Debconf-team] Poster session (was: Re: Sponsorship plans and prices)

[Richard Darst <rkd@zgib.net>]

On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 12:10:42PM +0000, Philip Hands wrote:

> One idea that an academic friend mentions to me on a regular basis is a
> "Poster Session" -- for small sponsors that want to push their company,
> but are never going to afford 5k, perhaps we could offer them a slot at a
> poster session.  For those that don't know, a poster session is where
> people put a summary of their academic work into a poster, and then the
> posters are all put up in a room, and the audience get to wander about
> and ask the authors about their work -- the reason for these in academic
> circles is that they allow people to claim that they're presenting work
> at the conference, and so get their institution to pay for attendance.

I think this is a great idea.  I'm not sure if will be practical, but
interesting nevertheless.  Some thoughts:

I'm not sure this should be a "pay-more-for-the-right" thing, my first
inclination is that everyone should be able to (to get more out of
it).

However, making a poster is a lot of work, and I bet most developers
wouldn't be inclined to make one just for DebConf.  To get much
participation, we would have to emphasize that this can be pretty
informal (can be "slides style" to make it easier).  It could even
just be printouts from talk slides - being able to see them again and
talk to the presenter would be worth it alone.

Putting the "posters" in a hacklab or some other common area, and
leaving them for the week, would help to get lots of eyes on them and
get people talking.  Having them at the wine&cheese party would be
good, too.



On another note, I'm about to go to a conference that has something
called "mini-talks".  Here, everyone giving a poster gives a two
minute summary of their work in front of the attendees.  Then you can
go find and talk to them later if you are interested.  I have thought
it works very well for this purpose.

It is possible this could find a place at DebConf.


Both of these ideas are interesting enough to me to think about some
more / draft a plan.  Thanks for the idea, Phil.

- richard

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