Re: [Debconf-team] Issues regarding venue and scheduling process

[Moray Allan <moray@sermisy.org>]

I've written a long reply to Tássia off-list.  However, I would like
to follow up on the scheduling point on list:

- I don't agree that two rooms gives insufficient scheduling space,
especially considering the decrease in the number of submissions.  I
expect we can create an additional downstairs meeting space, but I
would rather we wait until DebCamp (or until we get floor plans for
the building, but I suspect DebCamp will come first), finalise the
room use, and then open up the remaining slots, including that space,
for late scheduling, roughly following the scheme used last year.

- I didn't propose scheduling events in the café, I pointed out that
many people might prefer to hold informal discussions there.

(- Scheduling events in the hotel on the same timeslots would be bad,
as it would turn "all hacklabs and talks are across the corridor" into
potentially "leave the building, walk to the crossing, cross the
street, round the corner, wait for a lift, along the corridor", and
every event would need to wait at the start just in case someone was
arriving from an event in the hotel.)

- The video team are, quite reasonably, only willing to cover two talk
rooms.  Most Debian participants do not come to DebConf, so scheduled
talks which do not have video coverage are far less useful, and can
even be socially harmful within Debian teams!  Thinking for future
years, it might be worth considering a more general rule that we do
not pre-schedule events in rooms without video coverage, if they were
ordinary submissions sent through the early-submission system.

-- 
Moray