Re: [guadec-list] Proposed timetable for Core days

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi,

Paul Cooper wrote:
> This is my proposed timetable for the Core days (17-19th July) of
> GUADEC. I'm suggesting this because we need to work out how many
> slots we have so that we can
> 
> a) decide how many keynoters to invite
> b) eventually give guidance to the papers committee on how many
> we can accept

Good idea. I did this last year, and it worked well. The year before I
did it too, but due to a communication issue it worked less well.

> At the Dec meeting we discussed the timetable and
> the feeling was that we didn't want to start too early or go on too
> late, that keynotes at the end of the day may well not be very well
> attended, and that we wanted to give the option for shorter 'quick
> hit' types talks.

I like having long lunch breaks, 90 minutes is good. I'm not a big fan
of the shorter talks - they end up running over systematically and
screwing up your schedule. But if you're doing them, you need to figure
out how to be strict on time and cut people off (which goes against
human nature).

That said, a lot of the longer talks tend to drag on, so forcing people
to be brief might not be bad.

> The Conservatoire is compact enough that we need only 5 minutes
> change over time, so our advice to speakers would be 40 - 45 mins
> presenation and 15-10 mins questions for a hour session and 15-20
> mins presentation and 10-5 mins questions for a quick session.

I would strongly advise against this - ask people to schedule for 45
minutes. The 5 minutes changeover time doesn't include the people going
up to the speaker to ask questions, or cigarette breaks, or corridor
meetings, which all end up delaying the start of the next session by
more than you think. And if you ask people to stick to 45 minutes,
they'll end up going to 50 or 55 anyway with questions.

> If we repeat this pattern over 3 days in the 4 speaking rooms (that
> hold 520, 150, 140, 64) that would give us 48 hour slots and 36 half
> hour slots and 6 keynote slots - this seems a lot more than in 2006,
> maybe we don't need the smallest room? (Anyone got the 2005 & 2004
> schedules to hand as I don't remember)

2005.guadec.org should still work? If you include the fairly separate
multimedia miniconf, we had 20 + 10 + 16 one-hour sessions or tutorials,
and 6 keynote sessions (including Jeff's Topaz talk). We also
experimented with one hour of dedicated BOF time, but that was totally
unorganised, and didn't happen as I thought it would (my plan was to
have something like this year's summit). And the foundation AGM, which,
being the hour after that BOF time, was poorly attended.

So overall, 46 presentations or tutorials, 6 keynotes and two other
"special" hours.

I agree with Quim that the fourth room's unnecessary for the main
schedule - stick to 3 streams, and make sure people know the fourth room
is available for unconferency activities (but figure out some scheduling
mechanism).

> * On the first day we will start earlier, say 9 or 9.30 to open
> conference, etc.

On the first day, quite a few people will be arriving, registering and
in general catching up with people. We tended to schedule an hour for
"arrive at conference hall and register" for that, starting at 8. You
could do that from 9 to 10.

> * On one day, let's say the middle one, I'd suggest
> taking the 3 - 5 slot in the ABH and making that the 10 minute demo
> slot (enough time I think for 10 demos).

Cool. Does 10 minutes seem too much? Was 5 minutes last year not enough?

> * On the 3rd day I would
> suggest 5 - 6/6.30 as the closing keynote & wrapup.
> 
> With those tweaks we end up at 7 keynotes, 43 hour slots, 34 half
> hour slots, and 10 10 minute demo slots.
> 
> What do you all think?

I liked the lean & mean GUADEC - no more than 3 parallel sessions, with
planned time for break-out sessions. It's hard to get right, though,
especially when you have to cut talks you'd love to see.

I like the suggestion to only have keynotes at the start of the day and
after lunch. Half hour slots are tough to manage on-site, but could work
well, but I'd cut the 4th stream and reduce the number of talk slots by 25%.

We'll talk about how best to do the foundation AGM on foundation-list, I
guess :)

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org