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

[Paul Cooper <pgc openadvantage org>]

----- Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org> wrote:
[snip]
> > 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).

I'll be doing my best to find lots of 'hard' people who can act as time keepers in the main rooms - I think it's ok to be strict so long as you give 5 mins warnings, and apply to equally. 

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

Also I'm hoping that we can ask people to specify in the CFP which is their preference, so that people can self select - hopefully it will encourage a broader range of people to submit papers. Admittedly not international conferences but some of the small local events we've had a lot of success in forcing people to stick to 30 mins (of course in typical fashion I'm useless at keeping time when I'm presenting).

> > 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.

probably smart - if we say 45 for main session and 20 for quick session.

> > 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).

I'm happy to take that advice and leave fourth room free form - I can borrow the low tech wiki from the LUGRadio guys for organisation (large blackboard).

> > * 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.

I don't think I phrased that very well - doors will open 8 or 8.30ish what I mean is start talking at 9.30 probably some combination of you, Quim, myself, Bastien, Thos and some local dignatory welcoming everyone and opening the conference before handing over to first keynote just after 10 (with luck).

> > * 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?

OK this is probably another situation of timetabling v. what you tell speakers. With projectors generally sucking (although we'll do our best to mitigate this) plus sound equipment I would guess each slot would need to be 10 mins (that's what it felt like last year although I didn't time it).

> > * 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 think we have enough flexibility with a 'spare' 4 room that if the papers committee absolutely has to have a couple extra papers we can accomodate.

> 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 :)

Not for the AGM but I should also point out that there is a separate board room suitable for board meeting, guadec08 meetings, and possibly advisory board meeting (don't have the brochure to hand but I'd guess max 35 people).

Paul

> Cheers,
> Dave.
> 
> -- 
> Dave Neary
> GNOME Foundation member
> bolsh gnome org


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