Re: [guadec-list] GUADEC 2016: length and schedule

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Alexandre Franke <alexandre franke gmail com> wrote:
...
> > Fifth, we might want to rethink how the hackfest days are organised,
> > either in terms of reducing the number of days, or expanding them to
> > include more than just BoFs.
>
> You piqued my interest here. What do you think we could do on those
> days in addition to BoFs?

I have a few issues with the BoF days: they aren't very newcomer
friendly, and if there isn't a BoF you're interested in, there's
little incentive to participate. I was thinking that it would be good
to name them "hack days" or something similar: advertise them as
general days for people to work, and make sure that there's a room
dedicated to ad hoc hacking.

And there are other things we could do to make these days more
inclusive and productive: maybe we could set something up to help
people organise around particular topics, like a noticeboard where you
can advertise your interests, or maybe we could have micro-BoFs, or
areas designated for different types of work, or maybe there could be
an area for lightning talks on recent or in-progress work (as a kind
of feedback seminar), or maybe there could be led workshops.

I mentioned it in this thread because a more elaborate set of hack
days (or whatever we call them) might have consequences for the
schedule on the core days. However, it might require a separate
discussion. It would be great to hear other ideas for how to develop
this aspect of the conference.

Allan