Feedback from 2007 Conference

Session Chairs

Need to synchronise watches at the start of each day. For a time on Sunday, the New Lecture Theatre was running in a different time zone because the session chair's watch was 10 minutes slow!

David Boddie replies: We started late in the New Lecture Theatre because very few people arrived on time! Most people arrived at about 9:05 - I don't know how many of them were hungover. ;-)

Cloakroom

Maybe have the Conservatoire open the cloakroom to delegates, charging per item put in. So that they don't have to carry it around during the conference. Preferably staffed by someone who isn't part of the crew, as its a boring job and crew still want to attend talks.

Crew HQ

Have a room set up as Crew HQ, where crew equipment can be stored safely. Also where staff can be semi-permanent so delegates can get hold of crew easily. The argument can be made against that it's better for the crew to wander around and be part of the conference, but on balance it would be good to have an HQ room manned by one or two people in a rota. Also this would be helpful for taking late payments and making sure paperwork is kept in order!

Audio

Have more audio recorders! The ones Zeth had this year were great, but in short supply. Having all the rooms mic'd up would also be great, even if just for recording purposes. Not sure how to accomplish this in the tutorial room as talkers may wander around - wireless lapel mic?

Make the recording simpler, smaller mixing desk with less confusing knobs. Audio team inexperienced in using them so the simpler the better, two inputs should do, as two mics in each room worked well. Maybe having a compressor installed to prevent clipping, could ask for a model of mixing desk that has compression built in.

The PA team that was hired was willing to take our comments and suggestions and help with coming up with a better suited solution for next year.

Lightning Talks

Great!

PGP Keysigning

Didn't really work. Lunch area was very busy, and people seemed more interested in having lunch understandably. Having a room can help with this, or setting up a designated table, with a sign maybe.

Open Space

Not much in the way of Open Space. Using the bar room as an OS area may help as it's reasonably private, but still very accessible.

Sprints

Didn't take off, maybe people in the UK aren't used to the idea? Pimp it more.

Rooms

Use the concert hall next year, will need the space. (JP: Done, booked.)

Access

Using other doors. Next year we'll have the Adrian Boult Hall, so there'll be access from the main entrance which will help.

Wifi

Was great! Having each access point named will help with finding the best signal, not sure if it could also help the Tech team with troubleshooting if something went wrong.

QW replies: Giving all the access points the same name means that you can roam. There should have been no problem getting a signal anywhere in any of the lecture rooms or in the exhibitors' area. Only the back left hand side of the canteen had coverage. We were able to remotely access each of the access points and inspect the signal quality for all users. All were getting 50% or better link quality apart from one person who was getting 23% - I suspect a hardware problem!

Tutorials

Need to be longer, and on a separate day. Probably this will mean charging for them, unless we amortise the cost of tutorial room hire across the whole conference.

Introduction to Python

The format was good. Having two experienced programmers helped with managing questions from the group. The session was too short. And idea would be to have an all day introduction on the first day, then many specific introductory topics the next day. Ie extracting data, outputting data etc.

Website

Put the conference CD on the website. And vice versa.

Swag

More of it! The cotton cloth bag was excellent and I will definitely be using mine for shopping.

Publicity

Places where we publicised the event:

Lots of interest was generated when the programme (contents of talks, not worried about the timetable) was announced - and provided a good excuse to re-publicise!

FeedBack2007 (last edited 2008-09-16 12:51:11 by RichardTaylor)