facing the side in long halls (was RE: Thank you)
Charlie Arehart
I didn’t hear any thoughts about the idea of considering facing us sideways in long rooms. Anyone care to weigh in? (And don’t miss the name badge “clip” idea. I realize some stop reading at more than 2 paragraphs. :-)
/charlie
From: cfsummit...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cfsummit...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Charlie Arehart
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 12:30 PM
To: cfsummit...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [cfsummit-speakers] Thank you
Just a couple thoughts in reply, Brian, about the room/screen layout (and a tip at the end for everyone, regarding keeping badges from flipping over):
- Brian, given that there were only 3 breakouts, it seems it WOULD be possible that one of the 3 could grab half-or more of the attendees. After all the glowing (and well-deserved) reviews for your session, this could well be the situation next year (and I hereby call “dibs” on NOT being put against him for that reason, should I be selected again to speak next year!). But seriously, I do think with only 3 tracks, it’s not unreasonable for them to use the keynote space for any session they think will be well-suited
- And here’s another reason I think that would not be so bad: I realize you prefer that the room(s) NOT have 2 screens, but I had wondered if the problem of the deep-long breakout rooms might be solved by going to making them very wide instead. It seemed to me that there was little reason (until I read your preference) not to put 2 screens into the breakout rooms as well (or at least one as long as Islander BG was) and set it up to have people facing the side instead. And honestly, if the room is long and wide, and people place themselves in front of one screen or the other, I hope that that peripheral problem might be mitigated (though not avoided, for those sitting in the middle). I realize it also goes against the “I want to engage people right in front of me” sentiment, if they are seated to the sides, but I have attended plenty of user groups and conferences over the years where they did have that setup, because it did in fact allow people to see the screens better. I suspect that even a very large screen in the Islander BG room would have been hard to see more than halfway back. Plus, it would have been reminiscent of the first Apple commercial for Mac, the 1984 theme with the girl running down the aisle hurling a ball and chain at the big screen while the drones sat stone-faced staring at it. :-)
- finally, to all regarding name badges flipping over, that could be cool to print on both sides. In the meantime, and for conferences that don’t, here’s a trick: use the clip that holds the badge and clip the badge to your shirt, facing forward. :-) This works better if wearing a buttoned shirt it works, of course, and not as well for t-shirts and polo-style shirts unless you’re willing to get a pinched fold. Even so, doing this trick was harder this year because the plastic clip used at CFSummit to hold the badge was not quite as strong as typical metal clasps on most badges—but that’s not a complaint. Most never think to use this trick to hold the badge in place facing forward, but I love sharing the tip when I can (and do often at conferences)! :-)
/charlie
Karen Cassin
Hi all.
I’m compiling all of the feedback on this thread, so don’t worry about the long paragraph of suggestions.
As far as the room set-up goes, we’ve heard you loud and clear. The truth is that our expectation was that the set-up for this event was going to be facing sideways in the two longer rooms, so please know that we’re going to avoid that set-up in the future.
Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and feedback.
Cheers, Karen
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CFSummit Speakers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cfsummit-speak...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cfsummit...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
Dan Wilson
Yeah that would have made it easier for the attendees to read the screen, wide shallow rooms versus narrow deep rooms.
Charlie Arehart
Great, thanks on all counts.
/charlie