Feedback for DjangoCon 2014

[Craig Bruce]

Hi all,

First off I want to thank everyone who was involved in making DjangoCon 2014 such a success. I had a great time, as with the two previous DjangoCons I have attended.

It was noted in the program foreword about making DjangoCon more community driven next year (following the lead of DjangoCon Europe and AU). I wanted to kick this effort off with some constructive feedback (some of which I obtained from others):

*Lack of power outlets in the talk rooms

*More open spaces with seats/power (I know we had parlor B, but it seemed empty most of the time)

*In the smaller room have the projector screens higher (it can be hard to see from the back)

*Food and drink were excellent (quantity, quality and frequency)

*Add breakfast to schedule

*Have a feedback form

*Check URLs before posting them on twitter

*Use Guidebook (or something more than a static website or printed program)

*Add an option to purchase a t-shirt when buying your ticket (or raise the price and give everyone a t-shirt)

Speaker related

*Earlier CFP process

*Speaker review period was too short (3-4 days?)

*Take CFP off the website homepage once it has closed

*Bottled water for speakers 

*Wifi was poor on Wed causing speakers the most pain, encourage them to share slides in advance or have offline material ready

*Some speakers were confused about how much time they got

*Don’t have runners collect presentations, authors should send them to the chair

I’m happy to put my money (aka time) where my mouth is and volunteer in a more substantial effort next year.

Cheers

Craig

—
Sent from Mailbox

[Katie Cunningham]

Would it be possible to move the dates away from Labor Day?

I've beat this drum before, but I'll beat it again: It makes it hard
for those of us that have Labor Day obligations (like children going
back to school) or who can't afford the rising prices of airfare
around that time.

I know we're locked in for a bit, but maybe we could start pushing the
conference dates around a bit, once we're not locked into contracts?

Katie

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[Jacqueline Kazil]

+1 for moving it off of Labor day. 

Jacqueline Kazil | @jackiekazil

[Russell Keith-Magee]

Hi Jacqui + Katie,

Unfortunately, we're locked into the Labor Day weekend for 2015 (contracts have already been signed). However, for 2016 and beyond, a date change is certainly plausible. I'm hoping to put out the request for tender for the 2016/7 cycle towards the end of this year; changing the date will be part of that process.

Yours,

Russ Magee %-)

[Russell Keith-Magee]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for that feedback. A couple of specific responses inline:

On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 3:57 AM, Craig Bruce <craig...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

*Lack of power outlets in the talk rooms

*More open spaces with seats/power (I know we had parlor B, but it seemed empty most of the time)

*In the smaller room have the projector screens higher (it can be hard to see from the back)

These all relate to the site facilities; sometimes they're largely outside the control of organizers - or, at least, can't be changed without incurring large costs. However, they're all points worth putting on the site inspection checklist for next year.

 

*Food and drink were excellent (quantity, quality and frequency)

*Add breakfast to schedule

Agreed that the availability of breakfast wasn't well communicated.

*Have a feedback form

There's a contact form on the DjangoCon US website homepage; was there something else you were expecting here?

 

*Check URLs before posting them on twitter

Easy to fix; we just need someone whose job it is to stay on top of social media/communications.

 

*Use Guidebook (or something more than a static website or printed program)

I agree that a printed guidebook is mostly a waste of paper... personally, I always prefer an electronic guide, and I know there are really good apps to handle this. 

 

*Add an option to purchase a t-shirt when buying your ticket (or raise the price and give everyone a t-shirt)

This is actually the first year that there hasn't been a conference shirt included as part of the DjangoCon US swag bag. The lack of a t-shirt was due to budget constraints; ticket sales this year had a *very* late buildup (due primarily to the very late publication of a program). Printing t-shirts is a large cost that needs to be locked in quite early, so it's also the easiest thing to throw overboard as a cost saving.

Speaker related

*Earlier CFP process

*Speaker review period was too short (3-4 days?)

*Take CFP off the website homepage once it has closed

You'll get no objections from me on these points. *Everything* needs to happen a lot sooner. If we don't have a "DjangoCon 2015 coming soon" page up by the end of November, and a full website up by the start of the new year, I'd consider that a failure.

 

*Bottled water for speakers 

I was under the impression water *was* available - there was always a couple of bottles available under the podium when I spoke. However, it's certainly something to put on the checklist for site inspection next year.

 

*Wifi was poor on Wed causing speakers the most pain, encourage them to share slides in advance or have offline material ready

 

*Some speakers were confused about how much time they got

Again, there was a lot of confusion about the program this year, caused primarily by everything being done late. This is also easy to improve on for next year.

 

*Don’t have runners collect presentations, authors should send them to the chair

 

I agree this was a little odd; however, I've got some slightly different ideas around the best way to handle this process.

I’m happy to put my money (aka time) where my mouth is and volunteer in a more substantial effort next year.

 

Consider yourself drafted :-)

The last couple of years have made it clear that unless everything starts early, and you have a deep bench of volunteers to make everything happen, nothing happens until it's almost too late. This means we need to start early, and the first step is making sure we've plenty of volunteers to make things happen. I'll be shaking the tree for other volunteers in the near future.

Russ %-)

[Craig Bruce]

Hi Russ,

Thanks for your feedback, some followups:

*Have a feedback form

There's a contact form on the DjangoCon US website homepage; was there something else you were expecting here?

Being more proactive about getting feedback, even having feedback for each presentation. I'm sure some speakers would love to know how their talk was received and how they can improve. How many first time speakers did we have for example?

 

 

*Bottled water for speakers 

I was under the impression water *was* available - there was always a couple of bottles available under the podium when I spoke. However, it's certainly something to put on the checklist for site inspection next year.

As a runner/chair/speaker I didn't see or know where to get them from, though that could be my failing for not asking. 

Consider yourself drafted :-)

 I'm really keen to help out and would love to see tentative details online for November along with the timeline for CFP (that is appropriately shifted forward as well).

Cheers

Craig

[Daniele Procida]

Hi folks. It's a small thing and I don't know who can do anything about this - but the tiutle of my talk is not "All you need is luck", but "All you need is l***" - otherwise it misses the whole point of the talk!

<http://confreaks.com/videos/4454-DjangoCon2014-all-you-need-is-luck>

Thanks,

Daniele

[Russell Keith-Magee]

Hi Craig,

On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 10:59 PM, Craig Bruce <craig...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Russ,

Thanks for your feedback, some followups:

*Have a feedback form

There's a contact form on the DjangoCon US website homepage; was there something else you were expecting here?

Being more proactive about getting feedback, even having feedback for each presentation. I'm sure some speakers would love to know how their talk was received and how they can improve. How many first time speakers did we have for example? 

 

My apologies - I misunderstood what you meant by feedback. 

Yes - I agree this would be a good idea. At other conferences I've attended, I've seen this feedback process managed as a post-conference survey, which also gives an opportunity to field feedback on general conference organisation. There's probably still a window of opportunity to send out this survey; although I'm not sure if Steve was planning to do anything as part of his role this year. I'll poke him and find out.

*Bottled water for speakers 

I was under the impression water *was* available - there was always a couple of bottles available under the podium when I spoke. However, it's certainly something to put on the checklist for site inspection next year.

As a runner/chair/speaker I didn't see or know where to get them from, though that could be my failing for not asking. 

Sure; but from the other side, if the answer wasn't obvious, then we weren't doing our duty as organizers. 

 

Consider yourself drafted :-)

 I'm really keen to help out and would love to see tentative details online for November along with the timeline for CFP (that is appropriately shifted forward as well).

Excellent. I'll be in touch very soon :-)

Russ %-)