On Sun, 2 Feb 2014, Rich Bowen wrote:
Nick, can you tell me how you envision the Fast Feather track working,
from a scheduling perspective?
ie, do we just give you a day-long slot and say "go for it", or is there
more that we need to do on the scheduling side to accept specific talks
for that track? Also, is it a day, or two days - what do you think you
can fill?
In the past, it has typically been a half day, or two quarter days. We
have also done a few lunchtime sessions, which work well for more
experienced speakers talking on something new+quick. Newer presenters are
best off in a small + cozy + friendly space though!
Typically, we've opened submissions fairly close to the event, I've picked
half the talks a week out, then fill in the rest of the gaps with last
minute ideas (barcamps and hackathons are often good for identifying
these). FFT always causes a headache for the organisers, as we need a
schedule printing for the room + website updating much much later than
they generally like...
Given the compressed timescales this time, one thing that might be good is
to open submissions when speaker notifications go out. That way, anyone
who has submitted for the first time and not been accepted for a full slot
can be suggested to submit for a 20 minute FFT one. I've spotted a few
talks when reviewing which I felt were "good idea, not enough experience",
so the FFT could be a good way to help these speakers for next time. When
submissions are open, we then get others to submit too, especially the
incubator, as the incubator has lots of interesting things from people who
are new to speaking.
A whole day can be hard to fill, one afternoon or two half-afternoons
tends to be easier to get talks for + keep people interested. Afternoons
generally seem to work better than mornings. A few lunchtime slots might
be good too, maybe one day do (serious) lightning talks at lunch, and
another do some slightly longer FFT ones? Depends on floor layouts though
Nick
