Good to have a discussion going. I agree with a lot of what John, said, but I do have a few other aspects I'd like to mention.
The first one is the marketing aspect. A keynote gives you a poster name, and it matters in two ways. One is that an interesting sounding keynote will actually attract participants and weigh in favour when undecided people make up their minds. The other one is that in the view of the general public, the prestige and seriousness of your conference is affected by the sort of keynote speakers you have. This is where I think Europython has done better than Pycon. We have had keynote speakers (apart from Guido), who have talked about things that transcend Python, and I think this has affected the whole spirit of Europython. My other aspect is that I think a keynote is the opportunity to be a bit different from the regular talks. Most people go to Europython to work hard and to listen to talks that will actually help them in their work, so after a hard day of work, they should be able to settle down and hear something that is entertaining, thought provoking and which does not have a direct bearing on their everyday work. This means that (to me) it is more important that keynote speakers are entertaining than that they are relevant. However, I respect that others have different opinions, and since I have happily delegated this matter, I will respect whatever decision the subcommittee makes. Jacob _______________________________________________ EuroPython mailing list EuroPython@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython
