Fast Feather

[Rich Bowen <rb...@rcbowen.com>]

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?

We definitely want to accommodate that track, but I don't know how it 
has worked in the past.

Thanks.

--rcb

-- 
Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
http://apachecon.com/ - @apachecon

Re: Fast Feather

[Rich Bowen <rb...@rcbowen.com>]

On 02/02/2014 01:41 PM, Nick Burch wrote:
> 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

Awesome. This helps. I'll try to slot it in in one of those ways, and 
run it by you before we go to print.

Thanks.


-- 
Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
http://apachecon.com/ - @apachecon

Re: Fast Feather

[Nick Burch <ni...@apache.org>]

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