[linux-elitists] Conference planning

[Don Marti]

begin Ilan Rabinovitch quotation of Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 09:29:27AM -0700:

> At SCALE we've actually been discussing adding a speaker green room to  
> help speakers prepare for their sessions, test their gear with the A/V  
> equipment, etc.   While we offer conference laptops, which are supported  
> and tested with the A/V equipment,  most speakers opt to use their own  
> laptops.  In many cases they then run into video problems with the  
> projectors.   The goal in our case would not however be a lounge where  
> they would spend the entire day, but rather a green room they could go  
> to and remedy any potential hick-ups with equipment.

Ouch, renting a whole extra projector just for a
few minutes of testing per speaker?  You do have
enough breaks to book some test times on the real
projectors (which I saw some speakers doing during
breaks anyway.) Or, you could have a "futzing around
with your laptop's X settings BoF" the first day,
and then everyone's X would be broken and nobody
would mind as much.

New projectors do seem to be getting better at
matching laptops' video output, though.

> Is it possible that some of the distance between the speakers and  
> attendees comes from the types of speakers/attendees at the conference?   
> In the case of SCALE, the vast majority of speakers are active community 
> members, where as historically I recall LWCE had more "corporate" 
> speakers.

The corporate speakers aren't the ones who hang out
in the speaker lounge, gruffling* the Moscone Center
food and talking with other speakers -- it's mostly
the community people.  The corporate types are more
drop in, hold loud cell phone conversation, and split.

* yes, I got this word from Ray Smuckles in the web
  comic "Achewood."

-- 
Don Marti                                 +1 510-332-1587 mobile
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti at zgp.org
See you at OpenSource World: August 11-13, 2009 in San Francisco