So we are trying a leaner way of creating conference programs . How is it going so far with /dev/summer, the free one day event for developers? We took just two weeks to advertise the program of /dev/summer. Not too bad. We’re not facing a deluge of sessions on one hand, on the other hand, we got some nice sessions coming in, so after tomorrow night we probably can put together a program without turning many sessions away. On the one hand it’s great if you can be selective, on the other hand, it feels wasteful to have people propose and review sessions and then only run half or less of them. On the other, other hand, this also enables us to give feedback fast to the presenters.
As a presenter, I hate it when my session proposals end up in a void, and a result only emerges after weeks, or even months. It’s even worse with conferences that don’t provide feedback beyond an accept or reject. My policy is, if it’s an accept, I’ll go, and talk to the organisers when I’m there. If it’s a reject without feedback, I’ll choose another event to attend, and don’t do it again next year.
We started out without a public call, which is a first for me. The first round of invitations showed me that being on the edge of the summer holiday is not an advantage, to say the least. For participants it seems to matter less, the event is already generating a healthy interest.
I do have the feeling that I haven’t spend this much effort promoting a call for sessions. But that may just be that memories of effort put in conferences past fades fast, and everything that happens around the program is now compressed in just a few weeks.
The call for sessions is open until tomorrow night, if you hand something in you have a good chance of getting it in - we have a great and somewhat flexible space that makes this easy.
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