[Foss4g2008loc] Programme (Including workshops, labs, presentations & other)

[Dave Patton]

On 2008/06/11 7:19 AM, Inge Netterberg wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> There are a few things that need to be decided on with regards to the
> programme.

> Starting time for the conference. (I am seeing different times for this) 9
> am is a good time to start ito traffic, and getting to the venue for those
> not staying in the city bowl. And allows some time for daily registrations
> (8:00 - 9:00) I would not allow less time than an hour for daily
> registrations. But 8:30 could also work. I would not start earlier than
> 08:30.

The 2007 program:
http://www.foss4g2007.org/FOSS4G2007_Program.pdf
has the days and times that were used for 2007,
both for the program, and the registration desk.

> 1.5 hour slots works well. I think most of us are agreed on this.

For 2007, the Presentations and Labs were assigned to 1.5 hour
time slots. No problem for the Labs, but for the Presentations
there were some issues. While the program had three 25-minute
Presentations in each 1.5 hour block, in many cases attendees
were switching between rooms after each Presentation. Because
each Presentation was supposed to be 25 minutes + 5 minutes for
questions, the lack of 'allocated time' between Presentations
meant that there was some disruption by people leaving at the
end and arriving at the start of Presentations. I'd suggest
either making it a "you stay for the whole 1.5 hours - no
switching rooms"(just like for Labs) policy, or plan to allow
5-10 minutes between Presentations for switching rooms.

> Your comments please.

The spreadsheet seems to indicate specific timeslots for
"registration". For 2007 the Registration Desk was open
for the entire day for the first few days. As a practical
matter it needs to be staffed all day anyway, as that is
the main place for people to go with questions, etc.

With a 1.5 hour lunch slot, you may want to run a Poster
session during one of the lunches.

The BOFs, AGM, etc. are scheduled "at the end of the day".
Depending on when that is, you might run into time constraints,
as we did for 2007. For example, if your "staff"(LOC, PCO,
volunteers, security) finishes at 6PM, then those activities
have to end by that time. For 2007, for BOFs, it wasn't felt
(by the organizers) to be a big issue, because they had some
time at the conference venue, and if there was 'more to do',
they could self-organize and go to a pub, etc.

Also, if not done already, it would be worth a read through
the conference evaluations from 2007 to note any comments
regarding the program.

-- 
Dave Patton
CIS Canadian Information Systems
Victoria, B.C.

Degree Confluence Project:
Canadian Coordinator
Technical Coordinator
http://www.confluence.org/

OSGeo FOSS4G2007 conference:
Workshop Committee Chair
Conference Committee member
http://www.foss4g2007.org/

Personal website:
Maps, GPS, etc.
http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/