kitze / awesome-conference-practices Goto Github PK

We were talking with a speaker from JSHeroes also, that having a direct feed of Q&A session (call it a screen or over a mic) is really bad because you might put the speaker in a really akward position because of lack of reponse or because the answer might be too opinionated.

It's pretty similar to the twitter feed thing, put a moderator that will read all the questions people post and select the two that sound more interesting and reasonable to tackle in a conference context.

You can also ask the speaker what kind of things you won't be able to answer beforehand to prevent akward moments.

Some speakers (and attendees) have a fitness regimen they'd like to stick to. Even a modest hotel fitness center is a huge plus. Sometimes a conference will require a speaker to travel for almost a whole week. That's a long time to put off exercise.

Sometimes conference organisers ask for the talk because they have live translation (either in another language or to sign language) or such and it does help a lot the translator to know at least what to expect. It doesn't mean the slides can't ever change, it's to give some guidance instead of forcing them to wing it

During the talk selection process, don't disregard speakers who don't have much speaking experience. Be the person who gives them that experience! It's also really helpful to offer your speakers support from volunteer mentors (usually experienced speakers) if they want to practice their talk or get advice.

Its true that developers are getting good paychecks these days but hear me out.

#1 case:
Imagine being a newbie developer that just started learning React (its difficult to say Vue on Kitze's repo lol), and you want to at least connect with people that go on these conferences so you can be in touch with people that share similar interest. You have no job, or you are doing some open source project that brings you a small income that will only get you to pay your bills. How to actually afford 500€ ticket?

#2 case:
You are not living in well developed countries where your minimal salary is at least 4-5times higher that the conference ticket price. How can you purchase a ticket that is 500€ in a country that has average salary of 300€? You would say yeah, but developers usually earn more than the average salary, which is true but still how to extract 70% of your salary for the ticket only? Where is the accommodation, airplane ticket, your actual stay there for 2-3days?

I agree that you have to pay the speakers, organizers, the venue and all of that stuff but still, people that are limited with funds should be also available to visit these conferences.

A real world example is that if i visit http://reactforbeginners.com by Wes Bos, i actually get a coupon that says "You are visiting from Serbia (which unfortunately belongs to those 'third world countries'), here is a 57% discount IF YOU NEED it. The key here is that its offered, and i know that (including myself) if the discount is not actually needed, and the buyer can afford the whole price he will not use the discount, because i think that is how our dev culture is, since we all know how is it to invest in something and not get paid (hint: Open Source).

This was something that was going through my head since Kitze suggested me to go to a conference and i started doing calculations how to accumulate those 500+€ for only a ticket!

Conference organizers, please think of a solution :)

I'm a person who tends to forget things.

Submitting a proposal through a Google Form works, but often enough I

a) Forget that I have submitted my proposal except if I specifically write it down, especially when submitting at the start of a 2-month long CFP
b) Would love to check on the status to make sure I haven't missed any e-mail by the organiser

Sometimes, editing a proposal afterwards (during the CFP) can be kind of nice too.

Examples include sessionize.com, used by Droidcon NYC and Kotlinconf this year, or Droidcon Berlin who use their own tool.

It is too hard right now to know which are DOs and which are DON'Ts while browsing the list. Maybe anther emoticon or perhaps with separate sections.

For those who may be attending their first conference, or are part of a minority group it can be daunting attending a conference, especially in a foreign country - a Code of Conduct can provide reassurance and clarity for all attendees also. A section that lists what is good/to avoid in a Code of Conduct would be good!