Moderators on QA sessions about awesome-conference-practices HOT 11 OPEN

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.

I usually ask the conference if it’s possible to skip questions at the end of the presentation. I recommend inviting people to come see me after the talk where we can chat face to face.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s not really about being afraid not being able to answer. It’s more that:

• Other attendees are likely not to care about the question and the answer. I know I’m usually not really interested about Q&A.
• This is a very awkward way to have a conversation. I’m on a stage with a mic and the person is somewhere in the room where I can barely see them.
• When I say the last sentence of my talk, I want to take a few minutes for myself to breath and snap back to reality.

from awesome-conference-practices.

Oh, one more thing, plus as a speaker, the quality of the questions one on one are SO MUCH BETTER. When people ask questions during a Q & A, they're usually pretty performative: "well, I know that x does y" (how do you respond to that? I just usually say "ok! that's awesome!" but it's not a question really).

The questions I get in the hallway are detailed, unique, respectful, and fun! I usually come away from them feeling like I got to know the person a little. Sometimes we pair on some issue they're having- so cool! Questions in themselves aren't to blame, it's the forum.

from awesome-conference-practices.

Hey, I'm giving a lot of thought to this after JSHeroes. Very few speakers actually had time for Q&A and I felt that few actually wanted to go along with them. However, I got a lot of feedback from the audience that wish to have this section after each talk.

I'm also looking at how other conferences are doing Q&A with the MC in a very organized manner, but that takes time and you get less content in the agenda.

It's still debatable, but I'm leaning towards creating dedicated areas for Q&A for the breaks or just simply encourage people to ask more questions on the hallway.

One final note is that it can be also a very culture specific thing. For example, in Romania, people are afraid of asking a direct question. Having a tool that manages this clears their fears of being embarrassed in front of the speakers.

from awesome-conference-practices.

This is just my opinion, but I really dislike Q&A in front of the audience. I think it's way better to have the speakers be available at a certain place at a certain time for an actual conversation.

from awesome-conference-practices.

This opinion is based on my experience as a speaker, a meetup organiser and a conference attendee. I feel a lot of speakers go along with Q&A because it's the "done thing" and think that a way better experience for both speakers and attendees can be had with conversations. I may be wrong though.

from awesome-conference-practices.

Like everyone else, I agree with Hugo! One more thing from an attendee point of view: when the speaker finished up, it's like a big ta-da! 🎉(ideally) and QA drags down the party. You only usually finish QA at the lowest point ("any more questions? no? no? ok.... everyone stands around awkwardly ...so I guess that's it) It's kind of a bummer.

from awesome-conference-practices.

I'd be interested to hear what other people think, but the idea of a dedicated place where speakers could go and people could ask them questions sounds like an awesome idea!

from awesome-conference-practices.

from awesome-conference-practices.

This is something that's definitely not set in stone, but one of the things that I liked was what happened with Mathias Bynens, even when it wasn't plan it's good to consider it.

You open a channel/thread where atendees can post questions, speakers then create a small doc responding to the ones they feel worth. No bummer, question can be anonymous, no interruptions, everybody wins (?)

from awesome-conference-practices.

Yeah @lukeb-uk, this is assuming speaker actually agrees on Q&A.

from awesome-conference-practices.

from awesome-conference-practices.