Re: GUADEC 2016: length and schedule

On Tue, 2015-11-10 at 14:05 +0000, Allan Day wrote:
> Alexandre Franke <[email protected]> wrote:
> ...
> > > Reducing the length of
> > > time allocated to each talk would be my preference, if it is
> > > desirable to
> > > keep the same number of talks on the schedule.
> > 
> > As the guy who had to kick people out of rooms because they were
> > chatting with the speaker or the speaker was still not done with
> > his
> > talk when the time had passed, but also as a speaker who thought it
> > was a bit difficult to cover everything I wanted to in the
> > allocated
> > time, I don't think it would be good to reduce the length.
> 
> It certainly is possible to have shorter talks, though. LGM has 20
> minute slots, for example, and Systemd has 30 minute talks.
> Interestingly, both of these conferences only have a single track.
> 
> I think it really depends on the type of talks that we are aiming
> for.
> Update talks can comfortably fit into 30 minutes (and this is true
> for
> a lot of the talks at GUADEC). Thought pieces, talks that set out an
> agenda, or talks that provide an overview of an area do take longer.

I've been to conferences before where speakers could request either a
short or a long time slot. For example, 20 minutes would be just fine
for me to give an update on Mallard happenings. Lightning talks are
fun, and I love giving them, but I can't fit everything in 5 minutes.
But 45 minutes for that would drag.

On the other end, Alex's xdg-app talk was introducing new ideas and
covering new ground. I wouldn't have wanted that compressed to 20
minutes.

> The best talks I've seen at GUADEC would have struggled to have
> fitted
> into 30 minutes. That said, one thing I dislike about long talk slots
> is that they allow a lazy approach to writing a talk. Shorter slots
> force you to plan much more carefully, and could help to increase
> quality.
> 
> It might be worth considering a mix of talk lengths.
> 
> Allan
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