C4L2011 planning wishlist

Code4Lib 2011 ideas

See also C4L2010planning: wishlist

Preconferences

1. Ask people to download in advance
   1. Or hijack a computer lab with the needed software/files
2. Remind preconference leaders 2 weeks before the conference to send an email to registrants. (Email registrants 1 week in advance b/c time before travel is hectic, may be offline)

Ideas

1. Codesprint
2. Hackathon

Food

1. If you do the preconferences in the main conference space (vs. in spread-out off-site spots), many people will expect breakfast or at least regular coffee/tea/soft-drink breaks throughout the day (so have them?)
   1. Should we do breakfast/lunch groups for preconferences? - yo_bj
   2. Preconference registration fees should reflect expenses of food/drink
2. BOF tables for conference lunches?

Social

1. Liked all the preorganization of social acivities
2. Newcomer dinner - a success! Let's say 4 vets and 4 newbies for each group though.
   1. Maybe get vets to sign up first before unleashing the newbies on the sign-up. Lists were flooded with new folks before vets started to sign up in force. [yo_bj]
   2. Asheville was relatively easy to get a list of restaurants online, but I'd imagine that other places won't be. Some collaboration with the local arrangements folks with getting a list of restaurants for the dinner might be a good idea in the future. [yo_bj]
3. Make Werewolf a regular social event and schedule a room for it

Power

Providence, power supplies on top of the table, worked well (Asheville, they were on the floor)

Presentations and Program

1. Make people use a single conference PC (but Mac, Linux, Win? -- or mbklein's mega 3-in one)
2. Organize volunteers to do tech support during the program, especially lightning talks. Nobody wants to feel stupid standing in front of a room. This should not have to be the emcee. [-emily lynema]
3. Organize lightning talk shepherds who will force those doing lightning talks to put their presentations on a single computer (or at least as few computers as possible) [-emily lynema].
4. Ask for slides (investigate options for sharing ad-hoc)
5. Reserve time in the schedule for "Ask Anything"
6. Schedule the lightning talk slots before the breakouts on each day (IMO after -JodiS)
7. Remind speakers to fontup
8. Have Mac dongles of all sorts (IMO Mac users should bring dongles for their comps if they intend to use them at podium - lysiakld)[or not use personal Mac laptops outside of the dedicated conference Mac laptop- yo_bj]
9. Had dedicated eth line for speakers, but it wasn't used during main conf... not needed then? [note: I would've used, but was told it wasn't any faster than the wireless. --emily lynema]
10. Remind people to load web pages, play video, etc. ahead of time on the presentation computer. Have the presentation computer available more than 1 minute before talks.
11. Make the lightning talks timing 5+1 min x N speakers. Will often be under time, seldom over. [- tim shearer].
12. To give as many people as possible a chance to present, don't let one person give more than one talk, and don't let people doing talks give lightning talks unless there are unfilled slots [--escowles]. (Jodi Schneider: For 20 min talks talks, I'm ok with overlap when there are multiple presenters)
13. Should there be a limit on how many times the same person can give a presentation? I (jrochkind) think maybe so (even though I did like all of the repeat-person presentations in 2010, I think prioritizing "no spectators" and spreading presentations around more may still be worth it)
14. Have speaker release forms available online two weeks before conference - speakers bring final copy with them.
15. Encourage use of screencasts for demos! Live demos are nice and shiny, but are a liability during presentations (wasted time trying to get it to work, no backups in case of live demo fail, etc.). The presentations that had screencasts went well, and screencasts could reduce the need to switch laptops due to software needs. - yo_bj

Bandwidth

1. Expect higher bandwidth issues on pre-conferences if held in same venue. ???
2. Find out exactly which ethernet ports in the venue are on the protected bandwidth dedication and be sure speakers are hooked to them.
3. Make sure wireless access points are not plugged into ports that have protected bandwidth dedication.
4. For preconferences, do downloads before coming - minimizes problems with bandwidth, and saves time at the preconference to work with the app
5. Bandwidth usage, for planning
   1. Monday
   2. Tuesday
   3. Wednesday

Breakouts

1. Would it be better to do ask anything before the first bunch of breakout sessions? Organize some breakout sessions based on questions/answers. Though, Weds before lunch worked well, IMO...
2. Consider if big pad or wiki or both. Not sure.

Name Tags

1. Include institution, please.
2. Leave space on name tags for first-timer self-identification
3. Leave space on name tags for doodling one's interests
4. Not really name tags, but take photo of a person on checkin and put up on a page so you can see people who attended too.

Packet Handed Out

1. list of attendees - name, institution, email ... projects/topic of interest? (free text field on form?)
2. map of meeting rooms
3. brief schedule (titles only)
4. full schedule (abstracts)
5. list of restaurants is great!
6. listing of area attractions is great - consider listing local independent bookstores, too

Hospitality Suite

• Projector is awesome - do this
• Adjoining rooms are tough places to be unless you're one of the partiers. See if anyone will volunteer for adjacent rooms?
• More keys to room/designated host - ended up going to the room a few times times during dinner/supper hours only to find it locked. :c( - yo_bj

Room size/slide visibility

1. Smaller distance to front of room
2. Make sure bottom of screen is visible with peoples' heads in the way

T Shirts

1. non-black much appreciated at 2010
2. non-white much appreciated at 2010
3. non-neon much appreciated at 2010

Lightning Talks

1. Factor in some extra time to lightning talks
2. Force people to use one lappy, load stuff on it in morning/break
3. Have someone really big be a bouncer
4. Do not use wiki for signups, only use the big pad. [+1 yo_bj]

Videos and Presentations

1. Have a page for each presentation BEFORE the conference
2. Ask presenters to put their own slides on the page for their presentation (including lightning talks)
3. Have a 'slide captain' who reminds people and follows up at/after the conference
4. For video permissions, consider having a blanket statement in registration, with an "if you need to opt out, let us know" for inclusiveness. Here's an example IPR policy re copyright/etc