Thoughts about target audience, agenda and speakers

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Permalink Reply by Brian Teeman on October 22, 2009 at 3:23am

I am definitely in favour of not labelling days business or community. And any way I would prefer to encourage people to attend the whole event so I would personaly be aiming to spread all the talks/sessions over all days rather than having "themed" days.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 22, 2009 at 9:17am

Alex -

Actually, I had understood we would be using a more participatory format where all interested would submit topics and descriptions, and then those attending would vote on that which they wanted to see.

Following a vote, we might see themes appear and be able to create tracks. But those tracks would likely run the entire length of the event and would certainly come out of the topics selected democratically.

If we are going to follow that approach, we need to think about how that would work and what we need in place to facilitate the submissions and voting.

I assume there would be a few scheduled discussions, like keynotes or special talks that we might want to plan and not include in a democratic process.

What do you think of that type of approach? Do you think it might build more interest in participating? I think ownership in the event might help.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Wilken on October 22, 2009 at 9:54am

I think it would be great if tracks were given twice, in case some other track conflicts with the time, then one could still get to both. I would also think a good mix of all kinds of tracks at any time, so say there are 3 seminars in one day, then arrange them so the topics are spread as evenly as possible.

Then we could even make suggested itineraries for people based on this. If someone is a developer, then we can string together most applicable sessions, or if they are a designer, etc. I think this might be a big draw for people who focus on a specific service, but also provides flexibility for everyone.

Also, at an international level, I would expect that more of the attendees have a stronger vested interest in Joomla if they are going to make the big trip, and don't need as much of the basic introduction material.

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Permalink Reply by Alex Kempkens on October 22, 2009 at 10:38am

The problem with this approach is that you need to have the right people on site to answer these sessions. We actually did such an approach last JoomlaDay and we missed to meet the requirements of our audience.

On the other side such an approach is very delicate to communicate upfront as people who travel a long distance would like to know what they gonna buy in advanced.

As I tried to say, my impression is that partly those who talk here in the group or are members of Joomla in some ways - we are not important for the "normal" user who might be interested in attending this conference too.

Therefore I would like to suggest that we first try to carefully identify who is going to be our audience and what their needs are. In the second step we can choose from the possible conference styles what is best to meet these needs.

Alex

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Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 22, 2009 at 10:43am

Alex - the people attending would vote for what they wanted to see presented. Isn't that the very best approach to trying to gauge what they want to see? I wonder if we aren't misunderstanding one another?

I'm really glad to have this discussion so don't think I'm being negative. I agree with you that this topic is key and thank you for opening it!

Is there someway to do a mix of these two approaches? Maybe half and half?

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Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 22, 2009 at 10:58am

Agree on that, Jeremy. If I spend that kind of money to attend, I want to learn from my peers. Definitely wouldn't like to see a demo of Joomla! core, or basics on Templating. I want to walk home with code and instructions and ideas. These will be hard core folks - it's not a Joomla! Day - it's the "inner community's event."

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Permalink Reply by Alex Kempkens on October 22, 2009 at 11:00am

"Alex - the people attending would vote for what they wanted to see presented. Isn't that the very best approach to trying to gauge what they want to see? I wonder if we aren't misunderstanding one another?"

From my perspective it is not. Lets say there is an event about scuba diving - what I'm doing and I really like. Now how do I judge if I want to attend or not. I do not know someone who says he is there may be except the friend of mine. So I judge based on the exhibitors which will present new gear or other stuff I'm interested in AND I judge based on the agenda of the discussion groups. So for me as attendee of an event it is very important to know what talks will be there and what not. Having the possibility to suggest a topic doesn't help me - because nobody can grantee that the topic I'm interested in is so big that others will vote for it as well.

---

I don't made this up - I personally judge events, even exhibitions this way and I'm sure others too. I think we need to free our minds about our own knowledge about Joomla. As I said Joomla is so mature already that we attract really new people which might attend the conference because they expect to be informed about a wide range of solutions, services around Joomla. And it can happen as it happened in Germany - people are not at all interested in anything about development ;-).

This is why I would like to know more from the other people doing events world wide - what is their current experience and feedback of the audience. I have a feeling about Germany, but I can't say anything about Italy, Netherlands or even the USA.

Alex

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Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 22, 2009 at 11:42am

This is an International Event, so, even though there will very likely be more Germans there, this will hopefully be the first of many events that bring together those of us who work with Joomla! professionally. I think the audience will be very different than a typical Joomla! Day. At least I hope.

Let's look at a DrupalCon (cuz it's that approach that is in my mind).

Here's a topic from Addi Berry.

Everyone who wants to submits abstracts several months before the event. Potential speakers provide a good deal of detail about the topic. Plus, knowing who they are and what business they are in and projects they are working on, and how they contribute to the project, all are considered as people evaluate the topics and vote.

What makes this approach very appealing is that attendees know it's the "popular topics" not what someone hoped people would want to see - or what the "inside crowd" decided to present. It's what the people want.

Alex - I feel very strongly we have to start allowing the community to guide, instead of deciding what is best for them. Having said that, a mix of hand-selected speakers and topics - with the community driven choices would be good. You could build a theme with the planned topics and leave a generous amount of choice. That I could certainly get behind.

This is exciting!

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Permalink Reply by Brian Teeman on October 22, 2009 at 11:43am

Remember it's not necssarily a "big trip" for everyone and I would hate to feel that a community event excluded anyone.

Personally I know a lot about some areas, a little about some areas and absolutely nothing about other areas. So if everything was classified as being suitable only for those that know a lot then I would be excluded from several important parts of joomla

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Permalink Reply by Brian Teeman on October 22, 2009 at 11:46am

I have to agree with Alex on this.

One solution/possibility is to have a "call for papers" and then to schedule the presentation of as many papers as possible. (We have lots of meeting rooms at this venue)

And if a subject is very popular then we can ask the speaker to make the presentation multiple times.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 22, 2009 at 11:53am

Totally expected you to say that! lol - You are, of course, right. There maybe should be some of the more entry stuff. But it is a different event - it should be marketed very heavily at the major inner community - for their annual or semi-annual networking and learning event. My point is that it has to make business sense for them to attend on a regular basis. That will not happen with entry level (only) material.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 22, 2009 at 12:03pm

Ok. I want to back up a second since I guess I we weren't all on the same page and I thought we were.

I would like to use an approach very much like Drupal's approach so that we put into place a very democratic, community driven process where attendees propose - and - select presentations. To me, empowering community is what will build this event over the years. Clearly, that approach is working for Drupal. The events are huge and early sellouts.

So, are people familiar with that approach? And, what are the pro's and con's of doing that?

Then, what is the other approach you guys are advocating? That we select speakers and topics - then tell people what it is and hope they come?

Just trying to see where we are all at in our thinking. Thanks!

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