Thoughts about target audience, agenda and speakers

Replies to This Discussion

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.

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.

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

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?

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."

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

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!

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.

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!

Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 22, 2009 at 1:19pm

Oh! Thanks for explaining that. Yes, I totally agree - I would not want to see a un-conference where decisions are made that day. Too adhoc and potentially less than valuable information, IMO.

Voting would take place a months before the event so that the elected speakers would have ample time to prepare meaningful presentation.

Thanks for that. I was getting confused. Good!

Permalink Reply by Martin Blodau on October 27, 2009 at 2:15pm

I'm totally with you on that opinion.

Here in Sweden we have a Joomla day every year and i guess it's the same in most countries.

So far we have had two Joomla days here.

They where mostly focused on people that are interested in or getting into Joomla. There where also some developer oriented lectures for the people that are already using Joomla.

On the first Joomla day we had two tracks (for interested people and people that are already using Joomla). The other Joomla day we had three tracks (beginners, intermediates and developers).

Now the thing with the Joomla day was that it felt more like an event that the Joomla! professionals (local 3rd party developers and the Joomla club Sweden) organized for everyone else. (Interested ppl, beginners, intermediates, power users)

I didn't feel like i learned something on those Joomla! days, it was more like a nice social event. (Edit: I didn't experience it like that because the event sucked but because i was part of one of the 3rd party developers that contributed with talks)

When i think of an international Joomla event i directly expect a conference where even the Joomla! professionals can learn something, gets lots of inspiration and get in touch with all the other Joomla! geeks.

To summarize how the perfect international Joomla! event would look like for my taste:

- Several talks or keynotes of Joomla! celebrities (Core team, Amy, Alex and so on) probably talking about Joomla!s future and very hot topics. :-)

- Tracks for beginner, intermediate and hardcore. (Or maybe sorted after topic...templates, extensions, or something like that...some kind of tracks)

- An agenda that contains a mixture of predeclared sessions (decided by the organisers and they make sure that the speakers are really good) and sessions where people voted on beforehand like Amy suggested.

- A model where it is ok to leave the room and change to a different session if you notice that this sessions was not for you (nothing sucks more then discovering that you landed in the wrong speech and being stuck there)

- Mixing and repeating a few tracks like Jeremy suggested.

---

Give those who don't come from Germany several really good reason to attend this event instead of a local Joomla! day.

Permalink Reply by Fotis Evangelou on October 29, 2009 at 7:09am

Might I suggest one thing?

We could have "topics" covered and within those topics pre-schedule or have people vote for the presentations.

Such topics could be ecommerce, community building, media publishing, Joomla! as a blog platform, corporate/business matters (e.g. Joomla! as intranet/extranet, document management and more) etc.

I'd be in favour of pre-scheduling some presentations, cause people wanna know what they'll come to see and additionally have talks voted by the participants.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page