[Scale-planning] SCALE 101 / helping new attendees

[der.hans]

Am 10. Mar, 2017 schwätzte Phil Dibowitz so:

<snip to Phil's response>

> The SCALE 101 talk, like last year, was not well attended (about 15 people,
> including those that filtered in late), but the panel / Q&A portion was
> incredibly interactive, nearly everyone asked questions or commented, and
> nearly all of them either stayed late to thank me or found me later to do so.

Good to know what the turnout is and learn about the participation.

> Ilan had a suggestion that we do this between the keynote and the first
> session, in the keynote room. It's a good suggestion, but we'd probably have

I was going to make the same suggestion. You're up against a lot of great
content :).

> to move the keynote slightly earlier to account for the panel, which I think
> is the magic of it all (since I think the breaks are only half hour).

Do you mean increase the time between the keynote to the start of the
talks to an hour?

> This would I think be more useful than stuff in the program which people don't
> read as it is.

If the information is available online and in the program, would you be
able to almost go straight to the panel?

I'm thinking we could announce where to find new attendee information
and the new attendee session before the keynote, then have a reminder
after the keynote.

What is the attendee difference for Fri - Sun vs just the weekend?

Maybe have a Friday session during the lunch break since there's no Friday
keynote?

Also, I was going to suggest some sort of scavenger hunt for exploring the
expo floor, but not exclusively limited to expo floor. Perhaps we could do
something similar for new attendee orientation.

Some sample items:

* visit two local user group booths
* find the game night entrance
* attend two talks
* find ballroom GH
* get your SCaLE t-shirt
* visit two vendor booths
* participate in the new attendee water balloon fight

Well, OK, we don't do the latter, but perhaps we could have some fun
activity for them to try.

Overall I find SCaLE to be accessible with great signage. But, I've been
going to conferences for a long time, so my view is more about "compared
to other conferences" than about "wow, how many people are here?" :)

ciao,

der.hans
-- 
#  http://www.LuftHans.com/        http://www.PhxLinux.org/
#  "This place has everything. It's even got a Hans."  -- Ken Bowley