[H-GEN] People's experience at lca.

[Jacinta Richardson]

matheist76 at westnet.com.au wrote:

>                 I would like to hear your view on what works and what 
> doesn't work at an lca. Think of the dinners, the format's etc. I really 
> want to hear from Linux Chic's. It would be really nice to get opinions 
> on what works for
> the Linux Chic's as all of the lca team are male.

Ick.  I'd hate be viewed as a "Linux Chic".  There's a group called 
LinuxChix, and we have an Australian chapter called AussieChix; so I'd 
suggest dropping a note there as well if you'd like to get a broader 
opinion.  Don't call us "Chics" or "Chicks" and I'd recommend being 
cautious of calling us Chix (either) outside the "member of 
LinuxChix|AussieChix" sense.

I've been attending LCA since 2007.  The programme in general isn't 
appropriate for me.  To me it appears that LCA focusses on both low 
level stuff (kernel development, device drivers etc) or really high 
level stuff (finished applications, documentation, development tools) 
whereas I'm a developer who cares about writing applications and 
libraries on top of (and mostly independent of the operating system), 
which is the stuff that sits in the middle of the two LCA focusses. 
Hence my work with the Open Source Developers' Conference.  Nonetheless, 
Mary Gardiner ran a LinuxChix mini-conf at the 2007 conference and I 
went along to participate.  2007 somehow bumped female attendance at the 
conference up from an average of about 2% to 10%!, and it's reasonable 
to expect that the mini-conf had something to do with that.  It's been 
run each year since, with similar results.

Still, to answer the question.

a) In 2007 and 2008 there was an easy to find "hallway track" with 
tables, comfy chairs, lots of power boards, and some network cables. 
This is a pretty awesome thing, and space should be set aside for those 
who want to collaborate together rather than go to some of the talks.  I 
was unable to find a similar place at 2009 (although there were a few 
scattered options).

b)  Some conferences (for example PyCon in the USA) extend the idea of 
the "hallway track" by providing a big space that is permanently 
available with whiteboards and clusters of tables and chairs; 
specifically designed so that people can arrange to collaborate.  I 
think this would be an especially cool thing to do.  This could be 
extended to be a full unconference running alongside the main conference.

c) In all of 2007-2009 BOFs were a nightmare to organise and next to 
impossible to pull off.  I don't think that organising BOFs should be 
the job of the committee but it would be great to have a schedule of 
free rooms on a wiki or something so that people know where they can 
schedule their BOFs.  Some kind soul eventually made a BOF timetable for 
2009 on their wiki, but much too late in the week for it to be useful. 
Setting something like this up ahead of time, so that people can just 
find an empty slot and put their BOF there and then know that (barring 
someone changing the wiki under them) they have a room etc would make 
BOFs much more fun.  This could combine well with b)

d)  The lack of assisted events for regular participants on the Tuesday 
(speakers dinner) and Thursday (professional thingy) nights provides a 
big challenge for those visiting from out of town, especially if the 
venue is not in the middle of somewhere with a lot of food items.  For 
women attending the conference on their own, there are additional 
concerns with both going looking for food on their own or going looking 
for food with a group of men, some of who are strangers.  I am aware of 
some women skipping dinner on the Tuesday night (in 2009) because they 
were not comfortable with either option.  The last-minute organised 
non-professional delegates thing (in 2009) was a good solution, but 
suffered from being organised at the last-minute.

e) Events that take attendees away to a far away place, requiring extra 
transport (such as the 2007 and 2009 speakers dinners and the 2009 
professional delegates thingy) provide challenges for attendees who (for 
whatever reason) do not want to stay out late.  Reasons can include the 
care of infants.  It's awesome to have dinners on boats, or to include 
boat rides for the speakers (as in 2007 and 2009) and they're lovely 
occasions for all the speakers to mingle; but these cause some women 
(and possibly some men)nto feel obliged to not go, because there's no 
easy way for them to politely bow out early if required.

f) There is a huge focus on drinking at LCA.  I like alcohol, but some 
attendees tend to see this as a reason to drink to excess and make fools 
of themselves.  This was more evident in 2007, but there was also some 
silly behaviour in 2009 too.  It would be awesome to have more events 
with less alcohol.  Or alternately, perhaps, to have free softdrinks and 
juice, and subsidised alcohol.  Even better would be to have 
entertainment options which are more than an open bar (thinking the 2007 
and 2008 Google parties here for example).  Quiet (ie not painfully loud 
band) entertainment options are a great idea, such as a trivia night, 
hackathons etc.  If there must be a band, it should be comfortable (for 
ones ears) to stand nearby them, and it should be possible to carry on a 
conversation - without shouting - at the back of the room. 
Conversations are why we've come, after all.

g) At all of 2007 - 2009 speakers dinners, and 2007 and 2009 conference 
dinners; alcohol was available in quantity before any food was 
available.  In fact in the 2008 speakers dinner, the alcohol was 
available for at least 1 hour before any substantial food was available. 
  In my opinion (despite this being industry practice) this boarders on 
irresponsible serving of alcohol; and it's also a big problem for anyone 
who 1) might not drink 2) requires meals to be provided at a reasonable 
time due to blood sugar or other reasons.  The ideal circumstance would 
be to have time for no more than 1 or two drinks before substantial food 
was available.

h) As a follow-up to g), meals should be timed for the entree to be 
served before 7pm.  Most people eat dinner between 6pm and 7:30pm at 
night, so that's when they're going to be hungry.  Waiting until 8pm for 
food to start, is a bad plan.

i) Mini-confs are one of the biggest people-drawers to LCA, so it's 
sensible to require mini-conf attendees and speakers to pay full 
registration.  However they are a nightmare to organise, with many 
organisers not providing useful schedules without a lot of chasing. 
Mini-conf speakers are also a mixed bag, with some putting much more 
time into their talks than the regular conference speakers; and others 
much less.  A possible way to reduce the pain it can all cause might be 
to add a small incentive: if (and only if) the organisers jump through 
all of your hoops by your deadlines, you - the main conference 
organisers - will provide small gifts (up to the number of slots per 
day) for their speakers.  This way the speakers feel appreciated, and 
hopefully the mini-conf organisers will be better behaved.

j) It dismays me that the mini-conf organisers seem rarely to be shown 
the appreciation I think they deserve.  I know that some of them are a 
massive pain in the bum, but heaps of the delegates I've spoken to over 
the years first came to LCA because they were interested in one of the 
mini-confs and stayed for the rest of the conference.  I realise that 
the organisers get free conference entry, and the speakers dinner and 
the professional delegates thingy; but I think it would also be lovely 
to get them up the front at the conference close and give them a round 
of applause.  This kind of public approval (which costs only time) is 
what many of them seek.

k) If you plan any particular pro-women things; such as putting aside a 
nursing room, or having a womens' lunch or any of these sorts; it would 
be wise to advertise it loudly before the conference.  After all, if 
it's merely an entry in the conference hand-book then it's too late to 
help persuade women to come.

l) Open Day.  If you don't have the time to do it, don't try it.  It's 
better not to have one, than to have one which is crap.  If you are 
going to do it, contact all of the speakers, mini-conf organisers and 
local user groups and invite to get them to participate.  Give your 
sponsors stands and ask if they need anything (whiteboards etc).  Run 
lightning talks and/or best-of-talks.  Contact your local schools, 
community groups, churches etc and invite them to come.  Advertise it to 
the conference attendees before the event, and ask them to bring someone 
along.  It's a massive chore, and easily a full-person task in its own 
right.  It's also completely optional, so feel free to dump it and do 
something else in its place.  If you plan to do it, include your game 
plan (who'll you'll contact to have tables, who you'll invite to come, 
where it will be, roughly how many tables etc) in your submission; don't 
just say "We'll have an open day in the spirit of Pia's".  I worked my 
arse off for the 2008 open day and got lots of negative feedback for my 
efforts; if you can think of a better use for the day, you might want to 
do that instead.

m) Back to food.  The 2008 conference dinner (at the market) was the 
best conference dinner I've ever had - foodwise.  I know there was a 
large amount of "class" lost, but - as a vegetarian - it's often a 
challenge to get food that looks appealing yet alone tastes such.  The 
2009 conference dinner was the second best (buffets aren't bad), and the 
2007 conference dinner the absolute worst (sit down dinner with a 
quiche, how novel!)  The 2009 speakers dinner was pretty low on order 
too.  The event was great, the antipasto appetizers lovely, and the 
finishing cheese platters also good; but the "dinner" for vegetarians 
(luke-warm tofu cubes on a salad of lettuce and spring onion) was 
appalling.  Even though there aren't many of us, please make sure that 
the main for vegetarians is actually edible.  Had the dinner been luke 
warm tofu tossed with fried noodles and vegetables, that would have been 
so much better!

n) Pricing.  Your two main competing conferences are the Open Source 
Developers' Conference (OSDC) and the Annual Systems Administrations 
Conference (SAGE-AU).  Both of these conferences include the dinner in 
their cover price.  They do this because it is considered a good thing 
to get everyone together for such an event.  The 2008 LCA did this, they 
increased the prices much more than any previous LCA had done, but 
included the dinner ticket.  There were fears that the next team would 
keep this increase (and increase it further) but add dinner on top; and 
unfortunately that's exactly what happened.  I'm not saying an increase 
was unwarranted, but I encourage you to seriously consider adding the 
conference dinner into the cover price, at least for hobbiest and 
professional tickets.  Hopefully this won't have the same result for the 
following year.

Well there's all my thoughts for the time being.

	J