Re: [eclipse.org-eclipsecon-program-committee] EclipseCon 2010 Conferenc

[Bjorn Freeman-Benson <bjorn.freeman-benson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Esteemed Program Committee,
I think the emphasis on talk length is the wrong place to be putting 
energy - we need to be thinking about what we need to do to emphasize 
*quality*. In the past we've emphasized *quantity*, partly in the hopes 
that by having one of everything, we would end up with enough of the 
best. That didn't really work: instead of gold we ended up with sort of 
a brown color.

This year EclipseCon is different. It's different in a lot of ways. In 
no particular order:

* People are discovering that they don't need conferences to read slides 
(slideshare) or to have slides read to them (youtube). Conferences need 
to have great talks (TED) and great social networking. [Note that TED 
talks are ~20 minutes and they are some of the best talks you've ever 
seen, so length is not the determining factor in quality.]

* Eclipse has survived the downturn so far and so we need to celebrate 
the continued success and diversity of Eclipse. We're planning some 
really awesome interactive social events. Great panels to close out each 
day will "prime the pump" and get people talking to each others (which 
is, of course, the purpose behind conferences). We could have as few as 
one panel per day: a "keynote"-style panel at the end of the day. But 
they've got to be good, not just a collection of mini-talks. For 
example, I'm trying to put together a formal debate on software 
engineering styles: point, counter point, with leads and seconds and all...

* EclipseCon is going to be smaller. Attendance was down last year and 
attendance at ESE is down this year - I believe we'll have between 600 
to 700 people at EclipseCon 2010, down from the all-time high of 1400 
people two years ago. That makes it a perfect size for some really great 
interaction. The talks can be more personal and less lecture style, etc.

* EclipseCon has moved from the convention center with its dozens of 
rooms and giant exhibit halls to the attached Hyatt (the building with 
the bar). The Hyatt has a limited number of rooms. Thus we have fewer 
parallel sessions. And the exhibits will be ESE-style on the mezzanine - 
right in the middle of everything.

So: smaller, higher quality, more integrated. We can make this the best 
EclipseCon ever, but to do so we'll need to overthrow some of our 
traditional thinking about "just have everything" and "let everyone talk 
for a long time". We'll need to be selective about the speakers we 
invite/accept and monitor them to be sure that they are putting together 
a really informative session.

- Bjorn
> It just happens to be crunch time where I am here, so I've
> not got much for the agenda this week. I'd like to get a
> final round of feedback from you all, specifically on the
> talk times.
>
>