[eclipse.org-eclipsecon-program-committee] Fwd: EclipseCon suggestions

[Chris Aniszczyk <caniszczyk@xxxxxxxxx>]

FYI, some comments from an attendee

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bryan Hunt <bhunt@xxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 10:43 AM
Subject: EclipseCon suggestions
To: caniszczyk@xxxxxxxxx


Hi Chris,

Here are some observations from past EclipseCons and suggestions for
the next one.


Jeff Norris' keynote was amazing.  I challenge you to equal that
keynote.  The Oracle and Microsoft keynotes were a waste of time.
Please, no roadmap keynotes.  I think a keynote should inspire us to
take Eclipse / our products to the next level.

Free wifi in the hotel bar was very nice.

Having all of the talks in the hotel made it easier to initially get
to the talks if you were staying in the hotel, but going from one talk
to the next was often difficult as the common area was very crowded.

I liked integrating the exhibits more into the conference rather than
stopping by for a few minutes after lunch.

The tutorials at the last EclipseCon were horrible.  I think most
people come to a tutorial expecting to hack some code.  The shortened
time for the tutorials made most of them "long demos" instead of
"hands on tutorials".  If you want to shorten the time, then I'd call
them an extended demo instead of a tutorial.  I'd prefer the 4 hour
tutorial where you get enough time to really try out the technology.
There were several problems at the last EclipseCon getting the
tutorial started.  I think the tutorial materials should be available
for download the day before the tutorial so we don't have to deal with
passing around corrupted memory sticks.  I also think tutorials should
have most of the setup already done for the student.  You shouldn't
have to waste 30 minutes because you forgot to add a bundle to a
launch configuration, or forgot to auto-start a bundle.  Get me to the
meat of the technology so I can try it out and experiment.

The food at the last EclipseCon was an improvement over previous
years, but I think there's still room for improvement.  The food
should be just as good as the talks.  I really liked the free beer
idea at lunch.  I thought that was a great ice-breaker for starting
conversations at your table.

The poster session at the last EclpseCon was a bit crowded.  It would
have been nice if there had been a bit more room and more tables to
enjoy your food between talking to the presenters.

The e4 robot challenge was a great idea.  I'd like to see either V 2.0
or something similar next year.  I also think it might be interesting
to have both individual and team challenges.  I enjoy learning from
others and having a teammate or two would allow you to possibly
accomplish more.

I'd like to see a new topic added next year: Ask the Experts.  Put an
Eclipse expert (you, Borris, Paul, Jeff, Tom, Ed, etc) in a room with
a whiteboard for an hour and let people come ask questions about how
to do something in Eclipse/Equinox/ECF/EMF/BIRT/etc.  I think I learn
more from asking questions between talks than I do at the talks.

Several of the rooms at the last EclipseCon had the chairs too close
together.  I don't like being forced to rub elbows with the people
beside me.  Also, several of the rooms were too small for a talk - it
was standing room only.


I hope this gives you some good suggestions on how to improve
EclipseCon next year.

Bryan

-- 
Cheers,

Chris Aniszczyk
http://aniszczyk.org
+1 860 839 2465