[Inpycon] PyCon India 2012: "I am not getting what I have been promised"

[Abdul Muneer]

Hi,
I came to pycon with the expectation and excitement that this is going to
be the best pycon so far. Even though there is one more day of the
conference to be over, it doesn't look like that is the case. I haven't
been able to make any contribution to organizing this python, perhaps
considering myself not to be of any match to the vast talent and
enthusiasts we have. But still I have deep love for Python and seeing how
this event has turned out, I feel a frustration that it could have been a
lot better.

Here is a listing of my general feedback, focusing on the negatives:

*1) Tutorial quality sucked big time*

   - *Tutorials require more skill and preparation than a conf talk. Few
   had it..
   *
   - *The stress in tutorials is for learning and it should not be
   compromised at_any_cost.*

How do we do it?
Accept proposals only from those who are known to be good presenters.
Perhaps they should have presented a couple of talks in other events.
And/Or pull in great people whom we know and get them conduct few sessions.

One session that I attended was so much boring that people will leave that
session with their love for that topic diminished. This is in spite of that
person having tons of experience in that field.

We do not want such people in tutorial. They can present a conf talk on
some work they have done, but not a tutorial session.

But in contrast when another similarly experienced person took a session on
basics of Python, it was admirable and people clapped with appreciation. We
want more of such people.*

*
*2) Setup was embarrassing.
*

   - *Internet*


   - *AV setup*


   1. Just how many times did the default mic work perfectly? Either issues
      with volume, or feedbacks, or they may have to change to hand mics etc..
      2. Issues with connecting laptop to projector
      3. Power failure/ display going blind.. happened in Nick's talk on
      python 3.3*
      *


   - *Acoustics*


   1. The halls and classrooms had echo.*
      *

*3) Talks*

   - *Should be charming.*

On Day 1 I could attend an awesome session on "Automated data analysis with
Python" by Anand S. Wish all talks were that charming as against a) just
reading out the slide or b) just typing the code and speak out what he is
typing.

4) *Tight schedules*

Where is the time for lightning talks, hallway chats? Perhaps we should
have just 3 parrallel classes and 1.5 hour per sessions. One class always
should be in the main hall.

e.g.: Python 3.3 features were not covered in one hour as time was
insufficient. Some other speaker felt one hour is too short to tell
anything meaningful in his topic so he ended his talk in half an hour or
so. I think the schedule was fixed after the topic was submitted. Probably
we should fix a format up front so that those who plan to submit anything
can plan around that.

The general feeling that I have can be summed up in one sentence - "I am
not getting what I have been promised". We had superstars like Jacob,
David, Nick. We had a handsome list of sponsors. But did the conference
raise to expected high level? It hurts when young people like fresh
graduates working in startups, people from other languages who are curious
to python etc leave with disappointment.

Last year was my first PyCon and that was an exciting experience. The
keynote address was a rockstar performance from Raymond the speeches were
good in general. My excitement made me pull in my wife, brother and friends
to this year's pycon. I am already receiving the flak. Let's hope Day 2
will make up for all these.

We know the effort the organizers put behind. You guys have pulled it off
to this level from the brim of getting cancelled altogether. That is a
tremendous work. But as hard as we worked, there were still a lot work that
were not done. Let's start today itself and prepare for an awesome,
admirable event next year.


Regards,
Abdul Muneer

--
Follow me on Twitter: @abdulmuneer <http://twitter.com/#%21/abdulmuneer>
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