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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +id: attending-fosdem-2020-4 |
| 3 | +blueprint: comment |
| 4 | +title: 'Attending FOSDEM 2020 - 4' |
| 5 | +task: 'entry::attending-fosdem-2020' |
| 6 | +publication_date: '2020-02-04 16:19:25' |
| 7 | +--- |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +I realize this task is already completed, but someone asked my opinion on the pros and cons of attending the conference. So I may as well post it here for everyone to see :). |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +Good things: |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +- **Free access without registration.** I wouldn't mind paying something or signing up, but I feel like the environment that is created wouldn't be achieved otherwise. |
| 14 | +- **Inclusive environment.** Again, not something that affects me in particular, but the organizers often mentioned the [code of conduct](https://fosdem.org/2020/practical/conduct/) and made sure that it was respected. |
| 15 | +- **There are a lot of talks.** The [schedule](https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/) is enormous, the conference consists on multiple developer rooms focused on niche technologies/movements and a couple of main rooms for broader topics. It was impossible not to find something you liked, and empty slots in one's personal planning were easily filled in real time. Each room also had their own particular atmosphere, which is something I appreciated (some provided snacks, some had their own system for taking questions, etc.). |
| 16 | +- **Everything is recorded and streamed in real-time.** The fact that there are so many talks means that you're bound to miss some. But everything is live-streamed and recordings are made available shortly. |
| 17 | +- **The barrier of entry for speaker is low.** It was easy for anyone to give a talk with a proper notice period. You could tell some of the presenters had little experience giving talks, but they were passionate about the topic. That lead to some unique talks that couldn't be achieved in a more "formal" environment. This was accentuated in lightning talks. |
| 18 | +- **The stands.** As an alternative to talks, it was also possible to walk around and visit stands. This offered a good opportunity to talk with some of the people behind the projects and get stickers and other swag. |
| 19 | +- **The conference lasts two days.** With the ammount of talks and content, it could be extended to 3 days or more. But I consider the fact that it only lasts two days to be a good thing, because I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in conferences. |
| 20 | +- **The venue.** Happening at [Université libre de Bruxelles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universit%C3%A9_libre_de_Bruxelles), there are plenty of big an small rooms to accomodate for any type of audience. I also personally enjoy that it's done in a university because that's an environment I'm particularly fond of. |
| 21 | +- **Organization and information are great.** The schedule had been posted with enough notice to ponder over it, and everything ran as expected. Which is impressive considering the ammount of talks. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +Things to improve: |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +- **The audience is too narrow.** For the huge variety of talks and rooms, I am dissapointed on how narrow the audience was. Some talks could be useful for people who is not versed in tech and open source, but almost everybody attending seemed to be a developer. And I think that's a problem that feeds itself. |
| 26 | +- **The quality of the talks is uneven.** I mentioned that I like how the barrier of entry is low, but it's also true that this causes some talks to be quite bad. The worst ones in my opinion were the ones that consisted on some click baity title and ended up being a product showcase. I guess at the very least they could validate the outline of the talk before accepting the title. |
| 27 | +- **There is a lack of networking and interactive activities.** For how many people is there, I talked with a surprising low ammount, most of whom I already knew. You can easily attend this conference just to watch talks and avoid speaking with anybody. But I think it's a shame not to promote some networking given the opportunity. |
| 28 | +- **After talks, there is a very short time to make questions.** It's a shame because questions are often the part I enjoy the most, and to make matters worse they sometimes cut questions too short (or accept none at all) to accomodate to the schedule. I appreciate the rigor, but they could have scheduled more time for questions. In their defense, it was always easy to grab the speaker and ask any questions in private, but my questions are not always the most interesting. |
| 29 | +- **Healthy food options are scarce.** Most of the food consisted on carbohydrates in fast food carts. There were some vegetarian and vegan options, but that doesn't mean they were healthy. |
| 30 | +- **The schedule is too packed.** One thing is the ammount of talks, another one is the lack of breaks. Breaks consist on missing talks, because the schedule doesn't have any. |
| 31 | +- **Some rooms get too crowded.** Fortunately, this is not something that happened to me, but I know some of the rooms got too crowded and it wasn't possible to get in. |
| 32 | +- **Tshirts sell out very fast.** I'm surprised about this because it happens every year, it seems like by the second day there aren't any more tshirts available. |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +I realize some of the things in both lists contradict each other, but I guess that's the point of balancing trade-offs :). |
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