1012 Conference Call

Owned by Jonathan Markow
Last updated: Oct 12, 2007 by Paul ZabloskyVersion comment
4 min read

When: 1pm Eastern == 10 am Arizona == 10 am British Columbia
Duration: 1 hour

Friday October 12th

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Conference call generously hosted by Unicon, Inc..

Call in: (800) 981-8084 Guest code 8861483

Please update this page with your intent to participate if you plan to dial in.

Intended Participants

Agenda

  1. How are we doin'?
  2. Schedule
  3. Lightning Talks
  4. UCamp

Attendance: Jonathan, Barbara, Mark, Andrew, Bill, Paul

Minutes (from Paul's notes)

How are we doin'

  • 22-23 people have signed up and more have indicated an intention to attend. We should easily reach our critical mass target of 30 or so. The facilities should be able to handle up to 60, so we can shoot for 40-60.
  • We have only 11 or so registered, so everyone on the call should register and encourage others.
  • People should inidicate "I'm registered" on the participant list under Travel Arrangements.

Schedule

  • Note: This is the first time we have done this sort of thing. The Barcamp session at the Denver conference was a success.
  • We plan to start each day with a group activity – hence the lightning talks – and then proceed to more free-form breakout groups.
  • The lightning talks are meant to be just that. There is no requirement to fill 10 minutes – that is the maximum allowed. What we want is many talks from many presenters. Just describing a topic of personal interest and asking about shared interest is enough. We hope for a modal length of about 5 minutes. These suggestions about length should be made clear on the wiki page. We will encourage "day of" submissions for lightning talks.
  • The intent of the morning group activity is to spark collaboration/interaction after the lightning talk round.
  • Our intent is to get through the lightning talks well before lunch so that collaboration can begin.
  • If possible, we will not have a lunch break, but a "lunch is available" period of around two hours so that people can eat when they want, and not have to break off from productive interactions.
  • Each day will end with a "closing remarks" session where we will evaluate how things went, and if necessary make plans for the following day.
  • We need to look into availability of the meeting rooms in the evening. Participants are likely to want to get together after dinner to continue working. (This sort of thing could go quite late.)
  • On-site scheduling logistics: We will put butcher block paper on the walls for people to propose activities. Possibly we will invite signups for the activities as well. The big room should hold three groups, and the two smaller rooms one each. The idea is that groups do their own scheduling.

Facilities

  • We should have a message board for people to organize dinner meetups etc. An easel with a flip-chart would work for this.
  • Someone familiar with the area should put together a page of restaurants, local activities etc.

Lightning Talks

  • Quite a few talks have been proposed. We want to encourage variety and (maybe) discourage multiple presentations from the same person
  • The important thing is to have a critical mass of talks/topics, independent of who does the presentations.
  • Scheduling will be managed by a moderator/facilitator, possibly using the following rules
    • Go through the list of presenters – everybody gets to do one talk
    • See if there are any new presenters – each gets to do a talk
    • If time allows, go through the list again with repeat presenters
  • Jonathan has volunteered to act as facilitator for the LT sessions.
  • We want:
    • to encourage folks to participate
    • folks who have something to say, but haven't felt in a position to do a full conference-style presentation
    • people to split off into self-organizing groups
    • to include everyone
    • to encourage late submissions

UCamp

  • UCamp planning is proceeding in meetings being held by some Fluid folks. Both Barbara and Paul are taking part. (Actually, Barbara is taking a lead role in this.)
  • A number of lightning talks will be aimed at introducing the ideas of the UCamp to the participants.

Other Activities

  • Are there other activities that we should be doing some planning for?
  • It is hoped that the meetings will result in some focused interactions/collaborations between UX experts (designers) and developers. At this time it looks as if many of the UX folks are planning to attend only the first two days. Is this a problem? Is there a way for us to avoid missing opportunities for interaction between the two areas of expertise?

Wrapup

It looks like we're in good shape for the gathering. Everyone should review the list of "What needs to get done" from the 0914 Conference Call.

Action items

  • Paul will write up notes from the call
  • Jonathan will send out a reminder to people to register
  • Guidelines for lightning talks should be made clear on wiki page.
  • Jonathan will find out if we can have a flexible 2-hour "lunch is available" period
  • Jonathan will look into after-hours availability of the meeting rooms and find out if the conference centre can supply butcher block paper
  • Bill will find a volunteer to create a page of local eating places and things of interest. Faizan's name was suggested.
  • Barbara and Paul will continue to work on the UCamp
  • Everyone will review 0914 Conference Call for "What needs to get done".