[CREATE] LGM11 panel proposal: attracting new devs

[Gregory Pittman]

On 03/28/2011 10:35 AM, Louis Desjardins wrote:
> 2011/3/28 a.l.e <ale.comp_06 at xox.ch <mailto:ale.comp_06 at xox.ch>>
>
>     hi
>
>     by reading
>
>     http://create.freedesktop.org/wiki/Conference
>
>     my conclusion is that there is no place for a panel on
>
>
>     "How to keep and make productive libre graphics projects?"
>
>     at the LGM 2011.
>
>     is this correct?
>
>
> Hi Ale,
>
> Please make a proposal. I see no evidence that there is no room for such
> a panel. We're just not there yet. The program is in the gathering of
> proposal state, not in the conclusion state !

This is not directed at this specific proposal alone, but rather a 
suggestion that we get beyond the point of having panels that "seem like 
a good idea", yet in the end are poorly formulated, have no agenda other 
than some vague sense of what we want to talk about or listen to, and do 
not consider the makeup of the panel not just in terms of who knows what 
but rather consider the information-entertainment impact of particular 
panel members -- as many as possible that score high on the scales of 
"Likes to talk" and "Fun/informative to listen to".

What I am saying is that panels should be somewhat carefully 
constructed, that someone be in charge of a sketch of what the panel 
will discuss, with interaction between panel members _before_ LGM. Often 
I think the spontaneous interaction with the audience is enhanced by 
having an interesting collection of planned topics.
We can also solicit feedback from attendees or at least heavily use any 
spontaneous feedback we get, especially when it includes superlatives, 
but more importantly, there should be some collected group (Board 
members and others) who have some sort of post event discussion about 
the panels, which worked and why, which didn't work and why, so that we 
can learn from this and use the information in future, maybe even 
publish on the Create list.

A positive outcome of this planning ahead is being able to build 
interest in the panel by including in the program something about its 
content. If we have a hard time making it sound interesting, maybe it's 
a panel that shouldn't happen.

Greg