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How can we improve PyCon next year?

When videotaping talks, you really need a mic feed direct to the video camera. The few videos I've seen posted from Pycon 2008 have been nearly inaudible because they relied on room acoustics and the in-camera microphone.

Get the network working on day 1, and keep it working

Better wireless; better promotion of open space activities.

Give food options for food allergies like peanuts, wheat, and gluten. More fruit, especially at breakfast.

The format for the talks need to be changed. As an audience member I could tell how hard it was for the speakers to present their ideas in the allotted time. Maybe 2 different kinds of speaking slots. One which is short and a speaker can summarize a topic. The second being longer, in which the speaker can cover a more complicated topic, or go into greater depth. Might not work, but I figured I'd suggest something as which could spark an idea. Also, the sponsored Lighting Talks didn't work so well. The Lighting Talks on Sunday were the best. :)

keep the "obvious ads" out of the "real people" lightning talks (having a labelled session for them is fine.)

The food wasn't as good this year as it was last year. I wasn't very impressed by the cold lunches. I was somewhat unhappy that the IronPython talk I went to felt like a "let me tell you how awesome Microsoft and Silverlight is" talk. The open rooms didn't seem like a very big deal in the evenings - I remember a room full of people playing Galcon at Pycon 2007. I think the placement of the time slot board in the basement meant that a lot of people didn't see them until Saturday or Sunday. Last year I enjoyed coming back after dinner and sitting down and hacking on laptops in the rooms - I didn't find people doing that this year and I missed it. The sprinting talk after the conference this year was much more organized than last year, however the one thing I missed from last year was that last year you were encouraged to go and ask people questions when deciding which group to sprint with. This year it was the open panel, then a 10 minute break (I think), then straight into a meeting sort of thing. I enjoyed getting a chance to talk to people last year. Perhaps there were too many people there this year to do that.

Get a network that works. Scale and Debconf can do it. Use a proxy server. Get the speakers hand-outs on it. Don't give away key-notes and lightning talks to sponsors.

-Longer talks! Most speakers were scrambling to finish in time, and we skipped questions sometimes. -A little more time between talks

-More publicity for the "python lab", and possibly having one of them per night. Favorite activity of the whole conference, a great way to improve coding skills as well as meeting fellow developers.

better networking more vegi/non-dairy food options

Better network

Better approval process for talks. NO sponsored lightning talks.

Keep the sponsor booth, also keep the sponsor talks but intersperse them and encourage sponsors to talk about nerdy, non-employment subjects

Man, get some better food! This stuff this year sucked. It was like they'd never heard of vegetables before.

Better wi-fi, power strips at the lunch tables, don't give all the lightning talks to sponsors, talk descriptions should say whether the talk is advocacy or technical details, more advanced/longer talks.

Fix the network. Give even more opportunities to get involved.

Well done overall. Wifi was flaky at the beginning, then rock solid from Friday onwards. Go easy on the vendor/sponsored keynotes. I'd would recommend a 'vendor' track in parallel with the other sessions. If the sponsors complain, it's up to them to present material that will draw a crowd. Most will be able to pull it off. Move lightning talks to earlier in the day, after keynotes, so they can trigger open space activities. The open space signup needs to be more centralized. You didn't use the twitter channel enough to get volunteer help.

Better food, scheduled when there is better weather. And of course better lightning talks re sponsors

- Have decent wireless coverage and bandwidth from the start. - better suggestions for food outside the hotel - try to drum up some more interesting keynotes

consider 45 minute talks instead of 30 hold it in April (after the start of baseball season--so I can attend White Sox and Cubs games)

Better coordination between speakers and Moderators: - Speakers show up on time (i.e. before session) - Give moderators opening text (intro, etc)

please fix the network. the tutorial day dramatically suffered because of the poor network, and i did not get my money's worth

It was fine. I needed more for beginners since I don't know Python very well yet.

better food options (serve fruit salad for breakfast, buffets instead of boxes) better local restaurant guide wireless access from rooms defend wireless from crazy Windows

I came into programming in my late 20s and am self-taught, and started using Python in earnest about a year ago. I have a lot to catch up on before i can really understand some of the more esoteric stuff. I'd like there to be some more mid-range topics. I don't want to scare off all the alpha-geeks though. :)

Higher profile keynotes, like Adele and Roml. They really set a tone for the rest of the conference.

1. Better wireless networking. 2. Keep lightning talks informal and non-sponsored focused. 3. More great tutorials on Thursday. 4. Keep Thursday evening tutorials. 5. Steve Holden's "Teach me Twisted" BOF was great! Do more things like this. Super idea!!

Better food, more workingness with the microphones and projectors

- get the wireless working earlier - have wired switches, i always bring a 25ft network cable, just provide a switch, it was almost impossible to work on tickets/internet during the tutorials/sprints with unreliable wireless - leave the food out longer, even after the session/talk begins. By 9am on

Set up a time for 8-10 minute lightning talks which go through a selection process. The proposals can ask users for their needed time, not fixed amount. This could complement existing lightning talks, not replace them. It might solve the problem (?) of lousy lightning talks, allows 1 minute announcements or 8 minute talks that wouldn't get full talk slot proposals.

Announce a job fair Saturday morning in the expo hall and advertise it more widely in the local area. No change to what is done in the expo hall is required, but it would encourage people to go looking. Oh, and make it free to enter Sat. a.m. for non-conference attendees. As the conference gets bigger it's hard to hook up with people who gave talks. Perhaps there could be 2 or 3 times at the end of each day when speakers could be encouraged to meet up with people by going back to the room where they gave their talk.

Work out the network kinks before the first day. Lighting Talks should be more user-driven and less sponsor talk. Make sure that