Feed back from the EuroPython 2007 Conference

Bribed by the promise of being entered in the Grand Prize Draw, 95 delegates completed feedback forms for the 2007 Vilnius Conference. Here is a summary of the results:

Questions which could be analysed numerically

The following questions had to be rated 1-5 (1 = poor, 5=excellent)

How many talks did you attend?

The following questions had to be answered Yes or No

Percentage breakdown of delegate types

As you can see, the highest satisfaction rating was with the venue (95%) and the lowest was with the website (only 55%).

Comments which could not be analysed numerically

Feedback Form 1

Comment on Delegate Interests

• + interested in switching to Python

Best and Worst about Conference

• The venue was very nice.

Feedback Form 2

Best and Worst about Conference

• The people arranging & attending.

Suggested Improvements

• Better website.

Feedback Form 3

Best and Worst about Conference

• No Tshirts!

Suggested Improvements

• Poster sessions?
• Buttons to flag interests?

Feedback Form 4

Comment on Delegate Interests

• + some commercial

Best and Worst about Conference

• Sorry, but the worst was Laura's Creighton's Laugh.

Suggestions for improving the website

• OpenID Signon
• Better timetable interface

Feedback Form 5

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best -> lots of talks.

• Worst -> lunch

Feedback Form 6

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best: Excellent people & atmosphere.

• Worst: Minimal lunch, beverage choices.

Suggested Improvements

• Few more talk choices, hold open space later as can fill up so not wasted first day.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Customized timetable
• Easier printing of timetable

Feedback Form 7

Best and Worst about Conference

• All great people, ideas, great input, love Vilnius.

Suggested Improvements

• Just continue

Suggestions for improving the website

• No double (left/top) numbers.
• Optimize for least number of clicks.
• Put most used information first / easy accessible esp.timetable.
• Link/collect _all_ slides/papers/recordings/presenter's site from timetable/programme (after) conference.
• Aesthetics, by simplicity and typography, harmonious colors.

Suggestions for future venues

• Eastern Europe because it's more affordable for us in West to go there than the other way around -> more good people can join.

• A place with scientific connotations would be awesome, like CERN but in Eastern Europe.

Feedback Form 9

Suggested Improvements

• - Better lunch
• - Breaks of 5 min between talks

Feedback Form 10

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best:
• Worst: Lunch food.

Feedback Form 12

Best and Worst about Conference

• The best was the quality of the speeches.
• The worst was the web page was not being updated and the long delay before I could be sure of the talk and support.

Suggested Improvements

• Keep the web site updated. Encourage interested people to do room sharing and make comments on transportations etc.

Feedback Form 13

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best - talks, people
• Worst - first day in Alpha, when it was hard to see a speaker because of backlight.

Suggested Improvements

• Internet connection
• Food on lunch time

Feedback Form 14

Best and Worst about Conference

• I will send email, can't write.

Suggested Improvements

• Lots of ideas.

Suggestions for improving the website

• I really want to help in several ways,

• will devote > 1 month helping the conference next year, including help with funding.

• -> email, can't write

Feedback Form 15

Best and Worst about Conference

• Worst: first lunch
• Best: pub visit

Suggested Improvements

• Except for the pub visit, I haven't left the building for three days. I consider that bad.
• Would be nice to have lunch and dinner other place, i.e. the old town hall.

Suggestions for improving the website

• The Django project looks cool.

Feedback Form 17

Best and Worst about Conference

• Breaks lunch/coffee
• Price of the accommodation
• Dinner, venue

Suggested Improvements

• More technical talks.

Suggestions for future venues

• Less expensive accommodation option.

Feedback Form 18

Comment on Delegate Interests

• All of it.

Best and Worst about Conference

• Atmosphere was good.
• Microphone handling was lousy (in big room).

Suggested Improvements

• Ensure speakers deliver slides/papers.
• Present speakers early on 1st day to recognize them better.

Feedback Form 19

Best and Worst about Conference

• I think everything's done very well!

Feedback Form 20

Best and Worst about Conference

• + Sprints
• - Lunches (white bread is a joke)

Suggested Improvements

• Better (real) lunch

Feedback Form 21

Suggestions for improving the website

• Mailing list and wiki could be found easy.

Feedback Form 22

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best: people
• Worst: catering

Suggested Improvements

• More people, more talks
• More companies/sponsors

Feedback Form 23

Comment on Delegate Interests

• Best: people
• Worst: talk quality not so high.

• Btw: thanks for the organisation

Feedback Form 24

Best and Worst about Conference

• Conference location was very good.
• Worst is talks moving/changing/deleted/...

Feedback Form 25

Best and Worst about Conference

• Worst: food, timings, coffee
• Good: people

Suggested Improvements

• Better food, less talks and better ones.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Avoid Zope.

Feedback Form 26

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best dinner at EPC ever

• Worst -> keynotes

Suggested Improvements

• Different talk & sessions organisation.

Feedback Form 27

Comment on Delegate Interests

• Novice.

Best and Worst about Conference

• Good talks good people easy to get around
• Lunch bad
• No large very board for Program and open space situated poorly in front of Alfa entrance (bottleneck)

Suggested Improvements

• I like the idea of workshops.

Suggestions for future venues

• Barcelona, some where in Scotland.

Feedback Form 28

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best: dinner
• Worst: keynotes

Suggested Improvements

• Talks were really poor.

Suggestions for future venues

• Italy

Feedback Form 29

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best: location
• Worst: insufficient food

Suggested Improvements

• Get more people to help the organisers

Suggestions for improving the website

• - Timetable in iCalendar format
• - Make it easier to find the timetable

Feedback Form 30

Suggested Improvements

• I thought it was better than in Geneva. Although there were fewer talks, the quality was higher (including lightning talks).
• It is difficult currently to just volunteer a little, because you know there aren't enough people sharing the work.
• I guess techies are shy about stepping forward.
• Is there some way the organisation process can be open sourced?
• Can the "many eyes" principle find where the process is broken?
• Would people volunteer more if they could see others doing their bit?
• Would an 'I helped' discount be more effective than an 'early bird' discount (if the new rule was declared early enough)?

Suggestions for improving the website

• The website needs to be improved - and it is part of the 'fix the organisation' problem.

Feedback Form 31

Best and Worst about Conference

• Worst: 30 minutes too short for a lot of talks, didn't always get the depth of a topic I would expect from a developer conference.
• Best: Participants and focus of the talks.

Suggested Improvements

• Longer sessions for those that need it.
• More direction to the Open Space sessions, need experienced open-spacers to take charge.
• First night social event should be held in a location that encourages "mingling".
• More variety in the lunch food would be nice.
• Javapolis has pastries for breakfast too, they are excellent!!

Suggestions for improving the website

• Open space registration online, with video screen to display current status.

Feedback Form 32

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best:
• - Talks, especially the half hour duration.
• - Lightning talks are great!
• Worst: lunches

Suggested Improvements

• More lightning talks, maybe even through video conferencing?

Feedback Form 33

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best: extreme programming session
• Worst: lunch

Suggested Improvements

• I have not checked yet but it'd be great to be able to download presentation (possibly even before the conference).

Feedback Form 34

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best was: new contacts, great speeches and much more.

Feedback Form 35

Best and Worst about Conference

• Third day too small topics there should be more.

Suggested Improvements

• More speakers!

Suggestions for future venues

• Krakow, Poland

Feedback Form 36

Best and Worst about Conference

• Vilinus is lovely.

Suggested Improvements

• Better website.

Feedback Form 37

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best - peoples
• Worst - ?

Suggested Improvements

• ?

Feedback Form 38

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best: keynotes and Google Beer
• Worst: lunch

Suggested Improvements

• Better/more lunch
• Fewer interesting talks at the same time (yeah, impossible).

Suggestions for future venues

• Frankfurt, Germany

Feedback Form 41

Best and Worst about Conference

• The program was published late.

• Bad weather

Feedback Form 42

Best and Worst about Conference

• No idea.

Suggested Improvements

• Offer training of future concepts.

Feedback Form 44

Best and Worst about Conference

• The Good - Plenty of good speakers and talks

Feedback Form 45

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : People
• Worst : No idea

Suggested Improvements

• Maybe live video streaming, more recording, needs bandwidth and people.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Usability for registration
• Better / modern design (cannot help with that)
• Archive of last conferences
• - Photos
• - Videos
• - Blog Posts

Feedback Form 46

Best and Worst about Conference

• Need better marketing in russian and ukraine.

Suggested Improvements

• Add map to booklet.
• Make annoucements the week before

Suggestions for improving the website

• Change first page

Suggestions for future venues

• In Kiev (Ukraine)

Feedback Form 47

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Meeting / seeing prominent python hackers in real world

• Worst : weather

Suggested Improvements

• Better promotion (newgroups, mailing lists)
• More consequent organisation (schedules)

Feedback Form 48

Suggestions for improving the website

• I expected to find all the presentations in the web page / agenda but only few of them are present

Feedback Form 49

Best and Worst about Conference

• Worst: Lunch
• Best: Talks

Feedback Form 50

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : perfectly following the timetable
• Worst : lack of places to charge laptops

Suggested Improvements

• Laser pointers for speakers (or at least instructions how to use them);
• Headset microphones;
• printed slides for people in back rows

Suggestions for future venues

• Vilnius

Feedback Form 51

Suggested Improvements

• Plenary marketplace for open space - it'll generate more sessions. Also put it in a walk-through location so people will drop in.

Feedback Form 54

Suggested Improvements

• Talk more about patents, ORM, business with python, ERP, CMS Systems, inversion of control, dependancy injection.

Feedback Form 56

Suggested Improvements

• More, more, more
• Geeks and nerds
• More coffee

Suggestions for future venues

• Cracow, Lvov, Kiev

Feedback Form 57

Comment on Delegate Interests

• Little actual work in python but interested

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Smooth Organisation

• Worst : Uncomfy chairs for our techie's backs

Suggested Improvements

• Hands-free microphones for the speakers. That would prevent them from temptation to refuse the mic. Put slides online during the conference.

Suggestions for improving the website

• I'm Ok with the website.

Suggestions for future venues

• Vilnius

Feedback Form 58

Suggestions for improving the website

• Get rid of indico.

Suggestions for future venues

• Kiev

Feedback Form 59

Best and Worst about Conference

• Worst : Running out of water, water should be cheap enough to be on continuous supply (for free).

Suggested Improvements

• Use own wiki, also for notes.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Use a wiki for the content part. I can help if you like to use MoinMoin wiki.

Suggestions for future venues

• Mallorca. Maybe use some typical tourist target, so people get cheap flights.

Feedback Form 60

Comment on Delegate Interests

• Educational

Best and Worst about Conference

• Website was weird.
• Venue was well equipped.

Suggested Improvements

• Best wishes getting bigger team at the local venue. Not everyone can assist! Great job people thanks for including me.

Feedback Form 61

Best and Worst about Conference

• Keynotes was best.
• Lunch was worst.

Suggested Improvements

• More days, less simultaneous talks. Printed version of the talks extracts would be nice.

Feedback Form 62

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Social event, open space
• Worst : printed programme

Suggested Improvements

• just keep up

Suggestions for future venues

• Cracow, Poland

Feedback Form 63

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Venue, service
• Worst : Included food.

Feedback Form 64

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : keynotes and lightening talks
• Worst : mixing info about participants, lunch.

Feedback Form 65

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Location, people, variety of topics
• Worst : Language of some speakers making them hardly understandable.

Suggested Improvements

• Improve the website!

Suggestions for improving the website

• - Improve the structure to make the information be better accessible. (I hadn't even heard of the sprints afterwards)
• - Simplify the registration process (no extern account)
• - Incomplete descriptions of some talks (especially those having "strange" titles, eg Arlo Belshee)

Feedback Form 66

Best and Worst about Conference

• Pros : Lightening talks, keynotes, agile.
• Cons : No slides in advance, simultaneous talks, unacceptable lite lunch.

Suggested Improvements

• Is it possible to build collection of media (videos) created by participants available later.
• Feedback form to europython website,

Feedback Form 67

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Location, variety of themes, lightening talks.
• Worst : some speakers were hardly understandable.

Suggested Improvements

• Mainly improve the website.

Suggestions for improving the website

• - More straight-forward information
• - Simplify registration process (on-site, misunderstandings etc.)
• - Springs were not mentioned on the timetable
• - Missing further information of some talks (Arlo Belshee)

Suggestions for future venues

• Oslo, Norway

Feedback Form 68

Best and Worst about Conference

• + The great people, good facilities
• - Overlapping talks, slow service at sky bar.

Feedback Form 69

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Networking - Plenty of time between talks.
• Worst : Speakers not turning up, no hotel restaurant

Suggested Improvements

• Better website registration. More delegate participation in planning

Suggestions for improving the website

• Simplify
• Divide into sections, separate geek parts
• Shopping cart for registration and payment?
• Pay by credit card.

Suggestions for future venues

• EP would be welcome in the UK. PyConUK --> Europython for 2 years?

Feedback Form 70

Best and Worst about Conference

• Lunch was poor and always the same price. Price in Lithuanian is cheap. Hotel cheap.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Hard to register. To submit papers, hard to see schedule, very little info on local hotels.

Feedback Form 71

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : The whole package (People, sprint, organisation)
• Worst : The "lunch sandwiches"

Suggested Improvements

• Trying to get the best speakers as possible and announce it very early. Update the website and improve the content (confusing forms,...)

Feedback Form 73

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Socialisation
• Worst : Lunch quality

Suggested Improvements

• Less simultaneous talks (At least of the same area).
• EP2007 T-shirt is a nice gadget.
• More tutorials.

Suggestions for future venues

• Italy

Feedback Form 74

Best and Worst about Conference

• Worst : Internet
• Best : Small conference meeting people, lunch was kind of light all days, speakers need to show up!

Suggested Improvements

• A few more power outlets please?

Suggestions for improving the website

• Website issue already under control it seems.

Feedback Form 75

Best and Worst about Conference

• Lunch was sparse, being in one hotel was great.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Ditch Indigo

Feedback Form 77

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : The people, the dinner.
• Worst : Few sandwiches! The price!

Suggested Improvements

• Really, the price of admission is expensive for South American pockets.

Suggestions for future venues

• Argentina? Just joking!

Feedback Form 78

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Good level of talks
• Worst : Internet access, poor lunches.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Improve usability, less clicks, clearer explanations.

Feedback Form 79

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Guido and his presentation of Python 3000
• Worst : Lunch

Suggested Improvements

• Social mixer events.

Suggestions for future venues

• Bucarest, Clus, Amsterdam

Feedback Form 80

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Meeting people
• Worst : Some other talks, the lunch

Suggested Improvements

• Get more / better speeches.

Feedback Form 81

Best and Worst about Conference

• Some talks, best comparatively
• Some talks, worst comparatively

Suggested Improvements

• Proceedings? Peer reviewing?

Suggestions for future venues

• Athens, Greece

Feedback Form 82

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Everything worked / was ready at the location.
• Worst : Too much work to organise the conference.

Suggested Improvements

• Organisation

Feedback Form 83

Suggestions for future venues

• Warsaw

Feedback Form 84

Best and Worst about Conference

• I like the tux robot talk, the mobile phone talks. The lunch could be more and better. I would pay more for that.

Suggested Improvements

• I missed a web framework shout and like last year.

Suggestions for future venues

• Barcelona, Valencia, Lisboa

Feedback Form 85

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best - Interesting material
• Worst - ?

Suggested Improvements

• Better access to *.ppt and *.pdf - to learn more.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Another formatting of summaries:
• Little fonts for session names
• Big font for talk names

Feedback Form 86

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : smooth organisation at the venue
• Worst : website.

Suggested Improvements

• Better web site, avoid serious clashes in programme

Suggestions for improving the website

• - Hard to find any information on front page
• - Can't find a link to the mailing lists at all
• - Registration through Indico is dreadful.

Feedback Form 87

Suggestions for improving the website

• There is no clear overview of the site and what is available.

Feedback Form 88

Suggested Improvements

• The programme sheet that were given out didn't have abstracts, so I had to keep using my laptop.

Suggestions for future venues

• A city that is a hub for a major low cost airline.

Feedback Form 89

Best and Worst about Conference

• Laura Crichton's laughter was the best. PyPy was a crazy thing too.

Feedback Form 90

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : The people
• Worst : Hard to tell if content of talk was relevant from descriptions (sometimes)

Suggested Improvements

• Have the lightening talks a little earlier.

Suggestions for future venues

• Dublin, Ireland

Feedback Form 91

Best and Worst about Conference

• Lightening Talks

Suggested Improvements

• Start 10am. Conference T-shirts, speaker feedback. *Guido needs a new topic*

Feedback Form 92

Suggested Improvements

• More talks, encourage more speakers. Better handling of sessions by session chairs. Need to keep talks on time better and help the speaker with mic distance (volume) and timing info. Many talks over ran which made it difficult to swap talks in the middle of a session.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Style / look of site could be improved.

Feedback Form 93

Suggested Improvements

• Feedback form could be improved. If the best value of the 5 point scale is on the right, the yes/no questions should be "no / yes" (positive value on the right)

Feedback Form 94

Best and Worst about Conference

• Open spaces and lightening talks

Suggested Improvements

• Start at 10:00

Feedback Form 95

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best : Lightening Talks
• Worst : Sandwiches at lunch times

Suggestions for future venues

• Cern

Feedback Form 96

Best and Worst about Conference

• Best was the OpenID keynote and dinner was good.

• Worst: lunch sandwiches

Suggested Improvements

• More talks about Python use.
• More talks and advertisment. This year I booked everything in the last minute.

Suggestions for improving the website

• Don't change it (system), just update the content every year it's the same discussion in EP channel about what CMS/platform to use.
• Use what you have and add content and make it easy to find content from old EP.

Feedback Form 97

Best and Worst about Conference

• Place is great. There were a shortage of talks so some weren't great.

Suggested Improvements

• Invite more high profile authors. More creative ways for shy people (like me) to get new contacts.

Suggestions for future venues

• Vilnius is fine.

Feedback Form 99

Best and Worst about Conference

• I was surprised at how bad the food was. It was more absurd fun than irritating, but I would personally have fired the chefs.

Suggested Improvements

• Vilnius was nice, but please choose another site next year. New sites are more exciting.

Suggestions for future venues

• Not in Vilnius, anywhere else.