[LCA2015-Chat] conference app...

[Russell Coker]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2015, Simon Lyall <simon at darkmere.gen.nz> wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Jan 2015, Russell Coker wrote:
> > Another thing that would be really good is a web app that allows
> > delegates to tell the organisers which lectures they want tk attend and
> > a scheduling app that allows the organisers to devise a schedule that
> > has the minimum number of conflicts.
> 
> This has been suggested in the past. Problems usually brought up:
> 
> 1. Was tried once at a conference, only small proportion filled it out,
> they got a great scheduled, other attendees didn't

That's great for the people who fill it out, presumably the others aren't too 
bothered.

Also if a very famous person volunteered a paper and the conference organisers 
didn't realise that they deserved a plenary slot then this could alert them.

> 2. The schedule needs to be created before most of the attendees with have
> signed up. Some people will base their travel arrangements around which
> day they arrive.

I'm surprised that you think there should be effort made to accommodate people 
who don't plan to attend every day of the conference given the effort that is 
put in to get people to the morning keynote on time.

> 3. There are 80-something talks. A lot of work for most people to read and
> rank (see 1)

Ranking them would be more difficult than voting for the Australian senate 
without voting a party ticket.  But that's not necessary.  Allowing delegates 
to list how interested they are in each talk with a 1-5 rating should do.  
Even if delegates just had check boxes for the lectures that really interest 
them it would be useful.

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