Thread by @akosma, So we've been watching bits and pieces of @theRemoteCon with my colleagues [...]

So we& #39;ve been watching bits and pieces of @theRemoteCon with my colleagues today, and I have a few things to say about the format; not about the content, and this might be useful for other upcoming online conferences (like @appbuilders_ch :)

Just like in many other aspects, replicating the "offline experience" in an "online" way is worthless; because, here& #39;s the problem: it& #39;s kind of rude to leave the room when you are watching a boring speaker in person; online, just ALT+TAB or CMD+W and you& #39;re somewhere else.

I think the idea of having someone talking for 30 minutes over a crappy microphone with a bad webcam on a low bandwidth connection with slides only changing every 5 minutes is a recipe for disaster. Avoid, avoid, avoid at all costs.

Today I couldn& #39;t help getting completely lost during some of the talks. Even worse, sometimes you just don& #39;t even see the speaker, only hear the voice, and that& #39;s not ok.

Regarding slides: please, please, please avoid overcomplicated "slideuments" with too much text and content, at all cost. If those slides are a bore in person, online are just unbearable. And without seeing the person, it& #39;s perfect recipe to get lost.

In small screens or with bad connectivity (smartphones, for example) those slides are simply unreadable chunks of color on the screen. Not possible.

Here& #39;s my 2 cents of what I would consider a fantastic online conference experience:

1. Short talks. No more than 10 minutes.
2. Pre-recorded. Speakers record themselves giving the talk. The recording should be YouTube-quality; that is, no "uhmmmmm" or "ehhmmmm". Also: no music.

3. The speaker& #39;s face appears on the recording, on a small window above the slides. Let us see you. At all times. That& #39;s important. Gestures, smiles.

4. The most important part of this idea: the speaker only presses "Play" and switches immediately to the associated chat system, answering questions from the audience, while the talk happens. That& #39;s right! Q&A session right during the session. Now that& #39;s value imho.

The advantages of this approach are:

1. Vetoing of talks beforehand. A small step for the organizers when talks are only 10 min long, a huge step for the attendees.
2. Optimized delivery, particularly when demoing, which might be useful in tech conferences.

3. Reuse. Yes, a speaker might be able to reuse a talk later in another context, why not.
4. Deliverables. Forget the PDF-only deliverable; there& #39;s also a video with all the talking.

5. Higher density of information. Remove those "uhhmmmm" and "eehhhmms" and silences.
6. Respect of the timetable. There will be never again a speaker stepping on the timeslot of the next one.

As we move into this new era of online conferences, I think it& #39;s time to change the way we think about conference talk themselves. Voilà!

*THE END*

Actually one more thing™®©: regarding slides, video, video, video. Video without sound: the voice of the speaker explaining what& #39;s going on.

And for accessibility, since the talks are pre-recorded, don& #39;t forget the subtitles. This is super important.

To be very clear: this is not in any case a criticism of @theRemoteCon in itself, but of the format of online conferences. I& #39;m aware that the time is short (and complicated) to prepare such events _now_…

… so my ideas are more for a future concept; something that could happen in online conferences in an horizon of 1 to 2 years from now. Something tells me this lockdown will usher a new era for online conferences.

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