Read on Twitter
So we'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's the problem: it'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'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't help getting completely lost during some of the talks. Even worse, sometimes you just don't even see the speaker, only hear the voice, and that'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'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'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.
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's face appears on the recording, on a small window above the slides. Let us see you. At all times. That'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's right! Q&A session right during the session. Now that'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.
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's also a video with all the talking.
4. Deliverables. Forget the PDF-only deliverable; there'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.
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's time to change the way we think about conference talk themselves. Voilà!
*THE END*
*THE END*
Actually one more thing™®©: regarding slides, video, video, video. Video without sound: the voice of the speaker explaining what's going on.
And for accessibility, since the talks are pre-recorded, don'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'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.
