So the “good news/bad news” that is the VMworld submission acceptance/denial notifications happened today. As is typically the case, lots of very talented people submitted proposals for what I’m sure are very informative and useful sessions were turned down. As a result, a lot of ideas were being tossed around about some sort of “unconference” where speakers whose sessions were not accepted could have an opportunity to speak.
Here are some of the ideas that were/are being tossed about:
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A physical “unconference” where people gather and we select people to talk. The big problem with this idea is money—who will pay for such a venue? Would we even be able to find such a venue at this stage in the game?
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A virtual “unconference” (perhaps associated with the vBrownbag series) that would allow people to share the sessions that were not accepted. This option offers more scalability with almost none of the cost (no venue to book and pay for, and a lot more people could potentially attend online).
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A series of 10-minute “flash talks” at the conference. Most people are suggesting that VMware utilize the Communities lounge for this. The benefit here is that we have the face-to-face interaction that is so valuable at events such as VMworld, and we don’t have a book a separate venue. The disadvantage? You only get 10 minutes to talk.
Personally, I’m in favor of a combination of both #2 and #3. I think it would be great for VMware to allow some “flash talks” at the event, and in combination/conjunction with that we can start/extend a series of online events to allow additional sessions to be shared as well. I don’t see any reason why both wouldn’t work, but perhaps I’m overlooking something.
Thoughts? Speak up in the comments and let’s get something rolling.
Tags: Collaboration, Virtualization, VMware, VMworld2012
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I’m with you Scott on a combination of #2 and #3… and even at this point, I’m considering including an element of this in my #CXIParty (still back to the point of Where to host the event… that’s a challenge in and of itself)…
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I’m down for #2. Not sure if a lot of other people are in the same boat as myself, but the only way I’d be able to justify the expense of going to VMworld was to be a speaker, so #3 isn’t possible. Don’t know how many other rejected presenters were banking on that as well.
I don’t know how feasible #1 would be unless we really got into the event business, but that seems pretty sketchy without some big sponsor / vendor / moneybags support.
If some of the twitter guys get it organized I’ll definitely be down for getting my presentation together for #2.
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Might be cool to do a virtual conference with physical locations to go to and see the video stream. Sessions would be presented from one of the physical locations and people could watch the sessions via live stream from the other locations or online and submit questions. One of the cool things of VMworld is the networking opportunities. You would still get the networking opportunities but not need to fly to the West Coast (not that there’s anything wrong with that) to do so. Saves money, saves time, and gives a more local networking opportunity.
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Flash talks is a great idea. Keeps the boring sessions to a minimum due to the time-limit, and if it is truly great, you know who to speak to straight after.
Best unconferences I’ve been to, have been physical.
Virtual could work, but given the time-zones, peoples involvement will be severely hampered.
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I’m in favor of #3. If you need more than 10 mins, do it on a vBrownbag or something. You can get across the important stuff in 10 minutes, and have more if people want to chat later.
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I’m a big fan of flash talks. The format (albeit 5 minutes rather than 10) works very well at CloudCamp in London that I attend fairly regularly. Obviously though people would have to trim down or refine their presentation topics considerably to fit within the time frame.
My preference would be to see #3 over #2. A physical unconference would be good too but realistically the others will be easier to arrange in the available timeframe (i.e. before VMworld), which I assume is the goal?
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I like #3, but am concerned that the more technical sessions wouldn’t have sufficient time. Another option, #4 might be establishing a YouTube channel for people to post a recorded version of their content – allowing for various small screen techniques too – but volunteers would have to manage the site and that would probably create unfairness of various sorts.
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Something like 2 & 3 ..call it vSoapbox. Get up …you have 10 min to talk and then take 2 mins for questions …or have a sidebar area where the speaker could answer questions. The event is a great place to network, learn, understand the product roadmaps and find complementary products that can provide additional solutions. But event is also out growing the three or four days that someone can attend. And having it this year in San Fran in a smaller venue is going to be a challenge to get into the sessions that will be popular or getting from session to session…like past vmworld’s in SF. Maybe there needs to be two vmworld’s in the US…(east coast west coast)…? Whatever the answer…it will always be a favorite event of mine to attend!
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Hi Scott,
Cody (and the vBrownBag crew) and I have been talking about this idea for a few weeks now. It’s certainly gaining momentum with the number of sessions not accepted (due to volume, not quality no doubt).
Can I bring you into an email conversation that we’re starting to get this thing rolling?Cheers,
Nick Marshall -
Hey Scott!
I think that this is a great idea! The Information Security community did this as an alternative / side-track to DefCon and BlackHat conferences for the great talks that weren’t accepted. I think that we have the same opportunity here. I know that they don’t charge for them and rent out a rather large house to do the talks at…I believe that it is supported by sponsors. I know some of the organizers and could reach out to them to get their thoughts on how they started out. They were small but now they’re *HUGE*.
Nate
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Hi Scott,
I was involved in session voting this year and I was blown away at the quality and value in the proposals. There was no question about plenty of sessions not getting selected… just too many good ones and some would not make the cut. Sadly, my session was not selected.
Options 2 and 3 are perfect ways to help share knowledge and grow the community. I am game to help out anyway I can if the opportunity arises.
Thanks so much!
~Bill
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Love this idea! There are a lot of excellent sessions that were rejected. As you suggest, #1 would be hard to pull off. Even public spaces like Golden Gate Park cost money
A combination of #2 and #3 could work really well if VMware can be convinced to open up to community lounge. A virtual “unconference” after VMworld would provide a good venue for some of the sessions. If there are some costs, maybe a couple of vendors could sponsor and get their logo up there?
The only remaining question is how to pick the sessions. There are probably something like 2,000 rejected sessions – too many for the “unconference.” It’d be partially self-selecting since people would need to resubmit in some way, but we’d probably still need some community voting.
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Another idea…how about posting those presentations as recordings before the event (including the PPTs) for those of us that might want to view them?…the presenter would use a standard video recording software and submit it and the presentation …just a thought
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#1 So now you have other people selecting sessions again.
How bad would people feel to get declined from an Unconference too, maybe a bad idea.
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It looks like lots of folks want the face-to-face interaction, and therefore are voting for the flash talks. However, a number of people are concerned that they won’t be able to make it to San Francisco, so they’re voting for #2. This is why I suggested we pursue both strategies at the same time.
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So what if we did *both*… live sessions that are also recorded and put up on YouTube?
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Given that I can’t make VMWorld and follow the wonderful sessions that the vBrownBag folks are kind enough to give, I think #2 would be beyond great. Plus it will draw more traffic (and ultimately more contributors) to the Brown Bag service.
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Scott I mentioned your post to Brian Gracely, but I’d love to see vendors help with this. Ping me – gina_rosenthal at dell.com – not sure what I can do but I’d love to explore helping somehow…
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#2 – Brownbag is the perfect place for the deeper technical sessions, as well as the ability to save them and watch them later via iTunes, etc.
#3 – I think would work well at VMWorld.
I like the idea of setting up a Video Booth where people could go in and give their 5/10 minute mini-sessions, almost like a photo booth, and then they could be uploaded to VMWorld website.
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#2 appears better, it allows wider participation.
However, I was wondering if…
What are the usual official hours for VMWorld each day? What if the ‘really good and voted well but did not make it to a slot’ kind of presentations be scheduled say after the usual hours? 24-hr VMworld. Prime daytime goes to the primary sessions. The venue is available for 24 hrs at no additional cost. The sessions after the regular ones can be attended by those who are physically there (and really interested) and also virtually by registered users and those of us who live in different time zones and cannot travel (Think India, Australia on the other side of the globe) That way you have at least double the number of presented sessions per day and more ‘good ones’ can make it, albeit to the secondary slots. Lots of benefits – the non-prime slot presentations may not have fully occupied rooms but there will be active/live participation from around the globe and maybe some interested folks who decide to stay over late as well and the presenter gets to present full content.
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@ Gabriel Chapman
I love the #3 idea. The only thing I have with it is that it leaves no ability for Q&A. In essence, you could do the same thing with a YouTube channel. Maybe do one “session” video and then questions could be asked in the comments with a followup video with answers later on?
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I like options (1) and (2)
There is tons of marketing dollars in all the virtualization vendors to go around, I think (1) is doable.
For (2) there are lots of avenues like folks have already suggested.
My previous employer has this idea of virtual conferences what was a huge hit. -
John Troyer, Pablo Roesch and I have already discussed option 3. I think that would work well at VMworld and we could have a nice show-down. I love the concept and I think it would be awesome if we could do something like this.
Let me take this back to John and Pablo again and see if we can commit to it soon.
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Before I forget, one thing to note… if you do 10 minute lightning talks in a proper room and have a 2 hr slot the amount of sessions would still be limited to around 10, so even that would have a max.
The other option would be 1 hr per day at the bloggers lounge and do it 4 days in a row, record it and throw it up on youtube.
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The vBrownBag folks are helping with #2; people who submitted a session and were rejected are encouraged to register here:
http://www.virtualnetworkdesign.com/vbrownbags/vbrownbag-unconference/
As for #3—especially in regard to Duncan’s comments about timing—I think that we are going to need more than a single 2 hour time slot. Personally, I’d like to see a 1 or 2 hour time slot every single day of the conference (assuming that enough people who did not get selected will still be able to attend). I’d also like to see real-time streaming of that content *as well as* recordings of the content submitted to YouTube/Vimeo after the event.
Am I asking too much?
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Great post Scott. The vBrownBag guys were talking about this a few months ago and we’re super excited to give the Unconference a shot. I’m a huge fan of TEDtalk style session at VMworld and I think VMware should really consider having a room available in the future, perhaps very similar to the one used for John Troyer’s gameshow session. Each participant gets 10 minutes to talk and a few minutes for questions. Provide a few “sidebar” tables in the back or an adjacent room where the presenters can meet attendees and answer questions one-on-one.
I think this would also benefit VMware and VMworld because it would give folks a shot at actually presenting and honing their skills. My bet is it will step up the quality of future submissions.
Would love to see this as an expected feature of EVERY conference, like hands-on-labs have become.
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Scott,
What you need is a Google Hangout On Air. It broadcasts the video, but also allows you to bring in people to ask questions/participate. Once it’s over, it automatically uploads it to YouTube. And it’s free. -
Here is different thought by VirtualPatel on it, worth reading.
http://virtualpatel.blogspot.in/2012/06/vmworld-session-rejected-now-what.html -
Josh, I agree—it would be great to see this as a feature of every conference, but I’m also realistic enough to recognize that it might not happen. Nevertheless, I would love for the VMware community to continue to push this as much as possible.
AJ, I’ll have a look at that. I’m no fan of Google or YouTube, but it might be worthwhile.
Preetam, thanks for the link! The key factor that I think everyone here has in common is that they want to share the information, so any and all ideas to sharing the information—including posting your presentations in a public manner somewhere—are valid.
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I would also suggest that if you had a good idea for a session and it was rejected that you volunteer to speak at your local VMUG. This would allow you to present it to the public.
You could also record it and make the recording available to the entire public. This is a win in many ways, it helps your local VMUG and you share your content with more people.
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Richard Garsthagen (@the_anykey) of VMware used to do something like this before VMworld came to Europe. It was called Partner Exchange, or something similar. Vendors would set up booths, but speakers would drill down on technical topics, in contrast to the light dusting many topics get at VMworld. It was revenue neutral, IIRC. Maybe this would be a good template for a show. Maybe we could even convince Richard to come do it again, here:-)
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Scott,
I love the combo idea; Flash Talks at the show with live voting for invitations to do Brownbag sessions in the future.
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