vp:Session Chairs' Guide

From LinuxTag Public Wiki

The Session Chairs' Guide explains in detail how to create a great track for LinuxTag. It explains criteria for interesting talks, and walks through the tools available to find and manage speakers.

Great Tracks

A track is a sorted sequence of talks dedicated to one common subject. As a Session Chair you are in charge to compose your session that is more than a mere sequence of single talks. All these items are suggestions, not mandatory rules:

• Think about a meta story of your track. You may start with a general overview and progress to more specific aspects or implementation examples. You may want to close with an unexpected approach to the subject.

• More specific subjects are favourable over general subjects. Example: "Java VM monitoring" is more specific than just "Java".

• The talks should cover all important aspects of a subject.

• There is no need to exclude controversial subjects. After a whole day praising functional programming languages, a talk about "plain old C" might give a good contrast.

• Your talks should relate to Linux, Open Source, or Free Software in one sense or the other. There is no need for unreflected obiedience to those subjects, though.

• The very purpose for every talk is to entertain and educate the audience. Ask your speaker for the value of the talk for participiants.

• Try to find speakers, who are independent from each other. They should not all represent the very same project, nor should a majority work for a single employer.

• Having famous speakers at the conference is a plus, but no necessary requirement. The subject beats a high profile.

• It is ok to have talks for beginners, it is also ok to have presentations for experts on a subject, but don't mix them. Try to fit each talk into your track's story.

• Don't hesitate to suggest subjects to speakers. Usually you get better talks this way compared to accept whatever the speaker offers in the first place.

• It is not a requirement that a speaker presents a subject for the first time publically at LinuxTag, but it is a bonus.

• Some speakers go on tour with always the same talks. Try to avoid talks a speaker pulls readily prepared from his drawer, unless it's a very exciting subject.

Available Tools

vCC

Talk anlegen für einen Speaker