I'll emphasize a comment made elsewhere in the thread -- be versatile in your expectations. As andygrunwald suggests, map out the talks you want to see. If th

I'll emphasize a comment made elsewhere in the thread -- be versatile in your expectations. As andygrunwald suggests, map out the talks you want to see. If there's one that's likely to be very popular, consider going to the talk in that same room just before it (though this wasn't working well for me, even back in 2013). Same problem, different angle -- map out your second, third, and even fourth preferences for each time slot. Also take into account the geography of the place when planning your schedule. I think it was 2011 that they started using a new building a good walk away (building K perhaps?) and it confounded everyone's plans. There may well be even more rooms now, given the growth of the event. Prior to 2011 it was (mostly) feasible to get from any room to any other, in the time between talks. I found going to talks about things I knew well wasn't very satisfying -- it was the talks about things I was only tangentially aware of that often turned out to be most interesting. Oh, and +1 to the recommendation to support the organisers and buy a t-shirt.