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I only have one tiny thing to say here. Oh, BTW, I organize NodeConf. I'm intrigued by these "topic tables" but I have to say that if they were considered for
by mikealrogers2 14y ago
I only have one tiny thing to say here.
Oh, BTW, I organize NodeConf.
I'm intrigued by these "topic tables" but I have to say that if they were considered for JSConf I'd have to advocate against them.
Here's why.
At a very large conference (over 300 people) you start to feel a little alienated. That's a huge number of people, and attendees tend to huddle together who already know each other. At an event this size having a way for attendees to find people with similar interests they don't know, break the ice, and have a conversation with a new person is a tremendous service and I'm glad to hear Fluent provided them.
But, at an event below 300 the dynamic is very different.
One of the things I try to do with NodeConf, and I know Chris thinks about at JSConf, is to reduce "coupling up". We try to get people to break out of the small groups of people they are most comfortable with and meet new people.
At a 200 person conference, over two days, you can actually have a conversation with every person. That's not just a possibility, it's a goal of NodeConf and JSConf.
While NodeConf is more specific and specialized JSConf is a melting pot of JS activity. One of the most important things that happens at JSConf is people having conversations with other developers who exist outside of their normal sphere of influence and comfort zone. That's why people from Smalltalk, Clojure and Ruby are invited to give talks.
There isn't another conference where the implementers of prominent client side technology meet so many implementers of prominent server side js tech. If JSConf added topic tables my fear would be that these conversations would reduce because it would be too easy to find more people in your comfort zone.
The goal of the parties and breaks isn't to get drunk and be stupid, it's to loosen people up enough to break out of their comfort zone and enable these conversations.