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Post Drupalcon Paris Random Thoughts
I'm sitting on a plane from Paris to Philadelphia after Drupalcon. My feeling was very good about the Con. The presentations that I attended were, in general, good. There were a few that were not-so-great, but that's pretty normal. Not all sessions will be great. I took quite a bit of video - not all sessions, but quite a few. I took some notes. I'll get my notes and video up on line as I'm able.
Some observations - while the venue was really very good (I love universities and this was a great campus) it was small for our community. The cons have been getting larger and larger and only having space for 800 people was limiting. Voting for sessions should have had a start day after proposals are closed and an end date. Sessions were announced rather late reducing the amount of time folks had to prepare. Internet access was a little flakey at times, but by and large it was pretty good. Some rooms like the basement theatre had very poor reception. The sponsor tables were central, which I thought was a very good decision. Sponsors should be easily recognized and found. The big video screens provided to the upper level sponsors was a nice touch allowing for some interesting content to be shared. The mic-ing of the rooms was really good, even in the small rooms. The food was quite good.
Having conventions in cities with an International Airport is important. Paris was ideal in this regard. The city was pleasant to hang out in. The metro system rocks.
All in all, I think this was a really great convention. Thanks everyone!
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Comments
Mmm, I feel you are too friendly for this very poorly organized con: everybody agrees that the website of Drupalcon Paris was really really bad and a disgrace for Drupal. Even a random DrupalCamp website generally looks, and works, better. Next to that there was lack of planning (which seems to be typical French) and lack of communication during the conference (or did you know what social events were happening every night?).
The internet connection and the buildign were very good indeed.
The location was okay, but I prefer conferences in small 'drupal-cities' like Szeged, were we didn't have to catch a metro for 30 minutes in order to find each other. This DrupalCon was in Paris because so many people voted for it because they like the city (as tourists); despite it's unfriendly people, language barriers and much too expensive infrastructure.
I, and with me most European Drupal lovers, hope the next European DrupalCon will be in a smaller city like Cologne (Germany) or Maastricht (Holland).
I have no affiliation with the organizers aside from having sponsored the conference at the Bronze level. However, I think they did a great job, and I found that this conference experience was a lot better in almost every important respect than Drupalcon DC. Of course, it's much harder to pull off a an event for 1400 people than for 800 people, but we have to give the Paris team proper credit. This is my 3rd conference now (after Szeged and DC) and in my opinion this was the best one yet.
I'm really shocked and disappointed to come across such a vicious, anonymous comment in a public forum (being that this site is on Drupal planet). In fact, if I were Matthew Saunders, I would remove your comment altogether.
If for whatever reason you feel strongly about how this conference was poorly run and want to make a statement, you should put it up on your own website, under your own name.
Alex Dergachev
Co-Founder, Evolving Web
http://evolvingweb.ca
I am not in the practice of deleting comments because I disagree with them.
Now I do think it would have been nice for whom ever wrote the comment to indicate who he or she was either by registering here or by listing name at the bottom of the post as you did Alex.
I have been to 4 of the cons so far:
Barcelona
Boston
DC
Paris
and my only real complaint was how voting on the Website was handled and timing of the schedule announcement.
I would also like to add that all Drupalcons to date have largely been organized by a group of volunteers in the Community who are also engaged in their daytime jobs.
I didn't find the people unfriendly - in fact quite the opposite, with one evening at the Champ de Mars being invited by a bunch of locals to hang out, play music, and talk.
Now, I speak broken French so I was able to communicate pretty well.
I agree the Web site was handled badly - and that was reflected in the way voting and selection times happened. I had little problems with social events - but I chose to not go out to bars every night.