https://2020.pythonwebconf.com/
https://pwc2020.loudswarm.com/
Meta thoughts:
- very accessible conference, attendees from small countries
- purchasing a ticket gave a ticket to someone from a lower-income country. Super way to encourage diversity and help people who otherwise would be unable to attend.
- platform was buggy. Hiccups at the start of each day
- too much Plone content
- much confusion on if one should watch on Loudwarm, in Zoom, be in Slack, felt like a combination of disparite tools instead of a unified experience
- no break between keynotes & first talks of each stream made early morning a bit frantic, esp for those of us to the west of EST.
- 7 talks is too many talks from Six Feet Up people. Would've liked more diversity in experiences from speakers.
- Fireside chat with Carl from Instagram was a standout highlight. Having the opportunity to do informal Q&A with someone who's so advanced was an amazing & inspiring learning opportunity.
- interestingly I found myself interacting in conversations more because it was virtual in Slack. Normally in in-person conferences I feel very shy & introverted so it's a challenge for me to "inject" myself into conversations. The virtual nature of this conference made me feel more comfortable doing so.
- slido was awkward: if I'm watching a talk, I make it fullscreen, so all the other widgets like slido are hidden, so now I have to leave fullscreen to post my question, then go back fullscreen
The conference itself tried hard to recreate the in-person experience virtually. I think this is the wrong approach, rather than trying to recreate the in-person experience which I think is a virtually impossible problem, virtual cons should embrace the things that virtual conferences can do that in-person can't. (think that Animal Crossing devops conference)