This year’s NSConference seemed to be enjoyed by many and the feed back I have received to date seems to suggest that on the whole I can be reasonably pleased with the show I put on.
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”I’m one of the first-timers and I’ll definitely come back if I can get my hands on a ticket again. Thank you all for making it such an awesome experience!”
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“NSConf this year was great. I can see a trend in polish and quality over the last two years.”
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”I’ve been to four NSConferences now, and in many ways this one was my favourite.”
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”I’ve been to numerous conferences all over the world, from the big (WWDC, Oracle OpenWorld) to the small and I honestly have to say that NSConference 2012 was the best one I have ever been to. It was the first conference that I have ever been to that I didn’t miss a single presentation and to me that is says it all. ”
However as happy as I am with this years show I realise that there is still a lot of work to do to become the “perfect” conference and I cannot just sit back and enjoy the success but need to work hard to get better each time I instantiate an NSConference.
This is why I always encourage attendees to send feedback and ask them to let me know at least one thing they didn’t like even if they thought is was their “best conference ever”. This year over 100 attendees took the time to send me feedback for which I am really grateful. Almost every person found at least one thing (and many found many more) that they thought could be better and many provided some good suggestions on how I might look to improve the event.
The good news is that although everyone found something to improve on the vast majority focused on the same few things. This means by making these things better I can make a lot of people happy at the same time and making people happy is always fun.
The purpose of this post is to present an edited and summarised view of the feedback received so that people can see where and how I intend to make the next NSConference a better all round experience for those who attend.
Problem 1: One Room To Rule Them All
This year for the first time at NSConference we held the main session talks (30-45 minute talks from invited speakers) and the blitz talks (15 minute talks from attendees) in the same room. The vast majority of people welcomed not having to keep moving from room to room. The idea of the blitz talks was initially that they were talks that ran during the breaks. This allowed people who didn’t want to network to benefit from more content. However a side effect of moving the blitz talks into the main room is that more people felt they would like to stay and see the talks meaning they didn’t get as many breaks. The reality is I had exactly the same number of breaks as last year but it just didn’t feel like it.
Proposed Solution
It is very rare as a conference organiser that I would feel less content is an improvement to the conference. However when you consider that the primary purpose of NSConference is to allow developers to meet one another then making space for that has to become a top priority.
What I am considering for the next NSConference is to restore the equality between breaks and sessions that so many enjoyed at the 2011 conference. People love the blitz talks as it gives many attendees an opportunity to present (often for the first time) to their peers. As NSConference is all about community the blitz talks (in my opinion) help to build an atmosphere of community information sharing and therefore need to stay an integral part of NSConference. A possible solution is to run a main talk for 30 or 45 minutes , followed by a break before running two blitz talks back to back followed by another shorter break. This combined with a slightly earlier start time (See next problem) should allow me to go someway to solving this problem.
Problem 2: Start Times
Many people appreciated the conference days not starting at the crack of dawn however a reasonable percentage of people felt that the 10:30 start was maybe a little to late.
Proposed Solution
By moving the first session of the day to 10 o’clock attendees can still have a leisurely breakfast and start to the day while also allowing us an additional 30 minutes in the day to use as extra breaks to solve the previously described problem.
Problem 3: Not Enough Geek Level Tech
Over the past few years I have moved NSConference away from just being about coding and towards being a more holistic indie developer conference covering code, design, support, marketing and general interest based subjects. Based on this years feedback I think I might have cut back on the coding/tech sessions just a little to much.
Proposed Solution
It’s a bit obvious I know but in future NSConferences I will look to redress this by including a few more coding/tech level sessions. This sounds simple but I assure you there are not that many people out there who can take something low level and make it both entertaining and useful for a conference audience. But I will not let this put me off …. you want more tech, I will get more tech.
Problem 4: In Jokes
This years NSConference had about a third of it’s attendees being first timers. Quite a few of these said they found it pretty difficult to keep up with the “In Jokes”. While I think it is great for a conference to establish and develop a personality based on its past I think unless monitored carefully this can turn into elitism where only “the in crowd” get to understand what’s going on. For a conference that wants to promote community to new and old this would not be good.
Proposed Solution
NSConference loves to invite speakers back as they become our friends. However I think I need to look at maybe spreading out a little wider on where I get my speakers from. Leaving in enough regulars who can show the way while maybe introducing a little more new blood each time than I have been in order to keep us fresh.
I also think it’s time to retire the “Cocoa Rumble” as the close of the conference. Each year it has built on the jokes and outcome of the previous year to the point that maybe this year it made no sense at all to anyone who hadn’t been there since the beginning. (Not that the Cocoa Rumble has ever made any sense of course.) I think with this years discovery that Mike Lee and Graham Lee are actually the same person Lee vs Lee is now over and I need to find a new way to end NSConference.
I still believe ending a conference with “just another session” is boring and will look to do something a little different but if you have never experienced a Cocoa Rumble then I am afraid you never will.
Problem 5: Design Negatives
At the last few NSConferences there have had some great sessions (and laughs) looking at “BAD UI” design in a number of different sessions. We have learnt a lot about how not to do things while having fun along the way. However there seems to be the beginning of a feeling that continuing down this negative path won’t end up being an overall positive thing.
Proposed Solution
I think for the next season of NSConference (Not necessarily forever) the design element of NSConference needs to adopt a more “What We Should Do” attitude. There are some great design speakers out there (including the ones who have been with us over the last few years) and I am sure they are more than up to this challenge.
Problem 6: Not Enough Tickets
OK so this really wasn’t feedback from people who were there but was something that was said by many who weren’t. Tickets this year sold out in just 5 hours and many previous attendees and people who wanted to come for the first time found that they were not able to get a ticket. By our best estimation demand outstripped supply by a factor of almost 5.
Anyone who has been to an NSConference will understand that one of its biggest strengths is it’s size. Just making the conference bigger could end up with NSConference loosing the very thing that people love about it. Another huge strength of NSConference is the venue. Its in the middle of nowhere, it’s hard to find, difficult to get to and once you get there you find there really is no where else to go. Believe it or not that’s brilliant.
Once I get the attendees through the door there really is nowhere else to go and they have no choice but to remain in each others company and be community. To make NSConference bigger I would need to change venues and although Wokefield Park is far from perfect as a venue I believe it has become an integral part of the NSConference experience.
Proposed Solution
All I can say right now is I am working on it.
Summary
I know that in this post I have concentrated on what people thought wasn’t good enough, not quite up to par or could be improved. I remind myself that this feedback comes almost universally after great praise and everyone saying what a great time they had and how good their experience of NSConference was overall. I am excited that each time I get the chance to make it a little bit better because people are prepared to take the time to tell me what works and what doesn’t. I know one day I will cock it up and do something that makes it worse but hopefully I have enough friends in the community that they will forgive me, point out the error of my ways, brush me down and tell me to have another go.
I just want to finish by thanking everyone who has ever attended an NSConference. Handing over your money and your time is an act of trust in my ability to provide you with a positive and valuable experience. I want to assure you I do not take the significance and responsibility of that lightly.
Scotty