Boris Mann hosted an informal Northern Voice Post-Mortem Saturday afternoon to get feedback for next year’s

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(Blame Tod for the typos. I can't type fast.)

The Wiki

• Maybe we need a wiki host? -- someone responsible for the wiki, like how Rebecca live-blogs (unofficially and generously).
• Is it the most efficient way to do registrations?
• There should be a screen-cast on how to use the wiki
• Why are there TWO SITES?! (wiki and main site)
• Wiki can be intimidating to newcomers?
• Should we have an email list to promote the next (un-)conference? Non-bloggers probably won't follow the blogs or subscribe to the Moosecamp RSS feed.
• Maybe get people to put a photo of themselves next to their name and blog on the attendees list.
• Email list is a good idea, not everyone will follow the rss.

Registration

• People want a single sign-up (not just one for the dinner, one for each day, blah blah...)

Human Graphing

• Could have been publicized better
• Maybe shouldn't have been done first thing in the morning?

Day One: BootCamp 101

• Some BootCamp presenters seemed to just be "winging it" -- more work on the presentations needed
• Podcasting 101 could have had more practical how-to content (e.g., how to use the Libsyn interface, etc.)
  • A "walk-through" isn't necessary per se, but at least some discussion on practicalities
• Presenters should use the wiki more/better
• "What's Next" presentation didn't really talk about what was next, but the topic that emerged was okay with everyone
• Should we develop a ratings-system for expertise level? Seemed to be very different levels in the audiences.
  • Beginners/"Newbies": Dunce Cap?
  • Intermediate/"Normies": Star?
  • Advanced: "Alpha Nerds": Propeller Hat?
  • A "jargon-meter"?
• But, shouldn't apply to everything, especially those where breaking up the group into expertise levels might mean there'd only be a handful of each
• Do we even NEED a BootCamp? Does it mean the conference is inaccessible and therefore needs a bootcamp?
  • Necessary to have - a lot of people are new and could be intimidated from Day Two.
  • I hope the people who could use the bootcamp track learned a lot; I personally loved the fact that the separate bootcamp track significantly raised and homogenized the geek level in the moosecamp sessions compared to previous years. I think "segregating" geeks and non-geeks meant less wasted time for both populations.
• The PowerBlogging session was a scam. It was advertised as instructional, but was really a marketing survey for the Flock browser. There were at least ten "Raise your hand if...".
• Agreed. The powerblogging session should have been more honestly labelled as mainly a market research survey session. Market research spam. Audience wanted actual content. Flock spammed us.

Schedule

• Need to do a better job 'splaining the sessions (more descriptive abstracts)
• How are our day-to-day life culturally impacted by all this?
• Titles and abstracts often sound too generic or acedemic.
• with Moosecamp, we were actually pretty light on sessions this year, and we could work on the scheduling/slotting process. There were a few that would really have benefitted from longer sessions, some that flowed naturally from each other and some that either needed bigger or smaller rooms.
• Maybe a few more minutes between sessions, there wasn't enough time to say a quick word to the leader/speaker and also get into the next session on time (mostly re: MooseCamp/Bootcamp)
• Post a big paper version of the program with abstracts/comments, etc. Basically an offline version of the wiki page (not everybody were online during the conference).

Steering Committee

• We don't have anyone representing the "newbie" delegates... committee is all alpha-nerds
• it might be nice to have a bit of rotation of committee members to give some other folks a chance too

Non-Profit Tech Expo

• Does anybody have thoughts on this, from an attendee's perspective?
• Good idea to have them, maybe have more next year.

Ask an Expert Booth

• Was this a good idea? How can we do it better next year? Of course, if you needed the booth, you may not have sufficient wiki-fu to be able to post your answer here.
• Where was the booth hidden? Read about it but didn't see it.

Random Comments

• "Sheriffs" a cool idea
  • I must've missed the announcement of this. I saw a few sheriff stars on Saturday but didn't know what they meant
  • maybe use some term more obvious for the helper than sherriffs, plus bigger more noticeable badges, especially if you're going to only mention what they do one time.
• We should have a place where people can answer questions from newcomers in advance of the event (on the wiki?)
• Food was AWESOME! Thanks for providing the yummy lunches, it gave all of us that much more time together to talk. EXCEPT that it ran out whilethere was still a long line up (saturday) and it took a long time for replenishmnet to arrive.
• Coffee was poor. It must be possible to get a better supplier and delivery method
• Plus have coffee and tea during the whole day, and water, maybe somewhere in the corner
• Somewhere to hang coats and check bags is needed
• Possible expanded role for sheriffs — as "translators," which some helpful people were doing already. (Example, I didn't know that "enterprise social" meant "using social media inside a company" until someone said that Bonnie's topic on the Ambulance Service was the same topic. A-ha! - LJ)
• Human Graphing is a good ice breaker. Doing it early in the day before sessions start insures maximum participation. Next year a question can be:  "How many years have you been attending Northern Voice?" Handout sheets would remove some of the confusion among people [data points].
• Maybe have a piece of paper next to each room used with the names of the sessions and the times.
• Overall very informative, fun and useful conference. Kudos to the organizers.
• Great Pork at the party. Would be nice to have a place closer to the conference and cheaper beer though next time.