[ILUG] Talks etc

[ccostelloe at flogas.ie]

On Thursday 4 November 2004, Martin List-Petersen wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-11-04 at 09:55, John P. Looney wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 04, 2004 at 09:44:36AM +0000, Barry O'Donovan mentioned:
> > > And one might expect the committee to weed these out or at least look 
> > > for a summar to make a more informed decision.
> > 
> >  Eh..yeah. But I'd like speakers to take some responsibility for reducing
> > the risk of boring people to tears also.

This is sending out all the wrong signals and is incorrect.  Anyone who is prepared to go to the trouble to prepare and present a talk should be welcomed with open arms, it is not like there is a big queue.  They should not need to submit applications in triplicate or be criticised in advance by their peers.

There is a total spread here from newbies to experts with a huge range of specialisations, and because of this, a speaker will be lucky if 20% of ilug are interested in his presentation.  Hopefully the other 80% will either realise in advance that it is not to their interest and not attend, or else realise that if they wasted an hour of their life, that it is no big deal compared to the many other hours they willfully waste.

Any talk won't be totally OT in that it will be Linux-related.  You will pick up a lot more from a presentation than many multiples of that time spent googleing on the same subject, and I take my hat off to anyone who is prepared to share their hard-found knowledge.  It has been a long time since I have been at a talk that I did not learn something from: if you have a bad experience, then don't blame the speaker, but question your ability to be selective.

Ciaran