[SWLUG] Lightning Talks

[Justin]

In a complete change of topic.

We have discovered that we can obtain the use of certain rooms on the
Swansea University campus in the evenings should we want them.

Some of these rooms have a large conference table, with whiteboard and
projector facilities, so would be great for more organised debate /
talks. Although there would be no refreshments directly available, the
pub (and campus bars in term time) are only a few minutes away
afterwards.

So i'm looking for suggestions on what we could do with such a room, as
a one off, or as an occasional change of style.

One suggestion is the idea of 'Lightning Talks' which consist of 5
minute timeslots, where people can give a short talk on, well, pretty
much anything they like. It can be a short talk with a few slides on
some project you've been working on, through to just a few words on some
program you love/loath and why.

The idea being that the short time span makes it much easier, and less
daunting for people to think up something and organise themselves, as
there has been request for more talks but a shortage of people with the
experience or confidence to stand up for a half hour or more in front of
a crowd.

To make this really work we would try to encourage everyone that came to
the meeting to stand up and say something, once, or many times.

What do people think of this idea? or any other suggestions?