[SWLUG] Lightning Talks

[Chris M. Jackson]

On 8/17/05, Justin <justin at discordia.org.uk> wrote:
> 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.

This has the makings of a great idea.  As nice as it is to meet people
around a large table in a pub, we could do some occasional events that
aren't entirely aimless ;-)

Along these lines, I've done various conference-related bits in the
past, so speaking shouldn't be too much trouble once I actually have
something to talk about.  IMO, 5 minutes really isn't a lot of time to
fill, so perhaps a 5-15 minute range might be better.  15 minutes is
long enough for someone to at least put some meat into the matter and,
with a bit of skill, short enough to not leave your audience entirely
bored by the time the next speaker turns up.  Of course, the beauty of
such a format is that with so many short talks, there's room for the
occasional 5-10 minute slot which isn't entirely on-topic, to break
things up a little.

Something I would like to try and arrange later is something along the
lines of the awareness event we ran a couple of summers ago, only less
disorganised, and with some structure to it.  If we at pleast plan far
enough in advance, we might actually be able to get some decent
speakers in.  Any thoughts?
-- 
Chris Jackson
Now with enhanced time-wasting capabilities
Non-Terminal Boredom: http://www.xpns.co.uk/life/