2015 DevOpsDays Austin observations

After attending DevOpsDays Austin (May 4-5, 2015), here are some observations that might help us with DevOpsDays DC.

##Registration Registration had two tables with badges and lanyards, each staffed with two volunteers. The shirts and event swag was on a table in between the two "badge" tables. Shirts were stacked by size. They had branded stickers, small notebooks, and coasters, too.

The benefit of this layout was that it increased flow. They split the badge pickup (last names "A-L" and "M-Z") from the swag pickup. Grab your badge, turn around and grab your swag, then head into the event.

##Open Spaces For the open space selection each day, the organizers used large Post-It notes blocked off by slot (e.g., Session 1-3) and location (e.g., Main 1-4, Dining 1-3). Those proposing an open space talk would write the topic down on a small colored Post-It, announce it to the crowd, get a pulse check (by show of hands), and then stick it the Post-It into a box on the large Post-It. Sometimes the talk proposer would just combine with another proposed open space talk. This continued until there were no more spaces available or nobody else proposing talks.

The large Post-Its were posted in a common area where many attendees took pictures of them for reference.

Large Post-Its marked the location for each of the open spaces.

##Stage The stage setup was pretty simple. A table with power had the laptop driving the projector. For the ignite talks, an organizer sat at the table and queued up the presentations on one laptop.

##Badges and Lanyards The badges and lanyards were top notch. No cheap stuff here. The badges had the info printed on both sides so that if the badge flipped around, you could still see the attendee's info. Nice feature. The lanyards were tough. Badges and lanyards were ordered through Access Event Solutions. Notice there weren't any "sponsor", "speaker", or "organizer" identifiers on the badge. This kept everyone on an equal playing field and reduced intimidation during the open spaces, especially.

##Other Notables

1. We should have a speaker timer, like an iPad with a stop watch visible from the stage. Flipping up paper signs at "10 mins", "5 mins", "1 min", "Done" didn't work great.
2. They had a charity fundraiser. They asked for donations in return for swag from previous years to aid the local food bank.
3. Speaker gifts. They had them. Keynotes got cool swag. Ignites got less cool swag (I think).
4. The wifi network name included the sponsor's name, in this case, Ansible. Cool idea and should be valuable for the sponsor.
5. There was a "share" at the end of each day where the attendees could grab the mic and share something they learned during the day. Took longer on the second day than the first.