Wineconf thoughts for next year

[Jeremy White]

Hi folks,

I persist in thinking that it's useful to write down thoughts
on Wineconf to remember for next year, so that we can perhaps
have a better event the next year.

Sadly, I do not think there is much chance that we will
have a better event next year; I cannot imagine finding more
gracious hosts, a nicer venue, or better weather than we
had this weekend.

I did not talk to anyone that didn't think that this was
a fantastic event, and I think we are all in shock at how
helpful the Fachschaft Elektrotechnik were, and how generous
WRS was.

However, I want to correct an oversight.
I was glad we were able to publicly thank our hosts,
but there are a few people from our own community that
deserve a round of virtual applause as well.

Without Brian, I don't think we would
have had Wineconf; he spurred us to thinking of it,
pulled us together, and juggled the thorny issue of
the agenda quite well.

Further, several folks from Germany really helped out
as well.  David Gümbel, Andreas Mohr, Michael Stefaniuc,
(and others I've forgotten) were extremely helpful to
us all.  You all certainly helped this American feel
very welcome and at home.

So thank you all.

I did want to file a few practical thoughts away:

First, I thought we did audio and video just right this year;
we made an honest attempt at it, but
it didn't interfere with the conference at all.

However, I think we need to recognize that we Wine hackers
are badly addicted to Internet access, and I think we need
to set aside a formal time on day 1 to make sure that all
access is good.  We did have mounting frustrations over
the connectivity, only getting it all ironed out midway
through day two.  I found myself being increasingly
distracted by the problems until we finally ironed it out.

(There were counter proposals on the train to eliminate
internet access so that folks would focus on the talks; I'm not sure
how I feel about that, but it's an interesting point).

We also seem to crave massive amounts of power; we should probably
sponsor a box of power strips for our host next year.

Brian was feeling that we might have done better with a
slightly lighter schedule, but others didn't seem
to feel that so strongly, so I'm ambivalent.  But the
healthy and flexible breaks were once again invaluable.

At any rate, it was great to see you all.  I look forward
to planning Wine 1.0 at Huw's house next year <grin>.

Thanks again to everyone that helped bring off a brilliant
Wineconf!

Cheers,

Jeremy