- if we used bruce (richard’s pyglet based presentation software), people could have pretty full featured demos integrated with the laser gong show

- why can’t people use red? if the camera was calibrated so that the default screen was only coming in at say .. 50% of power, I’d think that the laser spots would show up as considerably brighter than the normal red

Also, people would need to make slides that don’t contain the color red, or perhaps you could purposely put red into your slides as a first line of defense against the monsters…

Not to be mean, just lighten the mood.

I’d be happy to write an app that explodes someone’s talk it it is shot but a sufficient number of laser pointers. In fact, if I can get cheapo pointers again I’d even be happy to bring the laser pointers.

You’d just have to require that people have their slides as a series of .jpg files and that they all get loaded before the session starts.

Another option would be to have monsters that “eat” slides. People can choose to kill the monsters with lasers in order to preserve the talk, or let the monsters go and destroy it.

- Separate “sponsor lightning talk” section. I actually got a lot out of a few of the sponsor talks this year, but I’d really like them in a single group together. I dunno if that’s the solution you already worked out. I’m sure you’ve got it under control.

- Separate “normal lightning talks” sections. The “gong show” format really wouldn’t work for everything. Some talks really do take a few minutes to get to the point. And, as you pointed out, the antagonistic format isn’t at all good for a more “serious” lightning talk.

- Separate “gong show” section. The core idea I had was more of an “entertainment” venue. The only talks that should even be in it would be the entertainment / “WOW” sorts of talks. I guess the idea came to me in terms of what I’d find fun to participate in either as an audience member or as a presenter. To enjoy this, people would have to conciously NOT take it very seriously. As I mentioned in my post, I wouldn’t want to replace the real lightning talks with this bit of craziness!

To wrap up, I don’t think you should replace lightning talks with this idea. I think this would be a fun light-hearted addition to the conference. OTOH - you may be right, that even trying to do this “just for fun” would have a negative impact on community.

First of all, I don’t think our lightning talk format should require the presenters to have “thick skin”. The “gong show” sets up a fairly antagonistic environment which I don’t think as a community we should allow, or especially promote.

Additionally, being antagonistic towards the sponsors may have the unintended consequence that next year PyCon is more expensive. The sponsors covered something around $50 per attendee that otherwise would have had to have been paid by attendees.

Note that the “sponsor lightning talk problem” has been solved. It was an experiment tried over the last 2 years, last year it worked well, this year the sponsors weren’t properly educated about what lightning talks are. Steps are being taken so that the problem is not repeated, see the organizers list for more information.

The gong show idea is amusing, but personally I think it should stop here, just being an amusing meme.

Sean