Virtual events

I have a full-time job. I have ADHD. I struggle with executive dysfunction and auditory processing issues.

These are some things that would help me, personally watch more talks/panels/etc. live (thread):

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

- a google calendar invite for the specific event time, with a link to the actual live stream that'll open with my credentials when I click it

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

- live captions transcribed by a human that I can overlay on the video or open in a separate window

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

- a very obvious "watch now" CTA button at the top of the main event website

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

- ticket confirmation tied to Google auth, so I can just click the Google login thingy to watch the stream (for paid events)

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

- stop having a separate "booth" experience if you already have a conference Slack.

(also stop trying to make "virtual expo halls" happen) pic.twitter.com/FnMilwWiOb

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

- single track! I can't decide between your 11 different conflicting talks, I can barely decide what to eat for lunch

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

(follow up re: calendar events) please let me close the tab and then come back without having to click through a bunch of webpages or search through my email.

each click I make that's not opening the event stream from my calendar is another chance for you to lose me.

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

and when I say "another chance for you to lose me," that's not a threat that you're gonna lose my support or money.

you're just going to lose me as an attendee because I saw a new email when I went to find the event stream link in gmail and now I'm replying and 20 minutes go by

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

- in your conference Slack, vendor channels should have their event landing page (with links to videos, PDFs, etc.) pinned to the channel topic.

it's probably possible to automate this if you have more than a handful of vendors, but idk Slack's API at all.

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

(I guess that last one is less about attending talks, but it's how you eliminate the need for a "virtual expo hall")

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

(back from a meeting.)

I wrote this thread because I *want* to watch more talks live. I want to support speakers and learn from them. I want to engage with other attendees.

Please make it easier for people like me to do this.

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

ooh forgot this one before:

- please make sure your speakers are using decent mics. consider mailing them usb mics to use for the event if they don't own one. static, background noise, echoes, can make it nearly impossible to process what people are saying.

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020

sounds interact with each other and make it harder to understand speakers, so control for as much as you can.

e.g. I can easily understand someone with an accent I'm not used to when we're in a quiet room, but if we're walking next to busy traffic I really struggle.

— shelby reliability engineer (@shelbyspees) November 20, 2020