Criticisms2006

From DorkbotLondon

Well we all had a lot of fun, but helpful criticisms of the camp below please!

What to do next time

• Everything worked more or less like clockwork, so we could just do the same again
• Bring whiteboard pens/chalk so people see what's going on and how to get involved
• Organise liftsharing a bit better
• Reach agreement about journalists
• Provide ashtrays

What was bad

• All male presentations
  • as opposed to workshops which were more even
  • But, how to address this, since as far as I could tell, presentations were done by whoever wanted to present?
  • Yes, difficult issue, I guess just be encouraging

• Cigarette butts
  • clearing them up afterwards was a pain, we probably missed a fair few.

• No whiteboard pens
  • difficult to know what was happening next (exciting!)

• Transport
  • Involved a couple of a people (thanks saul+peter!) spending a lot of sober time ferrying from train station, would have been better to have more drivers or somewhere with closer public transport or just see if you could have got a reasonable deal with a local taxi company.
  • BryanC Lifts were offered on the wiki by myself and others, only one person took up my offer, but forgot to give a phone number!

• Confusion over what to say to journalists (can they come or not).
  • We should develop a standard line that we give to all of them. I liked the french film crew, the goon from Radio 4 gave a curiously moronic account of what was going on. Uninspired piffle. But that's my review of Broadcasting House really.
  • BryanC - Unfortunately the story was how science is presented in the media, so he couldn't deviate much from the overall story (also discussed in the studio) when he discovered we existed on Wednesday that week...

• Saturday activities initially daunting for newbies
  • as seen by the early male/female divide between the knitting+cooking areas and the electronics tables. There wasn't any easy guidance on what was going on if you'd just arrived.

• Attempting to learn and recall sixty different names
  • a social issue, to be true, but (remembering to bring the) cheesy nametags would have been helpful.

What was good

• FOOD
  • All good

• Workshops
  • These were excellent and the right number. I liked the fact that everything happened all the time and that lots of the workshops were do-it-and-pass-it-on style.
  • Agreed, having some running at the same time but for a long time so people could try them all worked well

• Presentations
  • Also all nice, varied and well attended

• Organisational style
  • This wiki worked amazingly well. Where was all the effort? Who made it!? Own up.
  • check the logs :)

• People
  • Everyone was so co-operative. I wonder if next year everyone would muck in as much. I don't think I ever helped organise an event that felt like more fun and less work. How can we make it that easy again?
    • I reckon keep it small, and mess the formula up enough so everyone has a hand in defining what happens
    • (Iain Sharp) agree - try and mix things up a bit but keep it focused on people that want to be active participants
    • BryanC agree - venue and food need to be preorganised, but everything else happened because someone else agreed to bring something interesting for everyone to do. I'm planning to bring a (working!) hot air balloon kit for lots of people next time.
    • Agreed, although I think more time and energy went into the organisation than was perhaps evident, it took a fairly steady amount of work over 4 months to get those essentials filled in. All very much worth it, though!

• Location
  • (Iain Sharp) The location worked really well. I would be happy to go back, but it would also be interesting to see other environments - eg sea or running water or lakes/rivers
  • The ability to either camp or sleep inside was fantastic, it avoided discouraging those who weren't so eager about camping.

• The Burning Dork
  • Good to have a big group project that lots of people could contribute to

Other Suggestions

• Solution for wireless headphone links. I wish I had decided to bring my FM transmitter. Being able to dance to some of the music would have been good.
• Would have been fun to have some live visuals to go along with the music