[eclipse.org-eclipsecon-program-committee] The allocation of slots betwe

[Bjorn Freeman-Benson <bjorn.freeman-benson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

PC Members,
Tim asked me to write a bit about the allocation of slots between long and short talks. Here's the complete dissertation on the topic:

The conference has 3 days, although we may want to end early on Thursday. Conferences typically have a shorter third day. Each day starts at 8:30am and has 6 one hour time periods, plus breaks and lunches, ending at 5:00pm.

There are 5 rooms we can use for parallel talks.

Thus the theoretical maximum number of long talk slots (long talk slots apply to both long talks and to panels) is 3 * 6 * 5 = 90 slots. In reality, we have fewer slots because each keynote and plenary occupies 5 slots (because nothing is scheduled against them). Thus in reality, we have 3 * 4 * 5 = 60 slots. Or, if we want to end an hour early on Thursday (3:45pm instead of 5:00pm), we have (2 * 4 + 1 * 3) * 5 = 55 slots.

We can fit 6 short talks into the same time as 1 long talk or 1 panel. The key, then, is to decide how many longs/panels versus how many shorts to have. Here are some numbers:

• 60 Long, 0 Short   or   55 Long, 0 Short     (total = 60 / 55)
  
• 50 Long, 60 Short   or  45 Long, 60 Short  (total = 110 / 105)
  
• 45 Long, 90 Short   or  40 Long, 90 Short  (total = 135 / 130)
  
• 0 Long, 360 Short :-)
  

As Tim pointed out there are 182 long talk submissions, 37 short talk submissions, and 6 panel submissions. My inclination is to balance the program by allowing more speakers (more shorts) to provide a breadth of talks.  Eclipse has become a much larger community than it was in the past and we should provide opportunities for many more people to talk about their experiences and results. Such is my opinion...

Regards,
Bjorn