On Tuesday of GraphQLConf this year we can use up to three sessions for WG purposes. Even if we just get our regular WG attendees in the room and discuss our regular topics face to face I think that would be beneficial. However, it seems like a great opportunity to interact with the wider audience and solicit feedback on our plans, use-cases, etc.
I'd love to know how you think the day should go; and we need to have a plan by the end of the first week in April — please chime in!
Key information:
- Conference days:
- Mon 8th — regular keynotes and conference tracks
- Tues 9th — "sandwich" day - board meeting, workshops, unconference, WG sessions
- Wed 10th — regular keynotes and conference tracks
- Three rooms available at venue:
- Grote Zaal — 2nd Floor — seats 224 (theater)
- IJzaal — 5th Floor — seats 98 theater / ??? classroom
- Studio — 5th Floor — seats 77 theater / ??? classroom
- On Tuesday the 5th floor rooms will likely be in classroom layout
- Four 90 minute sessions per day, likely:
- Session 1: 9am–10:30am
- Session 2: 11am–12:30pm
- Session 3: 2pm–3:30pm
- Session 4: 4pm–5:30pm
- On Tuesday: Grote Zaal is committed for session 1 for the GraphQL Foundation board meeting and two more sessions for workshops.
I've spent some time chatting over options with @mbonnin, and here's our initial proposal:
Regular WG meeting, but more "presentation" based, hosted in the theatre layout. Champions can present their topics to the room using slides, and we can allow people to step up to the mic with their questions (with either the champion or an MC enabling the discussion). If the topic a champion presents is a status update, it could be a call to participate in the tables later in the day (see below), and similarly if the discussions get too "deep" we can redirect to the tables.
We'll aim to get through as many of these topics as we have time for, but I'm thinking it'll likely be 4-6 topics, maybe a couple more if they're more "announcement-style".
A dedicated space for WG members to catch up and socialize over the Tuesday lunchtime, assuming either a) we can find a nearby location, or b) it's a boxed lunch. I'll be exploring this with the conference committee.
This assumes there will be 3–4 large tables in the room (I'll be researching this). Each table has a table head (likely a TSC member or champion of one or more proposals).
"The board" will be seeded with a list of major WG topics, most of which are the various subcommittees/large projects we have. At the moment this would likely be the following (but come September the topics may differ a little, plus more may be added based on the outcomes of Session 2):
- GraphQL.js
- GraphiQL / LSP
- Incremental delivery
- GraphQL-over-HTTP
- Composite Schemas
- Nullability
- Community, marketing, website, and documentation
- Other topics as they come up, including metadata, editorial, etc.
Each table head will pick one or more major topic from the board, and display it prominently on the table. Attendees can go to the table that most interests them.
For the first few minutes, tables will brainstorm some of the topics they'd like to discuss.
For the next hour, they should attempt to discuss as many of these topics as they find interesting. Tables should try and take shared notes (e.g. writing key take-aways onto flashcards). Attendees can freely move between tables without needing to excuse themselves, doing so is not rude.
For the final 20 minutes, each table will have a representative (likely the table head) present a ~2–5 minute summary of and outcomes of the discussion. The notes/keycards will also be collected for later dissemination.
Session 4 will be the same as session 3, except the particular topics discussed will differ (the topics discussed in session 3 will not be repeated in session 4).