Write the Docs Prague 2017 - Recap and Retrospective

Write the Docs Prague 2017 - Recap and Retrospective

Hi everyone,

Thanks for attending the 2017 edition of Write the Docs Prague! We’re so grateful to our speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and attendees for making the conference possible. We hope you had a wonderful time, and that you are as excited as we are about the beautiful community that gathers under our roof.

In this post we’ve included some feedback information to help make the conference even better next year, and a Code of Conduct transparency report. You’ll also find links to the talk videos, photos, and resources you might need for staying in touch and continue to build and grow the community.

Feedback and retrospective

Shortly after the conference, we sent out a short survey to gather feedback from our attendees. Thank you so much to all those who took the time to share their thoughts with us!

The survey is still open for responses, but we’d like to share a few main points that we received, which also reflect our own retrospective results:

  • On the first conference day (Monday), there was an unfortunate mixup where some vegetarian lunch options were missing. We became aware of this problem as lunch started and immediately discussed this with the venue, who acknowledged that this was a mistake on their part. We are continuously working with the venue to improve and broaden the menu options for as many dietary requirements as possible, and will continue to monitor the catering operations next year.
  • During the unconference sessions, there were times when the noise level in the room was uncomfortably high, thanks to the increased interest and excitement of our attendees in the unconference sessions. Although we couldn’t make major changes to the space during the conference itself, we have made a careful note of this potential issue and will make the necessary adjustments to the venue layout so that we can accommodate all the sessions comfortably.

We appreciate all your feedback, and strive to adapt and evolve our events to make everyone’s experience a joyous one!

Code of Conduct transparency report

Write the Docs is an inclusive, friendly, and welcoming community to all documentarians. As a part of our ongoing efforts to promote safe spaces in the tech fields, we apply a Code of Conduct to all of our conferences, meetups, and online spaces.

Following the conference, here is an anonymized list of CoC-related incidents that occurred during the conference:

  • During the conference, an attendee tweeted a joke about inappropriate alcohol use with the #writethedocs hashtag. We asked the attendee to delete the tweet, which was done immediately.
  • One of the presenters made a joke during their talk that was considered discriminatory. We removed the mention from the presentation video before publishing it, and asked that the presenter refrain from these jokes in future Write the Docs events.
  • We received several reports of over-use of the word “guys” to refer to people in general. This was not confined to a single incident, and repeated among presenters and attendees. Barring specific people to address, we’d like to remind everyone to carefully consider which pronouns and other classifications to use when addressing a diverse group.

As mentioned, this report is anonymized and published for the sake of maintaining transparency, and to encourage folks in our community to report incidents that might disrupt the atmosphere we are passionate about.

Videos

All talk videos are now available in a playlist on our YouTube channel.

We’d like to thank again all our speakers and lightning talk presenters for investing time, effort, and love into their presentations. Each year we see growth in both the diversity of topics and the spectrum of the roles that are represented in our conferences, and we hope to keep seeing this in years to come!

Photos

We have photos from the event available on Flickr. We really love the photos each year, and you’re welcome to use them for non-commercial purposes, as per our Creative Commons License.

Write the Docs Slack

The Write the Docs Slack has really grown this last year. Our Slack channels have been extra busy in the days and weeks leading up to the conference, and we hope that y’all continue the conversations throughout the year. If you haven’t joined, head on over and join us!

Meetups

We hope you continue to build the community and keep in touch with other documentarians in your hometown. In this spirit, we have a number of meetups in cities around the world. If you don’t see your city listed, consider starting a meetup!

Keep us posted if you start one (or encounter a new one) so that we can spread the word.

2018 conferences

These days we are laying the groundwork for our 2018 conferences, and will announce all the information that you need to register, speak, and volunteer at the Portland and Prague events.

In the meantime, save the dates for next year:

We’re currently looking for launch sponsors to make our events just as magical as this year’s events. If you are curious about sponsoring any Write the Docs event, please contact us at sponsorship@writethedocs.org.

Thanks again

Our conferences are only possible because folks like you make it a great experience. Thanks for making this another wonderful event! We hope to see you back again next year, or even sooner at one of our other conferences or community events.

Join us now!

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