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[Wawik]

While the information screen in the main hall was a very nice idea, I think it could be improved a bit next year - aside from being slightly out of date most of the time (panels that already had passed hours ago were still being shown), the fonts could be made a lot bigger. One literally had to walk up to it and read the stuff that was on the screen.


Also, whoever thought red flashing text was a clever idea needs to be tied to a chair and be shown the archive.org copy of GeoCities, circa 1996 while Beethoven plays in the background.

[nifela]

Especially when some events are delayed it gets somewhat confusing if the big screen tells you otherwise.

[SouthPaw]

In an ideal world, the info screen, EF Prime and monitor outside the main hall would all get updated, along with announcements made over the PA (where avaialble at the venue) when events are delayed...Unfortunately, whilst the con is running there's only so much time to do such things and others (rightly or wrongly) are a higher priority.

Short of having a dedicated Event Information team, responsible for performing such updates, I'm not entirely sure how such things could be improved.

Cheers,

Southie

[Thygrrr]

The info screen was cycling too quickly and the fonts were very small. There were also a lot of typos or orthographic mistakes in the English texts.

Still, just HAVING the screen was better than not having it, so it can only improve further :-)

[Cheetah]

Short of having a dedicated Event Information team, responsible for performing such updates, I'm not entirely sure how such things could be improved.

Actually, we had this dedicated team ... but this task was one little thing in the big convoluted mess of responsibilities that our newly founded conops team had to deal with for the very, very first time in their lives. I'm sure they're already taking notes and trying to improve things for next year

[Aurelia]

I thought the info screens were a good idea too and the one in front of the main hall was very funny at times with little messages from the staff! 

[Token]

I agree. Having such a screen with sometimes outdated infos is better than not having one! I am sure next time the layout will be improved =)

[Shay (Wolly)]

Hehe, I have to agree, the info screens were both handy and contained some nuggets of nice humor once in a while. I like the idea of the electronic timetable, perhaps next year things will be even better. Just like the EFTv BBF did... took a year but it works like a charm
Hope we'll see the info screens return in the Maritim Hotel next year!

[Riffuchs]

Hi everyone

I'll go and take the blame for the screen-thingie. There are several reasons for it was the way it was. We had a complete working system out of three screens. One of them was desiged to be accessable by every staff member to display changes just in time. And two more plasmas just for all-day-updates. Then murphy showed up. One Screen was not available, the second was needed on stage, the host system went FUBAR onsite and so we assembled some html-java based systems together to, at least, have some announcement system... at 04:00 in the morning.

Some critics are completely right and we're going to improve it next year.

doco: the red text worked quite fine just because it got allll your attention 

[MrWho]

I can just say the same as already known here.

- The font was just too small to ready already if more than some meters awaway.

- On the other side the design was VERY clear and simple, something i don't see very often at cons nowadays.

- The screen changes a bit fast indeed, but for real urgent changes in plans a running ticker would perhaps work better, as long not too much info runs at once.


I already wanted to ask what kind of CMS you were using in the background, but if you just put that together in such a short time, then you have my full respect ! O.o

[Fineas]

Hi everyone

I'll go and take the blame for the screen-thingie. There are several reasons for it was the way it was. We had a complete working system out of three screens. One of them was desiged to be accessable by every staff member to display changes just in time. And two more plasmas just for all-day-updates. Then murphy showed up. One Screen was not available, the second was needed on stage, the host system went FUBAR onsite and so we assembled some html-java based systems together to, at least, have some announcement system... at 04:00 in the morning.

Some critics are completely right and we're going to improve it next year.

doco: the red text worked quite fine just because it got allll your attention 

I just keeps amazing me how much dedication goes in to EF. 'It can't be done' doesn't seam to be avaible in our dictionaries.
One way or the other, we all get it done.

We (at least I am) very grateful Riffuchs that you got it to work although you had so much difficulties with the hardware on-site.
I hope next year your carefully planned system will work as expected :-3

[SibSerag]

The info screen was a good start

I would love to see ef17 putting the attendee information system to a new quality

Some ideas:

- A live EF information portal website, mobile readable with live timetable, event information, timetable changes, "The Daily EF"-online version, ...

- Make use of the EF Twitter account live at the con. Twitter Event starts, special information, delays, lost'n'found, warnings,...

- Allow user interaction: post Roomparty announcements, meetup information, con feedback, reviews, picture of the hour, twitter replies... (maybe after reviewed by Con Ops)

- Show these infos on EFprime too


OK, I see, this is going to be a lot of serious work. But maybe some of these points could be realized.

[Wawik]

- Make use of the EF Twitter account live at the con. Twitter Event starts, special information, delays, lost'n'found, warnings,...

Esp. with most people's Twitter accounts only updating like, every three hours or so because the phones kept bouncing back and forth between the convention WLAN that didn't have enough leases and the mobile network that went like "yeah right, 900 phones in a single cell, heck NO".

[CJ]

What about some kind of online calender (ical, xml) that you can synchronize your phone with so you get constantly updated information about your events?

[SibSerag]

Esp. with most people's Twitter accounts only updating like, every three hours or so because the phones kept bouncing back and forth between the convention WLAN that didn't have enough leases and the mobile network that went like "yeah right, 900 phones in a single cell, heck NO".

Most people I met had constant inet connection via their gsm provider. And they were quite all running a twitter client.

I had quite anywhere in the hotel about 7.2 M/Bits HSDPA via T-mobile D1. Except the piano bar, the wireless black hole.