Talk format proposal: lightning talks

[auscompgeek]

The last meetup went quite short due to the talks that were scheduled, but a number of people stuck around afterwards. Amongst some of the things that we ended up discussing, the idea of formally having lightning talks popped up. I figured it's probably a good idea to formalise that suggestion here.

A lightning talk shall be defined as a short (maximum 10 minutes?) talk.

Any number of lightning talks may be presented at a given meetup (although we probably don't want to go overboard with this on a single evening).

Lightning talks may be proposed on the night (however it may be considered polite, but not mandatory, to give the organisers a heads-up of a speaker's intention of giving a lightning talk prior to the meetup). A speaker may request a lightning talk slot by approaching an organiser.

It is suggested that lightning talks only be given during meetups with short scheduled talks to avoid going overtime, but this isn't strictly necessary.

Some suggestions for possible lightning talks:

• Show off a project you've been working on.
• Neat Rust tips/tricks you've recently discovered or think are underappreciated.
• Public service announcements, such as security notices, e.g. the typosquatting incident in other language package managers earlier this year.

A lightning talks night could be a potential event "theme". For such an event, it would probably be best to only allow lightning talks scheduled in advance, to ensure there are enough talks to fill a reasonable amount of time.

[bitshifter]

Thanks @auscompgeek - lightning talks are certainly something we can consider. The last meetup was a bit shorter than expected, I thought the talks were going to be a bit longer. I think that's the first time we've finished that early. Others have suggested lightning talks as a way to get new speakers in so it's something we could try anyway if we can't find enough speakers.

[thomaseizinger]

I could imagine my talk proposal (#28) to fit into that format :)
(Although 10 minutes might be a bit short.)