GNOME was part of the first batch of Project Days at foss.in/2007. If the delegate statistics were something to go by, application of the general rule of thumb would have expectations of around 60 people at the Project Day. Given that this was the first time we had Project Days no one really knew what to expect. So there we were with the goodies well before time at around 0830 and already there was a crowd of people waiting with that patient expectation to get into the venue. GNOME was slated in the 120 seater hall and the start was a bit of a let down. With the hall hardly 10% full, the speakers went outside to rustle up some potential attendees. By the time it was “the talk” on GNOME Art, the audience had increased to around 60% and soon we overshot the capacity of the hall and were averaging around 135-140 delegates in the hall. Post lunch talks did not have the expected downward spiral of delegates but more of a “sit on the stairs and listen” kind of attendance. Plenty of questions, some interesting exchanges and of course the usual glitches with the projector were also part of what happened. All said and done, by the time it was the last talk from Naba Kumar, I was pretty happy with the way things turned out. 120 seats are in fact probably the best capacity for a Project Day – neither too much, nor too little – allowing just the right kind of interaction which keeps the interest level going. A big round of thanks to the team who made this possible and the speakers, some of whom had come down from various places to make this happen. Rest aside, we’ll have it again next year.
Now … to sleep.