Online UC Agenda falls short for me - let's brainstorm improvements

[SteveGoldman]

The toughest thing for me at the Esri User Conference is making sure I'm using my time as best as possible, and hitting as many sessions as I can. Having easy access to the Agenda is key to this. I always go over it ahead of time, and mark a bunch of "possibles", but there are always multiple sessions in many timeslots that I'd like to attend, and it often comes down to other factors, like who I end up bumping into, and the conversations that ensue. I like to have some potentials marked, but I also like to have live access to the information so last minute choices can be made.

The current online Agenda is certainly better than no online Agenda, which was true only a few years back, but I think it has the potential to be much more useful without too much work. I'm not sure if this online version was new this year or not, but I don't recall it being available 2 years back when I last attended.

I'd like to have folks comment on if they liked it or not, and what ideas they have to make it work better for them. Hopefully, with some thought out discussion, Esri folks will then re-work it a bit.

My criticism is that this version is not very easy to use on either my desktop for pre-planning or on my iPhone for live access.

For one, they included a map widget in the agenda. We're all map geeks, so it's cool to have a map of the convention center room locations, but it shouldn't be an always-there part of the Agenda web page. For the most part, as you are going through the sessions and decided which to go to, location of a particular session is irrelevant as there is ample time between sessions to get from end-to-end. Maximize screen real-estate for the Sessions grid, and make the map an optional window to pop up.

Additionally, it has a scrollable area inside the main page. On the iPhone, this creates dual vertical scrolling, which is difficult to navigate. I think a single page list would work much better. There could be collapsable areas for the days, and then also for the time-slots. Then additionally, the full info for the session could be a collapsable area. This way, all content is on a single web page. No dual content areas, no popups, etc.

The Pocket Agenda is useful, and I'm glad they stopped printing the large Full Agenda to save trees, but the Pocket Agenda doesn't have the details on each session, which is critical for the paper sessions especially, since the session title offers little in the way of really understanding what the 3 presentations will cover.

An easy Search function is critical, and the existing site did fairly well here, but could be better.

What other ideas are out there?

[RichardDaniels]

Well the ESRI preconference planning tool was pretty hard to navigate, even on a dual monitor PC, so trying to use it while actually at the conference was out. To be honest, the thing that needs the most work is access to the session descriptions or paper abstracts. Instead of focusing on bling and fancy code they need something that is fast and easy to use, like this example for the AAG -> http://meridian.aag.org/callforpapers/program/index.cfm?mtgID=59

[AnthonyGiles]

I Personally always find the paper version a lot easier to use than any of the different apps I have tried. You can just strike through sessions you don't want to go to, see what's left then make a choice. It's too much effort on the app to add things to your calendar then see what clashes

[SteveGoldman]

Yes, but since they no longer provide the full agenda in print form, you need to look online to see full session descriptions and paper abstracts, which I think are critical.

[AnthonyGiles]

There was a paper pocket book in the registration pack which was the same as the online PDF:

http://www.esri.com/~/media/Files/Pdfs/events/user-conference/pdfs/uc-pocket-book‌

but I know what you mean it didn't have too much detail

[SteveGoldman]

Yes, the Pocket Agenda is great, and very useful, but doesn't have the detailed descriptions that really help decide if it's a session of interest. They could add additional descriptions into the Pocket Agenda, but with hundreds (thousands?) of sessions, that booklet would likely triple in thickness.

[RichardDaniels]

The pocket agenda is handy and should be kept; however, this year the way the advertising pages were inserted divided up the agenda. Instead of being at the end of each day, or between session time slots, they were inserted between sessions in the same slot (so you could miss sessions located after the advertisement, e.g. page 42).The information for the plenary session was to generic as well, it said "8:30 AM to 3:30 PM" which missed the 1 1/2 hour lunch break. In the past the break would have been listed.

What I missed was the "pocket" for the pocket agenda. The solid plastic badge backing they gave out this year was not functional.

On the application front, the best "agenda app" could be based on the pocket agenda; however,the Session titles would be hyperlinks that when clicked would "expand" and show the session description and the paper titles & authors. If the titles were clicked they would expand to a second level to show the abstract. There would be a Search screen on the top of the application as well based on keyword, author, day, and title that would return a result list. When a result is selected it would jump into the agenda at the selected location. the key is that the agenda does not have to be the "same" as the planner, since the planner is used prior to the event while the pocket agenda is designed to be used "on the fly" while you are on the escalator in the Convention Center at 8:30 AM.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the feedback, Richard. You made some great observations and recommendations.

[JackMillar]

I was wondering if during the registration process they could have used the information from attendees' desired sessions to better schedule sessions? I felt like I missed a bit since I use these conferences not just to get caught up with trends in my field but also in other fields. A broad approach can help bring new ideas.

My only other thought was that the special activities (speed geeking, gis manager summit, etc) overlapped too much with the sessions. I would have really liked it if the mornings focused on sessions, and then the afternoons were open to visiting the exhibit hall/activities/technical training.

Of course the evening in Balboa Park was pretty well done

[Anonymous User]

that's a great thought, Jack. I too think it would be very helpful if when users registered for sessions we promoted items based on their desired sessions. Just a thought, but would you also find it useful if we promoted items based on your professional background as well?