NI Week 2017 - More Sessions, Less Keynotes

[GarryG]

So I attended my first NI Week in 2016, and plan to come back for 2017.  It was awesome!  The first day, I went to the keynote and it was a great intro to many of the ideas and built some anticipation for what was to come.  Then I attended several sessions.  The second and third days, more of the same.  By the third day, I couldn't help but notice some things:

1.  The sessions were great and sometimes got cut short.  The content was awesome, and I wish there was more time for it.

2.  It would have been great if we could have attended even more sessions.  So much to learn, so little time.  It seemed like every time slot, I wish I could have attended at least 3 sessions.

3.  With ever decreasing enthusiasm, the keynotes seemed to induce a blase reaction from my coworkers and myself.  By day 3, everyone was playing with their smartphone and counting the seconds until the keynote was over and they could head to sessions again.

I understand that this is an NI event, and NI would like to take this opportunity to market for themselves.  But this is preaching to the choir.  We don't need to see how cool LabVIEW and other NI applications and hardware can be.  Most of the attendees understood that years ago.  We're looking for enrichment.  We're looking for collaboration.  Having panels of discussion that may not even be relevant to our areas for a keynote is, quite frankly, a waste of time for the majority of the audience.

Can we have a single keynote on day 1 and take the extra time on days 2 and 3 to have sessions and presentations?  The sessions and time to see the booths on the main exhibition floor feel so compressed.  Having more time would be great!

[Hooovahh]

Interesting observation Garry. Yeah I kinda am burnt out of Keynotes by Thursday for sure.  There are several moments I've been sitting there seeing something on stage that made me think "This is not the reason I go to NI Week."

On Tuesday the place is packed just before the keynote starts. Each day I would show up at the same time, but less and less people would be there. I think it was 2 years ago I took a photo 30 minutes before the keynote and I was surprised to be one of the only ones there. But to be fair maybe some where out partying later and later each night.

But clearly NI puts a lot of effort into Keynotes, demos, highlighting successes, new technologies, and academics. I'm sure some at NI would think squeezing all of that into a single day would be impossible. I too would like more time for sessions, and I think technical sessions and networking are the number 1 and 2 reasons people say they go to NI Week.