Conference Format
EurOmnis means small sessions that encourage more two-way communication. This will offer new ways for the attendees to really learn. Many people do not like to ask questions in a classroom environment but will feel comfortable in smaller groups. Sessions will be repeated, so when you miss one, you can attend the same session later in the day or the week.
The small session format can be seen as a kind of interactif learning, crucial for developing new technologies, giving participants that are in the process of acquiring knowledge means to exchange knowledge and to take advantage of each others ideas and experiences.
Except for the traditional classroom tracks, all sessions take place in a 'conference landscape' in the main conference room on the ground floor of the hotel which in its totality is transformed to "EurOmnis activity center". We would like to invite you to visit the testimonials page for an impression of what to expect.
This is the way the format works: You'll sign up for the session you want to attend on a first-come, first-served basis. Up to 6 participants may attend a session, if full, you can sign up for the same topic at a different time. During the session, the speaker will guide the audience through the main topic but you will be able to ask him/her to deviate and cover related areas. Sometimes participants offer new ideas and solutions to a problem.
Three huge benefits spring from the small session format:
1) There's less time limit. If a speaker is covering a topic that his or her audience enjoy and they go into greater detail than anticipated, they can keep going into the afternoon or evening. We have found that the most popular sessions in previous years can be frustrated because a speaker must finish by a certain time to free up the room for the next session. The new format allows greater flexibility and opportunity for speaker and attendees to take a topic as far as each requires.
2) If two sessions you want to attend are taking place on a particular day, you do not have to choose one and miss the other. You can attend one on Monday and the other the next day. Or you can go back to the same session every day if you just want to learn from one speaker!
3) Topic flexibility: If the audience raises a question which takes a speaker into an area not directly related to the core topic, then the group can agree to pursue that line and return to the core topic afterwards. This is only possible because the subjects indicated for the speakers are a proposal, a guideline rather than a strict rule.
Every speaker hosts at least 6 sessions which means there are about 10 to 12 simultaneous sessions running all the time with an average of 5 or 6 participants, giving you all the opportunity to get the information you want or solve the problems you have. Formal conferences rarely are a place to solve problems. EurOmnis changes that.
At this moment 2 classroom-tracks are planned; David Swain and his Studio-101, and Joe Maus with his SQL-101. We are considering classroom-sessions for certain more 'common' subjects but are still negotiating on those. We'll keep you informed via the program page of the website.
Especially the program page will change on a regular basis so please place your bookmarks for easy returns to that page.