LibreOffice Conferences - Community (Branding)

Hi all,

I try to remember the situation and environment at the first LibreOffice conferences. We all used for our presentations a template that was created from the community just for that specific conference (If I remember correctly, such template was also created for every conference since then).

If I look at the presentations during the last conferences there are only a few presentations which uses the conference template, but most of them use something else, e.g. company branded templates or something else. I find that disturbing and I think others also puzzled if it is a LibreOffice (community) conference or a different event.

In my opinion we should rethink this behavior and make it again obligatory for every presentation (or workshop etc.) at a LibreOffice conference to use the template, created by TDF and the community for that conference.

Regards,
Andreas

Hi @andreasma .

That is an odd request - are you really suggesting to make a specific branding mandatory? Any other plans to make the conference experience more strict & uniform, like wearing the conference tshirts on stage? :wink:

For the record, this would be unprecedented (there never was such a requirement), and IMO would make the LibOCon look a lot like a corporate shindig: everyone required to comply with branding guidelines.

The attempt to justify that with an alleged “look how lovely it was a hundred years ago” is misguided.

Best, Thorsten

If you followed the conference Telegram group, you would notice that we got the official conference template extremely late - I think it was something like a day or two before the conference started (plus, it was difficult to use because of limited vertical space). By that time, everyone had already prepared and styled their presentations… so only a few were able to swap out their template in favor of the official template.

So, instead of your suggestion, I suggest we emphatically encourage the conference organizing team + board + staff to take care of the template well before the conference is scheduled - say, a month at least.

Hi Eyal, hi all,

that should be only a logistic issue and could be solved for a conference that takes place in about four month.

I fully support that the template should be available at least a month before the conference. Maybe it would help, if the template would be available earlier thus it could be tested by volunteers (e.g. the design team).

But in general you seemed to support the use of the LibreOffice conference template and show that it’s the LibreOffice united community conference and not some different event.

Regards,
Andreas

The word “only” is out of place in that sentence… Conferences are logistically hard - especially when we do them at a different venue every time.

Anyway, I’m sure that if the template is available well in advance, many more and probably most, presenters would use that template of their own accord.

Having said that - I’ve been to a lot of conferences, and a “conference presentation template” is actually kind of rare. Very often the templates chosen matches the content; sometimes they’re just something generic (think LaTeX beamer or something from the LO / MSO default templates); and of course, people representing an organization or a company very often use their organization-provided templates. Look at things like CppCon for example - almost no two presentations are alike… and I don’t think that’s a problem. What I would ask is that people clearly indicate the venue, and perhaps include the conference logo, on the first slide. Plus, as part of our post-production work, we could do something like that, i.e. add an initial and final screen with the conference logo, and perhaps embed a small version of it at the corner of the video.

Hi Eyal, hi all,

I know really well about the work load of organizing a conference. I have been part of the conference organizing team for some years. And I was also part of the team for the LibreOffice Conference in Berlin, the first after the birth of TDF.

But the creation of the presentation template for the conference was not that big issue. Thus it was only a logistical issue (or if you like a small task).

Then it shouldn’t be an issue to make the use mandatory. That shows that it is a LibreOffice community conference and nothing else.

Regards,
Andreas

Hi @EyalRozenberg , all,

The above is well in-line with what other conferences do, so that makes a lot of sense to me - :+1:

Forced uniformity would show the opposite than showing that “it is a LibreOffice community conference”: It would show that the community is stifled by tight centralized control, with everyone having to look the same and present the same, like soldiers in the military.

are you referring to the presentation templates at some of the last conferences from some groups?

I have no issue to present my stuff within a conference template. And I don’t think that I would present the same stuff like you, if we would use the same template.

And I deny that using a conference template for a presentation makes someone look like soldiers.

Regards,
Andreas

Ah, so this is about finding another way to deepen the rift with Allotropia and Collabora. How very useful.

Hi Eyal, hi all,

it’s about the LibreOffice brand, an important asset of the foundation. This brand was created, popularized / advertised by the (volunteer) community. The foundation has to protect this brand (asset) and strengthen it. The LibreOffice (community) conference is a part of this brand.

Regards,
Andreas