Feasibility of Switching Between Session Tracks?

Hello all,

A question for people that have attended previous Rstudio conferences:

Is it feasible/practical to switch between the tracks within a given conference session (i.e. in Session 1 catching talk #1 in tidy-1, then going to talk #2 in shiny, etc.). I'm thinking of timing & space logistics, not wanting to cause interruptions, etc.

This is really common at other conferences, but I'm not sure what it's like at the rstudio conferences. There are so many great talks, I could imagine bouncing around between the tracks to catch the ones of particular interest!

Thanks!

Hello hello rwbenz,

I attended last year's conference and would be happy to take a stab at your question. Fair warning, there are a couple unknowns that make this a little tricky to answer.

I can only speak for the previous conference location. There the different talks were all close by. Furthermore most everything (snacks, booths, restrooms, etc.) was in close proximity. In the new location, fingers crossed, this is again the case. Thus, the time to get from hall to hall would be negligible. I will also add the session halls were plenty long. If one showed up late or just in the nick of time there would have been enough space for them to sit without having to sidle along one of the front-most rows. I do seem to recall attendees were pretty good about moving into the middle of rows.

The second unknown applies to most conferences and is potentially more problematic. Speakers may run over. In this case one would have to be okay leaving early or showing up late. Neither is ideal, so, fingers crossed again, moderators will enforce time limits. Last year I recall a couple speakers going over, but the majority of speakers were a-ok on time.

All that said, I think you are good to go!

Nate

p.s. if you attend the Session 3 programming track please don't jump ship after the first two speakers :grimacing:

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@nteetor,

Great -- thanks for your input! I understand and agree about the variability in the speakers and timing, but this is useful info.

And BTW -- I'm really looking forward to the programming track (especially the 3rd talk :wink: ), and plan on staying for the whole track.

Best,
Ryan

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Hi there - thanks for posting the question!

During the general conference dates (February 2nd and 3rd), you can switch between sessions freely as your schedule permits.

The only sessions that are locked are pre-conference training sessions, taking place between January 31st and February 1st.

We encourage you to attend as many sessions as possible!

Thanks for the follow-up @RobertB!