Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey after Linux Plumbers in 2018. We had 134 responses, which, given the total number of conference participants of around 492, has provided confidence in the feedback.

Overall: 85% of respondents were positive about the event, with only 2% actually saying they were dissatisfied. Co-locating with Kernel Summit proved popular, so we will be co-locating with Kernel Summit in 2019. Co-locating with Networking Summit was also well received, so we will be doing that again this year, too. Conference participation was up from 2017 and we sold out again this year. 98% of those that registered were able to attend.

Based on feedback from last year’s survey, we videotaped all of the sessions, and the videos are now posted. There are over 100 hours of video in our YouTube channel or you can access them by visiting the detailed schedule and clicking on the video link in the presentation materials section of any given talk or discussion. The Microconferences are recorded as one long video block, but clicking on the video link of a particular discussion topic will take you to the time index in that file where the chosen discussion begins.

Venue: 67% of survey respondents considered the size of attendees to be just right, however 25% would have like to have seen more able to attend. In general, 43% of respondents considered the venue size to be a good match, but a significant portion would have preferred it to be bigger (45%) as well. The room size was considered effective for participation by 95% of the respondents, however there was a clear indication in the comments that we need to figure out a better way to allocate rooms based on expected participants, as some ended up overflowing. There is some desire for additional electrical outlets to be made available, which will be looked into for the 2019 event.

Content: In terms of track feedback, Linux Plumbers Refereed track and Kernel Summit track were indicated as very relevant by almost all respondents who attended. The Networking track had fewer participants responding on the survey, but was positively reviewed as well. Hallway track continues to be regarded as very relevant, and appreciated.

Communication: This year we had a new website, and participants were able to navigate through it and find the session needed. In the feedback, there were some requests to integrate scheduling app capabilities (and attendee room size); the committee will look into options for that.

Events: Craft Beer was the most popular event and had favorable feedback from respondents. There were some concerns expressed in the written feedback that we didn’t clarify there were non-alcoholic options available there, and we’ll take note to communicate this better in future. The final closing event venue was originally planned for conference attendance similar to the prior year; the increase of 20% to 492 attendees, impacted this event, and the perception was that it was too crowded and had insufficient food from the comments.

There were lots of great suggestions to the “what one thing would you like to see changed” question, and the program committee has been studying them to see what is possible to implement this year. Thank you again to the participants for their input and help on making the Linux Plumbers Conference better in 2019 and the future.