Single-track conferences with a formalized hallway track¶
I’ve helped organize around 50 conferences over the years, mostly Write the Docs and PyCascades events, and attended around 50 more. Over this time, I’ve come to build a preference for a certain kind of event: the single-track conference with a formalized hallway track, scheduled against the main talks. Write the Docs has been doing this for a number of years, and I think it’s the best conference format, especially for events of 500 or fewer people.
One track of talks¶
The goal is to have a single track of talks, so nobody has to choose between different tracks. This allows the audience to get into the flow of the event with few choices, and speakers can reference previous talks and assume the audience has context. These events feel the most cohesive to me.
Not every talk can be interesting to every person though. If a talk isn’t interesting to you, you need something else compelling: a formalized hallway track.
A formalized hallway track¶
It’s really important to have a secondary space where people can self-coordinate around the topics they’re interested in. We call it an Unconference; sometimes it’s called an Open Space. The main thing is that it isn’t scheduled in advance, and allows people interested in similar topics to find each other.
The Unconference sessions board at Write the Docs Portland 2026 (Flickr, CC0)¶
The Unconference track should be timed in the same blocks as the primary talks. We use 35 minute blocks with 10 minute breaks, so the break is a natural “change places” time for the whole event. This naturally groups people around shared interests, which are often far afield from the main talks
The Unconference being scheduled day-of also means that the content will be up-to-date, even if it’s about something that happened only one or two weeks ago. With technology moving faster and faster, it’s important that people can talk about the latest and greatest things.
Give attendees ownership¶
The other important value this embodies is to give attendees ownership of the event, because this is how you build community and help ensure a more dynamic conference. The Unconference is one important place to do that.
But we also want to put some of that on the main stage, and that’s where lightning talks come in. They’re five-minute talks that are submitted the week of the conference, or the day of. They give people the chance to get up on stage, and I find they’re the best way to break the ice for getting people on stage and building a group of speakers. That’s the way I gave my first conference talk (video).
A lot of people start speaking with lightning talks, then maybe give a meetup talk, and then end up on our main stage. I think that’s a really important way of building community, and of getting more of that dynamic energy into the event.
More conference thoughts¶
Overall the goal is to ensure people can find the others who care about the same things, and are given the ability to make the event their own. These are some of the principles that I think are important to running events.
I’ve written about conferences quite a bit over the years. 10 years ago, I wrote about how to handle questions, which I still believe today.
Check out some of the other posts as well: