The seminars are certainly still optional. We couldn't afford security to drag people screaming into a seminar hall against their will. LOL..
I've found the seminar program patchy in the past. But that made sense... some topics that would not appeal to me might appeal to others. I agree they've been a bit repetitive in the past though... I mean, how many times can you really bear to watch 'AlyFromPython' repeating herself?!
The problem with industry seminar programs is that there's a bit of a limit to what we're all interested in talking/ hearing about. You generally have to cover traffic, content, legal and so on, in some way or another. There's also a limited number of intelligent, articulate, knowledgable people who are willing to get up and speak infront of crowds of people.
For this summer's program, I've worked with a team of people from various aspects of the industry and we've made a great effort to make the seminars and discussions as far from same-old-same-old as we can.
We're just wrapping up speakers and I'll be releasing the final program soon... So stay tuned.
