Silence is golden
As I write this, it’s the last day of PyCon UK. The air is buzzing with the sound of sprints and productivity. I’ll write a blog post about everything that happened at PyCon later (spoiler: I’ve had a great time), but right now I’d like to write about one specific feature – an idea I’d love to see at every conference. I’ve already talked about live captioning – now let’s talk about quiet rooms.
I’m an introvert. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy socialising at conferences and meetups. I get to meet new people, or put faces to names I’ve seen online. Everybody I’ve met this week has been lovely and nice, but there’s still a limit to how much socialising I can do. Being in social situations is quite draining, and a full day of conference is more than I can manage in one go. At some point, I need to step back and recharge.
I don’t think this is atypical in the tech/geek communities.
So I’ve been incredibly grateful that the conference provides a quiet room. It’s exactly what the name suggests – a space set aside for quiet working and sitting. Whenever I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the bustle of the main conference, I can step into the quiet room. Some clear head space helps me through the day.
PyCon was held in Cardiff City Hall, and the designated quiet room was the Council Chamber. It’s a really nice and large space:
If there hadn’t been a quiet room, I’d have worn out much faster and probably been miserable towards the end of the conference. It made a big difference to my experience. I think it’s a great feature, and I’ll be looking for it at the next conference I attend.