Yep – that’s pretty much exactly what was special about this panel, I modified the format to bring out more of the good bits you cite, and less of the boring bits :).

The rules were: each topic is a “Red vs. Blue” argument, where no panellists are allowed to compromise, back-down, etc – the better the opposing arguments, the harder you’ll have to dig in your own experiences and nasty edge-cases for counter-points.

The basic format worked OK, the main problem was that we (and the audience!) had much more to say on each topic than we had time for…

I once talked to someone on the GDC advisory board about panels, and the main reason for the response above is apparently that the odds of something going wrong (a speaker not being able to make it) are a lot higher. Which kinda makes sense. Also, a panel is more expensive to the organizers, although I don’t know how big a role that plays.

Personally, I really like the idea of a panel, IF it is well done. If you’re experienced enough that a lot of talks contain little new information for you and what interests you are the little niggles and caveats around the big issues, it is much more interesting to get several people together and have them hash out exactly these boundaries between positions. E.g. you say you like SCRUM – OK, let’s get someone who doesn’t use SCRUM but is successful, and someone who uses SCRUM differently, and let’s talk about the various different approaches and experiences – let’s assume I know by now there are multiple perspectives on anything and talk about the negative space around and between those perspectives, so I can then make up my own mind. If that example makes sense.

Bad panels are hell, though.

This year is the first year I didn’t attend the Austin conference. I had spoken at the conference every year, usually at an advisors request, until last year. I suspect I’ve pissed off the conference organizers with my general badmouthing of the conference for a while, so my proposals probably get put in the round file quickly.

The supreme irony here is that they’re telling you not to give the same session again; many of the sessions I’ve seen at the GDC over the years have just been retreads. Same speakers, even, just different title for the same old content.

Ah, well, I’ve gone to fewer conferences this year and don’t seem to be any worse for it. Only ones I’ve gone to were the Indie MMO Developer’s Conference (which I helped to organize) and the LOGIN conference. Both were well worth my time.