1. I thought PG's informal speaking style was actually quite cool, no issues with that. However, he did seem a bit distracted. At times, it felt like he wasn't sure what he wanted to say next.
2. There were too many people. Maybe I shouldn't complain, since I am not sure if I would be invited if YC didn't invite so many, but it meant that the speakers/alumni were crowded-out most of the time. Having booths would make it easier to find alumni, but it makes it more like a career fair so I am not sure I like that too much either. Another alternative would be to split up the area into multiple sub-areas for each of the speakers, and have a separate parallel Q&A. I have seen this done successfully in other industry conferences.
3. I thought the presentations were generally quite good and left me inspired (and scared as well). Talking about YC's application process would have been a waste of time since most people seemed quite familiar with YC anyway. The one thing I would have changed - having some time for on-the-spot Q&A.
4. The lack of explanation about color coding was a major complaint. I would have had 2 icons per badge instead of color coding - one indicating if you were a designer/developer etc., and the other icon indicating whether you were looking for a job, trying to hire etc. Good, obvious icons are way easier to understand than color codes.
Overall, I am happy that YC came to NYC, and that I got the opportunity to meet so many cool people. So thank you YC team for that, and for bringing me a couple of steps closer to making the leap :)
1. I thought PG's informal speaking style was actually quite cool, no issues with that. However, he did seem a bit distracted. At times, it felt like he wasn't sure what he wanted to say next.
2. There were too many people. Maybe I shouldn't complain, since I am not sure if I would be invited if YC didn't invite so many, but it meant that the speakers/alumni were crowded-out most of the time. Having booths would make it easier to find alumni, but it makes it more like a career fair so I am not sure I like that too much either. Another alternative would be to split up the area into multiple sub-areas for each of the speakers, and have a separate parallel Q&A. I have seen this done successfully in other industry conferences.
3. I thought the presentations were generally quite good and left me inspired (and scared as well). Talking about YC's application process would have been a waste of time since most people seemed quite familiar with YC anyway. The one thing I would have changed - having some time for on-the-spot Q&A.
4. The lack of explanation about color coding was a major complaint. I would have had 2 icons per badge instead of color coding - one indicating if you were a designer/developer etc., and the other icon indicating whether you were looking for a job, trying to hire etc. Good, obvious icons are way easier to understand than color codes.
Overall, I am happy that YC came to NYC, and that I got the opportunity to meet so many cool people. So thank you YC team for that, and for bringing me a couple of steps closer to making the leap :)