Ideal period for FET seminars

[Vangelis Karafillidis]

Hello everybody,

We're planning to organize a FET seminar in Greece. The problem is that it can take place either in early September (before lessons start at Greek schools), or later around November.
If the seminar takes place in early September (in the first ten days), I'm afraid that with one or two "lectures" lasting 2-3 hours each it would be difficult for someone who has never used FET before, to understand it and use it successfully for solving his/her timetable. This might discourage him/her, and therefore this person might never try FET again.
If this seminar takes place later, let's say in November, it could last much more and people are going to understand the major part of FET's features and functionality. So, they'll be able to solve their timetables. But, up until November, they'll need another way/application to solve them. So practically, they'll start using FET in September 2018, for solving the next school year's timetables!
What do you think? Which is the best of these two "scenarios"? Maybe... has any of you another idea or suggestion?

Thanks a lot!

[Volker Dirr]

"This might discourage...": Yes, you are right.
"If takes later...": Yes, you are right.
"But, up until November": I think you are "wrong" in this point, (except there is a "new" school), since they "only" need to do it like last year.

I prefer short after the the new school year started. I prefer to calculate the "old/current" timetable with FET, not the "next one". Because you will understand it better, can compare better and have time to check it. Even it sound like "work that is not needed, since that timetable/problem is already solved", i suggest to do it that way. After that everyone can decide his/herself if he wants to stay at this old ways or select the new one.

[Vangelis Karafillidis]

Thank you for responding Volker!

To be honest, I haven't decided yet. I spoke with Liviu and some other people today. A multitude of opinions! 
I don't think that the average user will be able to use successfully FET just by attending two presentations. Most people are impatient! They expect to have fine results with nearly no practising... And you know that other applications are more user friendly (or at least they have a more appealing user interface) and most people can start using them almost immediately, which means that anyone can start creating a timetable, even manually. On the other hand, the real power of FET is revealed only when one absorbs its usage as an automatic timetabling tool. And this is the danger for the novice user; he/she needs to spend much time for understanding how automated timetabling works and how his/her timetabling problem can be "expressed" in terms of FET. For the above reasons, I'm afraid that the period of early September might be risky, since schools need to have a "complete" timetable the latest on September 10. The risk relies on the possibility of failing to solve the timetable with FET and therefore quitting it, and most importantly without giving it a "second chance". In this case, most likely, these users are never going to try FET again.
The November "scenario" is better for having enough time to analyze FET in detail. In this "scenario" I think that most people who will understand the functionality of FET, will choose it as their "exclusive" timetabling application but only starting from the next school year (September 2018).
These are my thoughts...

[davvidde]

I started to learn Fet for the first time in june 2012 where schooltime would be started two months after. It was the first time I did the work to produce a timetable for my school where, for the past years, it was solved by hand. It was a challenge, because before that time, nobody in my school had taken into account the problem to automate spaces and teachers sharing; recent changes in organization did the trouble too difficult whitout some automated helps. So it was two months before school would be started and the time left was just enough to self learn skill and implement them to the timetable.
The big problem is the user interface, which is not very user friendly. Some constraints should be shown in different ways but this is another thing.
In conclusion time is critical to learn and if you don't do it in time you loose the opportunity.

[Vangelis Karafillidis]

Thank you for responding Davide!

I agree with you! This is the reason that the "November scenario" seems safer to me...
I spent around two months as well practising on FET in order to be able to face real timetabling problems. Of course I didn't have a strict schedule, i.e. I didn't practise for a specific number of hours per day. The point is to start THINKING IN TERMS OF FET. And for this purpose it's not enough just to "read the manual" or to attend a couple of "lectures". For those reasons I've started thinking more seriously the "November scenario"...