Sorry for top posting, on phone.
I noticed a pattern where ppl proposed a 30 min talk + corresponding hackfest.
Maybe we need a session where everyone who has an approved hackfest or workshop can give a short 5 min ad piece on it? Rather than a talk?
Actually, I was recommending this approach over the "ad-piece". The reason is that the first 30-60 minutes of every hackfest always ends up being an intro tutorial, which tends to waste the time of the knowledgeable folks in the group.
I recommended that it would be best to pair a real hackfest with a 30-minute intro tutorial talk so that folks could spend more of the hackfest time doing actual work. (And also this should mean that the experienced folks could have that 30 minutes to attend another session).