At first, we need to differentiate between Q&As after regular talks and the Q&A with Matt and other official leaders.

For the Q&A with Matt I think the solution with collecting the questions and make a public voting would be best, because answers could be better prepared and the most important questions for the community get raised.

Q&A for talks could be solved in other, better (for their use case) ways. Comments on the Talk-CPT-page could be one way, make them optional or have a dedicated place to meet the speaker afterward, etc.

After thinking a little bit more about this topic, I would like to emphasize another point of view for the Matt-Q&A:

I was wondering why so many people want to make it about themselves? And I think this is a consequence of missing direct channels to the leaders of WordPress.

If I want to start bigger projects within the WP ecosystem, there are so many things to consider. It is impossible for a single freelancer to do all this lobby work. Even after patches, WordCamp talks and coverage on blogs like WP Tavern you still get rejections for not doing or knowing enough. Only big agencies/companies can influence the direction (at least a little bit) through sponsored contributors.

Therefore, people look for this “main stage” moment to push their team struggles in front of so many people. Accessibility, Translations, Sustainability, … all those teams have challenges and want more support from the leadership in some way.

This could mean two things: The problem they are facing is really needing more support, and/or the leaders are not communicating good enough from the top to the people.

If people can’t influence directly, they are trying to use different ways. Like the Q&A. The rare moment where they can get direct feedback for an idea, question or complaint.

(Thanks for reading this long comment until the end. 😉