@Rfarrand (WMF) (Summit organizer) and @Qgil-WMF (budget owner) are bootstrapping a WikiDev 2017 organization team as we speak. We are keeping track of all the work at #wikimedia-developer-summit and the main task phab:T141926.
In previous years we have got plenty of help from other people, sometimes formally, frequently informally. This time we want to improve the organization of the event by having a formal Organization team with some members appointed to specific roles and tasks. We also want to invite people to volunteer before, during, and after the event on specific organization tasks.
One idea is to formalize a Program committee. @RobLa-WMF and @Qgil-WMF have assumed this role in various ways in the previous year, with the participation of other people and different approaches to a basically crowdsourced program. Last year the idea of discussion areas was introduced, as a way to assure that different stakeholders were represented in the organization of the Summit program. The Program committee would basically crystallize these practices and adopt whatever improvements they decide to try.
Another idea is to formalize a team focusing on making the most of the Summit discussions: facilitation of the sessions, recording, remote participation, documentation of the outcomes, and the organization of the Unconference part. Here we also have many people who have helped in the past, and many practices that we tried with different degrees of success in previous editions. This team would own these planning and execution of these practices during the event.
And another idea is to have a team focusing on the Summit website, with a special focus on making it informative and attractive to those who don't know about the Summit and those who haven't decided whether they should attend. In previous editions we have focused on information for attendees, and this team will still make sure that participants do get the information they need (there is room for improvement here as well). However, using the Summit "minisite" for outreach and communication with non-attendees hasn't been a focus, and this is something that we think should change.