Wikimedia Hackathon 2017/Tech events orga session

Notes of the tech event organizers session :)

Organising Tech-Events

Léa: WikidataCon
Linda: WikidataCon
Birgit: Tech on Tour
Dutch chapter: Hackathon 2014; good for connecting people
Rachel: WMS Events manager (Dev Summits; trainings, meetings up to 500 pax)
Anton: organising events for Vienna hackathon
DJ: hackathon and sport events
Martin: academic conferences, parties, hackathons,
Oreol: not tech, but international converences, organising hackathon in Barcelona 2018
?: Amical;
Nl? paricipant mostly
Vienna: Tech-conferences smaller volunteering events (like jungle girls); interested in Ladies that foss
Nick: WMF, documentation, assisting Rachel
Antonio and Elisabeth: new comers; not organising any events yet; more situated in academic world

Have a good team: assemble people that cover the skills that we need for the conference;

Assign important tasks to reliable people
have back-up, if someone gets sick
get people on board that know the field
treat it as a professional event: be efficient; have results at meetings
attitude with the ability to be flexible and able to relax in stressful situations
food: enough coffee and food not set at specific times, but have food to pick all along
give enough information, so that participants do not have to waste time finding their way
close distances: have venue and hotel close together so that time is not wasted is
welcome participants and recognize that participants are diverse and have information distributed in various ways
do not be angry if people do not listen
have checklists; have good documentation; write down what you decided on
enjoy your own event
stay calm

have volunteers that help only at the event
have someone at the registration desk so you can be somewhere you are needed more
plan and ask for help from volunteers in advance; have a list of tasks to sign up
have a thank you dinner
Communicate a lot (remind people that they signed up)
have a section for volunteering already the at registration form (documentation; photography; blog...)

Be aware of different ways of organising: office vs. volunteers.

Enforce that we organise together with the volunteers and not instead of them, but with and for them and with them.

Have volunteers do the fun tasks and the more boring tasks done by office.

involve e.g. students with projects that are interesting for them (here: wikicite)

give perspective: retain the new volunteers for the future, don't just burn them for the event
have smaller events for them, maybe in advance to start at university and then have the main event at the main event

But: you need staff to do this

no food (many other things can fail, but food has to be in place)!
wifi too late
have enough plugs and cables and sockets
miscommunication (so: manage expectations so that it does not blow up in your face)
deliver what you promise; when you outsource: you are still responsible
avoid long unproductive times
remote participation is difficult (maybe having a clear topic, opening session, and mentors would help include remote people)
publish photos and videos of the event immediately the week after otherwise it will be forgotten

having a program is easy in this community
but a good program is where you can stand out
newcomers need more structure than established participants, have introductory projects / workshops to get everyone up to speed and introduce the basics
have a project in the beginning that everyone is doing together to get people started and working together, then they can do their own thing
have phabricator with tasks
dev summit had per-conference hangouts, but response was not so big for reasons of different time zones and other

Look at base documentation at Wikimedia.org

Documentation:

live stream: