Event Survival Kit (wip)
based on: http://www.guckes.net/linuxevents/ by Sven guckes.
some thoughts about events on open and free stuff in general…
That page is “work in progress” so do’nt expect to much.
=== less is more! ===
KIS – Keep It Simple
(or KISS – Keep it stupid simple)
do not try to do or offer everything on an event.
better cut down on the amount of talks and workshops
and select just the good ones.
it is better when you as a visitors say “there could have been more
of this!” than hearing them complain about “loss of time”.
For Organizing:
=== “You were born an original – don’t do a copy.”
do not try to copy other events. be original!
an inclination towards a theme is nice.
come up with you own motto.
=== deadlines
TITLE.LONG Free Bits Hacker Convention 2006
TITLE.SHORT Free Bits 2006
TAG FB06
MOTTO Bits must be free!
PLACE Foo Street 23, 0815 Global Village
DATE Tue May 23rd – Sat May 27th 2006
TIME 12pm — 22pm – every day
URL http://2006.foobits.org/
DEADLINES:
ABSTRACTS 2006-04-06 Thu
PAPERS 2006-05-01 Mon
always add the weekdays to dates.
(do not make us look them up, dammit!)
register a domain name for the event.
use a *short* domain name.
avoid long URLs (especially those
cryptic ones noone can pronounce)
about contacts registration venue
keynotes papers people talks workshops
schedule
=== catering
repeat after me: food is good!
food+drinks on the site are always good.
delegating the whole thing to someone
can take a lot of pressure out of the
organization – and someone can make a buck.
outsourcing the catering to a company is
definitely an option. and it helps when
someone
ask everyone for a share in advance.
and then tell everyone to
make a dash to the buffett.
a nearby supermarket can help a LOT.
=== LinuxWochen Wien 2006
Tontechnik vom Dachsaal.
die geraete (vor allem der beamer)
geben eine menge waerme ab.
es ist sehr warm und trocken.
man sollte sich was zu trinken mitbringen!
temperatur im geraeteraum ist bestimmt ueber 25C.
der luefter laeuft durch und stoert durch sein geraeusch.
kein tochtechniker vorhanden.
keiner weiss wie die hardware funktioniert.
nichts wird aufgeschrieben und irgendwo hinterlegt.
niemand ist zustaendig. alle hoffen, dass sich
das problem im naechsten jahr von selber loest.
aber keiner hat einen vorschlag und niemand will sich
einbringen, weil das alles anscheinend uncool ist.
webseite:
keine updates waehrend des events.
keine bilder. kein IRC kanal. 
=== ideas for projects
project “SIM data backup”:
insert your cellphone SIM into a card reader.
it will read your data, format it in text/plain and XML,
create an archive, encrypt it for your privat key -
and send it to your email address.
project “online documentation”.
during the process of the event
you can give these folks your data
and they will upload it to the site,
check it for consistency and typos,
include it the event’s website
and will add links to it.
reporters:
reporter nehmen an den vortraegen und
workshops teil, um darueber zu berichten.
sie machen sich notizen zB ueber die sprache,
dokumentation, slides, guete des netzes.
PR:
PR Leute kommunizieren mit anderen teilnehmern
synchron wie aynchron (IM, IR; email).
und sie befragen teilnehmer in den pausen.
die ergebnisse werden ueber die webseite
und ueber das wiki festgehalten.
springer:
springer: uebernehmen
photographen:
photographen nehmen photos und stellen sie den reportern zur verfuegung.
(photographen koennen natuerlich auch ihre eigenen reporter sein. 
beliebte themen:
vortragende am anfang des vortrages mitsamt der titelfolie ihre vortrags.
=== NEW
es fehlt meistens an einer darstellung nach aussen.
was nuetzen hinweise per radio und fernsehen,
wenn die webseiten keinerlei aenderungen erfaehrt um das
fortschreiten der veranstalung nicht beobachten kann?
IRC kanal
webcam
webseite updates
event wiki: jeder kann was reinschreiben – kein login noetig.
jeder kann bilder vom event hochladen, seine meinung (text)
schreiben, links geben.
== doku/slides/unterlagen:
folien sind vor dem event noch nicht online.
darum fehlt die moeglichkeit anhand der
folien schon im voraus zu entscheiden
ob man sich einen vortrag anhoeren moechte.
viele fragen am ende eines vortrags
wo die folien verfuegbar sein werden.
“auf meiner webseite”. irgendwo.
sowas muss man zumindest ankuedigen.
am besten ist es wenn im footer jeder seite
die webadresse der folien immer zu sehen sind.
natuerlich muessen die unterlagen auch ueber
die webseiten des events einzusehen sein.
eine eigene seite dafuer freut alle surfer.
=== Menschen in Funktion – Aufgaben, Positionen
webseite, CMS:
…
infodesk:
PCs wegraeumen (sicherheit)
markus raab
.. rottman
peter kuhm
…
pablo hoertner
michi ebner
moderation:
show (hacktivity):
beisitzer:
vortargenden betreuen
technik kennen und bedienen koennen
mithoerer zaehlen
evtl photos machen
restzeit anzeigen (15min, 10min, 5min)
vortrag rechtzeitig abbrechen fuer eine geeignete uebergabe
roland schwarz
einrichten der session PCs als ersatz
fuer laptops und notebooks.
session chair
Ton:
Max Mustermann
Netzwerk (aka geek narcoticum)
christina mama
kein ausfall! 
dank an internetclub burgenland, haustechnik
wireless access point
140 MAC adressen
versorgung:
hans knoell
wasser.
viele dinge:
cliffor wolf
radio + tonaufnahme:
manfred krejcik
herbert
gerhard kettler
poster+layout:
markus raab, johanna+bianca
inspiriert von den chemnitzer linux-tage
debienna.at -> Museumsquartier, quintessenz 20h vortrag
=== radios
radiotux.org
open-radio.org
o94.at
en-gen netwatcher nerds-on-air
=== Bereiche
eine liste von aufgabenbereichen:
Location:
wo soll der event stattfinden? was kostet das mieten?
wieviel kostet die versicherung? wer macht danach sauber?
Sponsoring
Catering
Netzwerk
Staende – Community, Commercial
Infostand
Programm
Session Chair
Tontechnik
PR/Werbung:
flyer, poster, PDFs
short description + long description
werbung auf mailinglisten, webseiten,
und in den medien (radio, tv, zeitung).
=== redundancy
one person for one might be enough. but
it sure is nice to have a helping hand.
try to get in more people.
those who have nothing to do
might as well enjoy the show.
however, if there should be a problem
then there is someone who can watch
your stuff while you are away
(buying food, eating, /dev/null)
or who can help answering questions
about your project. whatever.
=== backstage
a room for all organizers and helpers to retreat,
take some time off, eat+drink, or even take a nap.
=== after the event
“nach dem spiel ist vor dem spiel”.
am besten man sammelt feedback direkt ein -
waehrend die veranstaltung noch laeuft.
besucher und vortragende ansprechen.
feedback seite auf der website einrichten.
formulare auslegen.
newsletter mit infos fuer feedback rausgeben.
per email auf der mailingliste anfragen.
was war gut? was war schlecht?
was kann verbessert werden? und wie?
=== Programm
vortraegen in deutsch sollte keine englischen titel tragen.
und die folien sollte ebenfalls nicht in englisch sein.
das trägt höchstens zur verwirrung bei.
=== Publikum
(cc) Marko Jung
angewandte kompression
leute zusammenrutschen lassen
“wir machen jetzt angewadnte kompression”
leute nach innen rutschen lassen, damit
die nachfolgenden einen sitzplatz finden
=== TODO
logo – in allen farbtiefen (bits: 2, 4, 8, 16)
und in einigen groessen sowie formaten (gif, jpg, png).
motto
language
usually, the language is one of
the main languages of the country.
however, if the event is multinational
then what is the main language spoken?
packliste: zB http://www.valug.at/index.php/Packliste
=== website main pages:
Home homepage with index + current news
=== pre-event
About short description, goals, history, mission statement
CFP call_for_papers, call for participation, invitation
FAQ frequently asked questions – and answers
Register participate as a delegate, exhibitor, speaker, sponsor, volunteer
Timeplan deadlines etc
Tickets costs of participation, reduction fees
=== places
EatDrink coke+pizza – where to eat+drink / supermarkets
Maps maps of the town, how to get from A to B
Sleep accomodation – where to sleep()
Travel how to get to the venue; sightseeing + tourism
example: http://breakpoint.untergrund.net/travel.php
Venue place of BOFs, projects, talks, and workshops
=== event current
Keysigning key signing gpg/pgp
Parties special parties during the event
Program overview to all BOFs+projects+talks+workshops in one timetable
=== people
People links to attendees
Speakers overview to speakers and their talks/workshops (bio, links, time, title, docs)
Sponsors sponsors of the event – logos+links+praise
Team who is who? names+pictures+contacts+tasks
=== data (content from organizers)
Docs documents like LaTeX, OpenOffice, PDF, SGML, and text/plain
Expo booths with demos, products, services
Guides special documents for delegates, speakers, volunteers
Kids activities for small and big kids
Legal cookies, passwords, picture licenses, private data, ssl
Links external pages, del.icio.us, upcoming.org etc
LostFound lost+found hardware
Network network connections: LAN+WLAN, wireless, mesh
News news overview (includes all old news) with RSS feeds
Newsletter newsletter (un)subscription
Phone important phone numbers
Press feedback from the (printed) press
Pics links to pictures (flickr etc)
Products books, CDs+DVDs, merchandizing (cups, lanyards, tshirts)
Promotion banners, buttons, flyers, images, postcards, posters
=== feedback – media + syndication (content from others; external data)
Archive previous events, old data
Audio podcasts and all that
Blog weblogs reporting the event – incl event blog
Chat which channel to use for chatting
Contact web form to contact the team
Feedback feedback form + guest book
Forums listen to the community
Groups related newsgroups
Guestbook enter your text for all to see
Maillist mailing lists
Planet aggregated blogs on this event
Streams syndications of streams
Wiki more webpages for editing
Tasks:
Backup
Community
Content
Creatives
Financials
Hospitality
Project Lead
Publicity
Speaker Management
Sponsors Management
Venue Network
Volunteer Management
Web Development
Web Resources
=== breaks/pauses:
many events try to cram as many talks into a day as possible:
talk talk talk
talk talk talk
talk talk talk
talk talk talk
talk talk talk
talk talk talk
therefore some people will have to miss some
talks or wokshops simply because they *need* a break.
breaks is necessary!
assing some might look like this:
talk talk talk
talk talk talk
— — —
talk talk talk
talk talk talk
— — —
talk talk talk
talk talk talk
within breaks you can have some Q+A and
the next speaker can prepare for his talk.
of course you could have a break after each talk:
talk talk talk
— — —
talk talk talk
— — —
talk talk talk
— — —
the following structure (NAME)
allows to have Q+A after
the talk in the same room:
talk — talk —
— talk — talk
talk — talk —
— talk — talk
talk — talk —
— talk — talk
those who do not wish to follow the Q+A
can switch to the talk in another room.
KSP – extra event just before final event.
MAIN
talk short talk short workshop1
Q+A talk Q+A talk workshop1
talk Q+A talk Q+A workshop1
short talk short talk workshop2
talk Q+A talk Q+A workshop2
Q+A talk Q+A talk workshop2
KSP
finish
=== info beats style
wheneve some information exists it must be added to
the website and sent out via a blog or newsletter.
a good frequency for newletters vie email is two weeks.
blogs can run all the time. they will
be read when the subscriber wants to.
=== CMS
websites can be changed all the time and
also should be changed to reflect the
changes happening all the time.
the website CMS must be run by several
people who know what they are doing.
many things do not get done because
not everyone knows the CMS by heart.
there must not be a pause more than a day
just because the webmaster is on holiday.
updates must not be postponed.
the choice for a CMS does not only depend
on the number of features, but mostly on
the people behind it. if the orga team
does not know whow to handle the CMS then
chances are that nothing will ever be done
on the website at all. and this is fatal.
=== booth? talk!
many visitors do not go forward and ask people
at a booth what their stuff is all about.
that’s why a *talk* at the event is vital!
even if it is only a short talk.
just present your goals and give
soms basic info. five minutes of this
is usually more than the average
visitor usually spands at a booth.
just let them know: “this is what we do -
these are our goals – here is some info -
please visit us at the booth. thankyou!”
=== Language
talks vs presentations
tutorials vs workshops
expert meetings vs BOFs
=== MORE
allgemein: catering, helfer, räume, technik, uebernachtung; strom, netzwerk
finanzen und recht: finanzplan, (sponsoren-)gelder,
quittungen, buchhaltung, versicherungen
presse- und oeffentlichkeitsarbeit: sponsorensuche
programm: inhalt, cfp, redner, vortraege, projekte, ausstellung
organisation info: mailingliste, wiki
preparing an event:
keep an IRC channel OPEN at all times!
register your IRC channel if possible
address: a decription of the building is helpful when
you get there. however, a street address is necessary,
so you can feed this into your GPS or to google maps.
Keysigning:
should be separate from all other talks+workshops.
but this is a good way to start the social event.
IRC:
the topic of the irc channel should at least contain
the address of the main web site.
as users of irc are online they could also take an
interest to adding information to the wiki -
so tell them about it!
furthermore, an answer to some FAQs can be useful
to reduce the amount of noise on the channel.
2007-09-01 11:22 -!- Topic for #froscon:
FrOSCon 2007 is over! Thanks for being there!
Please rate the talks (programm.froscon.de) and add your
feedback to the wiki (http://wiki.froscon.de/wiki/Links).
no eta for videos yet!
wiki:
this complements the webpages.
everyone can help.
disallow editing for anyone, but allow
editing for everyone who creates himself
an account and logs in before editing.
this will not avoid spam, but it
certainly makes it a little harder.
pages for :
current news
offers+requests for accomodation+travel
feedback – blog+pics + articles
nachtreffen:
the event is over – how will we improve?
get in feedback from the orga team
and the helpers as soon as possible.
allow a day of rest after the event.
takes notes about it. then meet the
other to talk about it. put the notes
online for everyone in the team to read.
this will be very helpful once you start
meeting again for the next event.
hall of fame:
one more way to create more interest
in an event is a “Hall of Fame” -
a page with backlinks. example:
http://www.t-dose.org/t-dose/node/23
slides:
powerpoint is uncool, however,
“the rest of the world” wants it.
so – why not ask everyone to use
free tools to create a powerpoint
version of their slides which
actually work with powerpoint?
could be a fun thing.. *evilgrin*
recording audio/video:
will there be an audio or a video recording?
most people seem to forget to inform people
about this on the website. however, later
you will need the permission of the speakers -
so you should prepare some written statements
which only need the signature from them.
and someone needs to edit the recordings.
this usually takes a LOT of time to produce
high quality results. it is a task which
is usually underestimated. and hardly any
event boasts good recordings which are
available on the website directly from
the page about the talk itself.
announcements:
LinuxTag announces its next event by creating posters
and printing them in time for the end of the event,
so people can take them home and put them up.
this is a constant reminder for everyone to put
this event into the calender and prepare for it.
the posters just says “LinuxTag $NEXTYEAR”
but without any fixed data or place.
so this can still be changed.
YAPC announces the next event before the end
of the current event. so this will be set and
everyone will know about it before he leaves.
.
different places usually means that some
other crew will have to organize it.
gets in different people
and therefore people will compare the events.
this creates competition.
meetings:
for every event there are dates like
the issuing of the call for papers,
the deadline for that call,
taking a look at the submitted papers,
building a program, a time to notify
the speakers about acception or not,
notifying the press, inviting the guests,
attending press conferences, and
then the event itself, of course.
however, many orga teams forget that there is
also some work to be done *after* the event.
they should send out a thankyou to their helpers,
the speakers and the sponsors,
feed the blog and the wiki with links to
other blogs, uploaded pictures,
the audio and video recordings,
and hold a meeting to evaluate
the feedback as soon as possible.
hardware labelling:
label your hardware!
this makes it easier for
everyone to return it to you.
put your name, your phone number,
and maybe your email address, too.
if you are lucky then the person who
finds your item will call you on your
cellphone before you have left the event.
countdown:
a countdown on the website shows everyone
how much time is still left before the event.
(example: www.froscon.org)
it would probably be good to show
how much days are left to other dates,
such as the cfp deadline.
benefits for speakers:
food, social event, tshirt, travel reimbursement,
accomodation.
shutdown:
an event also need a “shutdown script”.
some people should simply coordinate helpers
and tell them where to move tables+chair.
one person should gather all lost+found items.
it should also be clear who will store
hardware like cables and power connectors.
nets:
usually you need at least *two* nets:
one for everyone, with an easy access to the internet
(open wifi, no MACs, no registration for user+pass),
and another one for the orga team and speakers,
so the script kiddies and pr0n downloaders dont get in the way.
speakers and talks:
one page per speaker and
one per talk is a good idea.
www.event.tld/speaker/NN
www.event.tld/talk/NN
example:
http://linux-info-tag.de/93/detail/135
license of data:
articles (blogs) contain not only words, but also pictures.
an author should ask himself whether he can actually
make use of banners and pictures of an event.
they should be accompanied by a text stating
the license to be used.
that’s why an extra page for this is necessary.
startup event:
creating an event for the first time
usually is complicated because almost
noone likes to sponsor new events.
almost all companies ask for a reference
to a previous time. they want to know
how many people are expected to attend,
and where their logo will be seen.
wiki vs web:
every event should have a website -
if possible with its own domain.
webpages are administered by the webmaster.
every webpage should have a reference to
the webmaster so you can contact him easily.
but however easy you make it to contact the
webmaster – you have to send your feedback via
email and then wait for something to happen.
but this can feel like dropping
information into a black hole because
it is unclear who this person actually is.
the person has to remember to log in as
the webmaster to read the mail there.
of course it is better to have those mails forwarded
automatically to the webmaster’s usual mailbox.
even better – have it distributed to more than
one person or even a mailing list with an archive.
but still – someone has to take the job of responding
to those emails, and usually this requires access
to the webpages and the will to do fast updates.
all this fails when the webmasters have no time
to do updates. and free time usually stops
two weeks before the event.
therefore a wiki is good as an added service.
people from the events’ community can then
help update the current information themselves.
and they can speak to each other via chat.
organizers are often afraid to let go
of the centralised way of information.
they fear that everyone will take the time
to change the info in the wiki at random.
and then the info between web
and wiki will get out of sync.
this can happen, of course.
however, making changes will also cost time
for someone who wants to break the system.
those poison changes will eventually die.
at that point the community will step in
and remedy that situation.
another fear is that you essentially double
the information from the website.
again, this can happen.
then again, you could have your website
completely as a wiki – with some pages
which can only be changed by admins -
and the rest is organized with
the help from the community.
centralization might ensure that noone
but yourself will be able to do changes -
however, then you are the only one to see
reactions to your website and you are the
only one who is able to actually react, too.
and you *must* react to responses – otherwise
people will lose interest in the process
of giving feedback to you at all.
and this might only lead to the roles of
“organizers” and “visitors” for an event.
if you need help then you must first accept
that you cannot do everything yourself,
then you must ask for help publically -
and you must accept that a helper needs the
power to actually make changes at some point.
this means to give away some of your power.
but if you cannot let go of the power then
you basically do not accept help at all.
in that case you are the inly organizer -
and you *have* to do everything yourself.
do not expect anyone to offer you any help.
communities are based on
shared knowledge and shared work.
taking away participation from
the event (or any kind of project)
usually results in people looking
for another project in which they
can participate.
for Users:
Event planing
* pre-Event
Many of the Infos written on top will also be working here.
if you have friends look around and prepare to pack redundancys. me for example uses an IBM Notebook. I know very much people who use the same, so If I loose or missed my powersupply I can borrow it from a friend or a collegue.
* Tipps
** Fotos vom Inhalt des Gepäcks machen (zum späteren Identifizieren falls was abhanden gekommen ist) – http://lifehacker.com/5132170/use-your-camera-phone-to-document-suitcase-contents
* get a ride
* get a sleepingplace
* at the event
Allways think aof your own safty. Do not use open WLANs without SSL and/or other encryption, don’t carry around data you would miss in case of disk destruction.
A good start: make a new gmail account and reroute your mails over this account at the time you are at the event. Also use Truecrypt and GnuPG as often as you can (or have to).
* after the event
==== Links ===
* GettingThingsDone Notepad . print that out (customize it) and take it with you to the event, workshop or meeting. it WILL help.