Notes on Lessons from GUADEC 2006

[Thomas Wood <thos gnome org>]

Here is a write up of my notes from the "Lessons for event organisers" 
talk at Guadec. Please remember this is a write up of notes, and as such 
it's not a supposed to be a concise and comprehensive document! I have 
also added a few comments of my own, and I'm sure Bastien (who was 
sitting next to me at the talk), or Quim himself can add anything I've 
missed.

-Thomas


Organisation
============

One of the most important things for the Guadec team this year was 
transparency in everything that they were doing. This means that a lot 
of discussion and choices were sent to the mailing list.

It was important to get the balance between leadership and 
responsibilities correct. Centralisation was important too, and was 
helped by having a person employed part time for 6 months to organise. 
Having someone employed, it was also important they had a responsibility 
to their employer so that the manager could keep track of progress and 
make sure things were happening. Having someone with time available for 
the project meant it was much easier to liaise with third parties.

There needs to be a legal entity to represent the event, because it 
needs a local bank account.

Transport
---------
Transport was a problem this year, as the accommodation was some way 
from the event. Three buses were laid on in the morning, and three in 
the evening. However, the details weren't made clear enough to 
attendees, so there was some confusion over the transport.

Press and Marketing
-------------------
Find journalists who are not involved with Gnome! It is important to 
make the most of this event in the wider press, to bring attention and 
raise awareness.

Timeline
---------
The time line is very important, and should be decided on as soon as 
possible. The three main areas you need to decide are infrastructure, 
budget and scope.

Printed materials, such as programmes, banners, t-shirts, etc, was very 
stressful to organise. Ideally these materials should be finished and 
delivered at least 1 month before - they are no use after the event!

1 month before, you will know the budget, and you will know the scope 
(size, number of participants). This year there were 330 registered 
participants the month before Guadec.

The call for papers helps define schedule and scope - so do this early.

Sponsored Participants
----------------------
The foundation spend 40,000 euros on sponsored participants (including 
meals) this year. Sponsored participants can be found by either an open 
invitation, or specific invitation. The sponsorship criteria was quite 
lax this year, and could possibly be tightened. Need to be careful here.


Volunteers
==========

There were two main groups organising this years Guadec. An online 
group, and a local group. This was important because it's not possible 
to organise everything on a mailing list! However, you have to be 
careful to prevent things being discussed twice. A lot of the planning 
and preparation happened on the mailing list, where as the action and 
on-site team will need to be pulled from local volunteers.

There is a very strong relationship between the Gnome foundation, the 
board, and guadec. Guadec is one of the core reasons the foundation was 
created, and serves as the main community meeting place for the whole 
project. Former and current board members have valuable contributions.

Local team
----------
The local group is important because they will know the local 
infrastructure well, and they will also know the social aspects to the 
area. The local team is also very important closer to the event. They 
will form part of the on-site team that helps make sure everything goes 
smoothly during the event. At some point closer to the event, you will 
have to revisit the call for volunteers, as you will find there will be 
a new group of people, different from the planning group.

Online team
-----------
The online team, and wider community, was mostly involved in planning. 
The community was also involved in helping choose certain things, such 
as designs of materials. This helps the community feel involved, and 
means that there is a greater sense of transparency.

The Gnome community can play an important part in organising Guadec, 
especially in providing feedback. However, it is important to manage 
expectations about what you are going to get from the community.


Schedule
========

The conference schedule should be defined before registration, so that 
people know what is going on and who is speaking. There were 120 
submissions this year. The selection process needs to be improved and 
well defined, so that people whose papers are rejected know the reasons 
why it was not accepted.

We also need to know from submitters when they are available to present, 
so that talks don't have to be re-scheduled at a later point. However, 
it is also important to leave time in the schedule for unexpected last 
minute changes.

The selection criteria for papers must involve more than just looking at 
the subject matter and summary. It needs to consider who is speaking, 
and perhaps their experience in public speaking.