User:ViraMotorko (WMUA)/Conference patterns
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Learning patterns about making a conference.
Learning patterns library gathers different observations from Wikimedians and you will not find a complete guide on making big events (like international conferences here). This is not its purpose.
But is case you want to have a look at the list of existing patterns on conferences grouped not by alphabet (as in category) but by stages, we gathered them here (as of January 2018).
Before even starting:
- Choosing to meet up virtually or in person - general advice on how to decide whether you really need a live meeting
- Establish strong local support - on importance of local support if main organiser(s) are from other place
- Expert involvement - at times when there are no skilled Wikimedians you might need external experts (e.g. conference facilitators)
General conference advice:
- Five tips for preparing a great conference - general overview about how to prepare a conference; long-read
- A fine selection of mistakes for organizing an international conference (and how to make sure you commit them) - general overview in a form of 'anti-advice'; short one
- A short guide to bad projects - about projects in general, can be applied to event organising; anti-advice, long-read
Logistics:
Venue & accommodation
- Step by step guide for finding the right venue for a conference, with a sample venue inquiry
- A short guide to in-kind donations - how you can find in-kind donations to be used at the conference
- Conference venues - on venue choice; very short
- Accommodations at meetups - how to arrange accommodation of participants, based on Wikimania 2012 case; long-read
- Meals during conferences - what to have in mind about food
- Child room - child care at conference; sort one
- Organize childcare during a Wikimedia event - another piece on providing childcare
- Colored lanyards - consider having lanyards with different meaning for colors, like photo\no-photo etc.
- Facilitator's toolbox - a simple way to prepare materials for sessions; what to put in
- Audience response system - based on Wikimedia Diversity Conference 2017; you might want to think about this if you need immediate response from participants at sessions
- Connectivity issues - what to do when you have them
Travel
- International events? Allow three months for visa formalities
- Timing, Communication, Preparation: How to support your event participants in the best way to get a Schengen Visa - very thorough piece about getting a Schengen Visa
- International travel - general things to consider about participants from abroad
- Arranging travel
Participants management
- Setting-up registration form: What info you want to gather and why - can be expanded!
- Safe space policy
- The Buddy Project: Let’s make your conference more newbie friendly - a way to make acquaintances between newcomers and experienced participants
- Facilitating social interaction at conferences - different forms of social interaction support (incl. parties, games, conversation starters and many more)
- Icebreaker - short piece about icebreakers alone
- Afterparty - conference party; rather short - you can improve it!
- Birds of a feather - themed meetup for better get-to-know
- Wall of compliments - a way to raise mood of the participants
Other useful tips:
- Project roles - assigning roles to team members
- Use social media for promotion
- Creating portals - can be used while creating main page of the conference
- Appreciation of volunteer work III: let others know - you can offer volunteers tickets/travel to conference (if it fits)
- New faces for Wikimania: travel scholarships as prizes for Wiki contests
Program related:
- Annual Wikimedia CEE meeting: drafting the program - based on WMCEE15 bottom-up approach; long-read
- How to get diverse presenters at your conference (from a gender, Global South... perspective) - short - you can expand it!
- How to inspire your participants to come prepared and stay engaged - not there - you can write it!
- Briefing calls with speakers: A simple way to improve conference sessions - based on WMCON17; consider talking to your speakers before the conference to unveil expectations on both sides
- Planning effective conference sessions
- Session formats: Forget about presentations, let people work! - not there - you can write it!
- Conference workshop to help kickstart a project on a smaller language Wikipedia
- Lightning talks - a concept of very short talks on various topics that cannot fill a whole session
- Cooperative note-taking at meetings and workshops - one of the ways to get your conference well documented
- All the kinds of documentation: photo-, audio-, text- and when you need each of them - not there - you can write it!
- Event app for conferences - you might want to have simple base of participants, for their own sake
- Producing video oral histories about Wikimedia participants - counts if you consider it a part of organisers work; #wmconfaces were somewhat similar to this
Session advice:
- Don't fiddle with the AV - a quick remark for the speaker
- Facilitating a productive discussion - a how-to for facilitator
- Making panel discussions (or roundtables) more productive - unfinished
Tips for participants:
- How User Groups can select Wikimedia Conference Delegates - short; can be improved! (by adding some criteria, points to have in mind etc.)
- Getting enough sleep at multi-day events - advice for participants
- Posters that work - on creating posters
- Preparation for Wikimania - participant’s checklist; relates to other conferences as well
- Spread cuteness - sort of icebreaker and a mean of project promotion
- Travelling Wikimedians report to the stay-at-homes - how-to for participants; unfinished
- What to do when airplane lets you down
After-conference:
- Timing and tenaciousness - How to ensure high participation rates at post-conference surveys
- What does everyone else do: Send a spy to other conferences ;) - not there - you can write it!