Free Culture Summit 2006

Since we didn't have this page up earlier, this will be dedicated to guiding future planners for bringing speakers and other large events. Add feedback if you'd like. Back to Projects.

=Websites and Pages=
 * Free Culture Summit 2006 Homepage
 * Press Release
 * National wiki page with schedule

=Post-mortem Summary=

Here's a list of the things that got done, along with what didn't, but needed to, get done

Pre-Event Planning
What should have gotten done:

Organization

 * Who is in charge of the event?
 * they cannot do everything!
 * Who is in charge of other things?
 * food
 * speakers
 * housing
 * space
 * funding
 * money - tracking money down
 * car (it will come in handy!)
 * advertising / propaganda

Speakers

 * List was finalized about one week beforehand
 * List should have been finalized 6 weeks beforehand
 * Keep topic focused! Don't do everything!

Schedule

 * Schedule was last updated about 5 days beforehand
 * list should have been laid out 6 weeks beforehand, posted 4 weeks beforehand, finalized 3 weeks beforehand
 * Keep it sane! Don't overwork anyone!
 * More active things
 * grant-writing workshop would have been good
 * workshops should be workshops, speakers should be speakers

Audience Size

 * Target audience size is hard to gauge
 * how many will show vs. how many sign up?
 * will people stay for an extended time?
 * 86 signed up
 * approx. 50 showed up on Friday night - about 5-15 were not signed up 48 hours ahead of time
 * approx 20 showed up Saturday morning for Alex Curtis's 10 AM presentation
 * peak of approx. 30-35 on Saturday

Food

 * Pizza Friday dinner, Cheng Hing Saturday lunch
 * Food was planned 5 days ahead, finalized 2 days ahead
 * Food should have been laid out 2 weeks beforehand
 * needed breakfast!
 * in fact, all meals were sort of expected... make sure we have some plan

Preregistration

 * follow up to see who is actually for real coming
 * ask for male/female - housing
 * ask how long they plan to stay
 * allow them to update their registration

Advertising

 * Someone needs to be in charge of making sure all the flyers are completely prepared 3 weeks in advance
 * Flyers should be printed at the Printing Office in Parrish 119 (?) 2 weeks in advance
 * Interact with departments
 * we got $100 just because the head of the CS dept. showed up
 * Interact with other organizations
 * SASS had a remixing party that we didn't know anything about until after the fact

among organizers

 * need to make sure that everyone knows all the speakers and what they will do
 * need to make sure everyone knows who's in charge of what

among attendees

 * schedule / program
 * maps
 * what is provided, what is not
 * housing
 * make sure everyone knows who they are staying with
 * have that info on paper that people can take with them
 * if hosts aren't being responsive, need to find alternative hosts - have a list and make sure both you and they know who they are staying with
 * have an emergency contact for those being housed
 * make sure s/he's not doing anything else, like DJing
 * Have a folder for everyone with these things - include nametag, other things that make it look official

among speakers

 * make sure they keep on schedule

Registration

 * have a printed or database list of everyone who preregistered
 * keep track of who is being housed and who is not
 * keep track of how long people will stay

Food

 * Need breakfast! At least coffee + donuts or bagels
 * Separate food for speakers
 * Speakers need water!

Speakers

 * All were prepared, generally got to and from campus on-time
 * excited to be here

Attendees

 * Engaged, know the issues

What else?
Add here!