FUDCon design

This is a page where we can work through the "FUDCon 2.0" track of the Events FAD 2010.

Current resources

• FUDCon page and things it links to
• FUDCon#FUDCon_calendar
• FUDCon/Organization - our current howto plan a FUDCon doc

Constraints

1. 1 FUDCon per quarter
2. $20k of budget from Red Hat per quarter, for FUDcons and FADs
3. Hard minimum of at least 4 months advance planning for a FUDCon - 6 months recommended
4. Time investment for planners: 3 months ahead at 10-15 hours per week, 1 month ahead at 25 hours per week.

Open questions

1. Not Europe for EMEA FUDcon?
2. India on its own (split out from APAC)
3. Rest of APAC

Issues

1. Keep budget spread out.
   1. Do all FUDCons cost the same?
   2. Fill in the gaps with FADs
2. Climate
3. Vacation time (contributors who have to take it)
4. Proximity to other major events
5. Fix spacing over time

Data from the FUDCon survey

See Marketing_research#FUDCon_Toronto_2009_Survey for data.

Discussion notes below:

Paul:

• May very well need four days for next FUDCon. Need two days for technical sessions alone, fewer rooms at once.
• Welcome packet *at hotel*
• Conference software - ConMan

Mel:

• Accessibility for remote attendees - workable FUDCon Live directions
• Find people who know what it means to make the event "family friendly"

Figuring out action items

Process

1. Look at the problems brainstorm at the start of the day, and...
2. For each action item/deliverable, see what problems it potentially solves.
3. If it definitely solves a problem, it's a "must do."
4. If it might solve a problem, consider it as an experiment, and mark any regional concerns.

Potential things to work on Saturday

1. General calendar for FUDcons
2. 2010 instance of said calendar
3. Bid process
4. "things we should keep" list
5. Bug list
6. "howto run a fudcon" doc
7. make FUDCon 4 days
8. Welcome packet at hotel
9. Conference software (conman)
10. Improved FUDCon Live
11. Make event "family friendly"
12. Have a clear process for attendee sponsorship

The ideal process for Toronto

Roll back the clock: it's summer 2009 and we've just decided that Toronto's going to be the place for the NA FUDCon at the start of December. What, ideally, goes down? (We're constrained to tools and people we had at the time.)

Time	Local team (Chris Tyler)	Planning team (Paul Frields)	External resources (Mel Chua)
Bid process end 12 mo	Done with bid process. Execute on FUDPUb, hotel, location paperwork and sign those deals. Reserve specific space (rooms, etc.) at the location. Investigate possibility of group airline discount.	Set up web presence (wiki) for event. Schedule regular meetings. Get all planners on fudcon-planning and start using that list. Announce location to Fedora channels. Ensure roles and responsibilities are clearly assigned for planning team. Get Marketing started on the event.	Have a rough budget ("CommArch sets aside $X for this FUDCon") and a contact for that budget (Max). Marketing team begins event marketing, very lightweight.
5 mo	Find lunch caterer. Arrange transit-in-city if applicable (if special "conference train passes" are offered, etc.) Place food orders for lunch at FUDCon and for FUDPub. Post local advertising, do local word of mouth. Make list of local attractions and food for hotel handout later on. Arrange for housing and feed of ponies.	Open registration. Begin sponsorship process; set cutoff date for sponsorship that is more than 1 month in advance of the event. Check in with Marketing about event marketing plan. Place requests with Design team for shirt, sign, and badge designs. Open hotel pairing signup (on the wiki). Open hackfests, usertrack, and sessions "CFP" discussion. Begin user track planning. Find reliable pony breeder, select pony.	Pay sponsorships as they come up. Pay FUDPub deposit, and other deposits as needed. Design team makes shirt, sign, and badge designs. Marketing does a push to local people/events. Ensure budget for pony is sufficient to sustain pony for next fiscal year.
1 mo	Order shirts and swag after the people-who-get-swag cutoff number is reached (so you know sizes). Contact Design team to turn map and list of restaurants and local attractions and event details into a nicely laid-out hotel handout.	First major review of registration list (the swag-limit should have been hit by this point). * Look at the balance of attendees and make sure there aren't any gaping holes in terms of the types of people we want to attend. Sponsorship should have been closed at least a week or two prior to the one-month mark. Get all attendees on a fudcon-attendees mailing list and welcome them there. Kickoff FUDCon live planning (separate team). Revise docs so that walk-in registration is now marked as a clearer option and it's obvious that the swag cutoff has been reached. Close user track planning (even if it's Barcamp-style, have slot times and enough detail to start advertising the user track to users). Locally publicize the user track; contact Marketing team for help. Confirm hotel pairings are worked-out for sponsored attendees, and reminderping non-sponsored hotel attendees to check their own.	First detailed budget summary due to the planning mailing list at this point (ideally they will have started earlier, on a weekly basis). Pay for food (lunch). Design team generates nametag pdfs for registrants so far.
2 wk	Confirm transit-within-city availability and any special arrangements necessary. Confirm food for FUDpub and FUDCon lunch, particularly that vegetarian/vegan options are sufficient.	Confirm hackfest sessions that are set so far. Confirm transit-to-FUDCon is set for all sponsored attendees. Get a barcamp leader (the person who stands up and explains Barcamp, drives the schedule creation on-site, etc.) Get people to start discussion and refinement on sessions proposed to date. Make materials and handouts needed for the user track. Handle last minute hotel arrangements as needed. Begin sending regular event updates to the attendees list if you haven't already. Ping sponsors and pre-emptively thank them.	Continue budget summaries. Confirm the arrival of food, swag, location, etc.
1 wk	Answer questions about location on attendees list as needed. Buffer sleep.	Last minute hotel arrangements continued. Updates to attendees mailing list continued. Buffer any last-minute conversation on the attendees list as needed.	Make sure we have swag and badge holders arriving at the event. Design generates remaining nametags so far so we have files to print for nametags for all attendees registered at this point; they should also have the hotel handout done by this point.
2 days	Print nametags, signs, and the hotel handout. Give hotel handout to hotel. Sleep a lot, and be contactable only by the (remote) remainder of the event team whenever possible to avoid becoming overwhelmed.	Continue to buffer last-minute requests on the attendees list and try to make sure local planners don't get overloaded. Start being (literally) on-call - begin to have someone contactable by phone and someone contactable by IRC at all times, in shifts.	Make sure stuff is delivered and paid-for.
1 day	Post signs, setup wifi and power. Sleep.	Arrive at the location city (if remote). Start FUDCon live; migrate on-callness to FUDCon live. Test hotel handout (if coming from out of town).	Make sure stuff is delivered and paid-for.
Morning-of	Show non-local planners to location early. Try to rest.	Make barcamp grid. Ensure FUDCon live is still up and running and ready for the load. Be on-call for the day. Open feedback surveys as needed.	Make sure stuff is delivered and paid for.
Right afterwards	Local thank-yous. Make sure location is cleaned up. Post-mortem meeting.	Wrap-up documentation (FUDCon Live). Publicize FUDCon live doc results. Thank everyone. Open/publicize feedback surveys as needed. Revise planning docs for the next round.	File receipts and close the books.

The ideal process for the future

Take #The ideal process for Toronto and start patching it for TEH FOOCHUR.

Time	Local team (Chris Tyler)	Planning team (Paul Frields)	External resources (Mel Chua)
Bid process begins 12 mo	Research
Submits bid	Submit bid	Receives bids
Submission process ends 10.5 mo		Bids reviewed
Decision 10 mo		execute on fudpub, hotel, location paperwork and sign deals. Reserve specific space (rooms, etc.) at the location.
FUDcon Planning FAD 10-9 mo	Investigate possibility of group airline discount.	Set up web presence (wiki) for event. Schedule regular meetings. Get all planners on fudcon-planning and start using that list. Announce location to Fedora channels. Ensure roles and responsibilities are clearly assigned for planning team. Get Marketing started on the event.	Have a rough budget ("CommArch sets aside $X for this FUDCon") and a contact for that budget (Max). Marketing team begins event marketing, very lightweight.
5 mo	Find lunch caterer. Arrange transit-in-city if applicable (if special "conference train passes" are offered, etc.) Place food orders for lunch at FUDCon and for FUDPub. Post local advertising, do local word of mouth. Make list of local attractions and food for hotel handout later on. Arrange for housing and feed of ponies.	Open registration. Begin sponsorship process; set cutoff date for sponsorship that is more than 1 month in advance of the event. Check in with Marketing about event marketing plan. Place requests with Design team for shirt, sign, and badge designs. Open hotel pairing signup (on the wiki). Open hackfests, usertrack, and sessions "CFP" discussion. Begin user track planning. Find reliable pony breeder, select pony.	Pay sponsorships as they come up. Pay FUDPub deposit, and other deposits as needed. Design team makes shirt, sign, and badge designs. Marketing does a push to local people/events. Ensure budget for pony is sufficient to sustain pony for next fiscal year.
1 mo	Order shirts and swag after the people-who-get-swag cutoff number is reached (so you know sizes). Contact Design team to turn map and list of restaurants and local attractions and event details into a nicely laid-out hotel handout.	First major review of registration list (the swag-limit should have been hit by this point). * Look at the balance of attendees and make sure there aren't any gaping holes in terms of the types of people we want to attend. Sponsorship should have been closed at least a week or two prior to the one-month mark. Get all attendees on a fudcon-attendees mailing list and welcome them there. Kickoff FUDCon live planning (separate team). Revise docs so that walk-in registration is now marked as a clearer option and it's obvious that the swag cutoff has been reached. Close user track planning (even if it's Barcamp-style, have slot times and enough detail to start advertising the user track to users). Locally publicize the user track; contact Marketing team for help. Confirm hotel pairings are worked-out for sponsored attendees, and reminderping non-sponsored hotel attendees to check their own.	First detailed budget summary due to the planning mailing list at this point (ideally they will have started earlier, on a weekly basis). Pay for food (lunch). Design team generates nametag pdfs for registrants so far.
2 wk	Confirm transit-within-city availability and any special arrangements necessary. Confirm food for FUDpub and FUDCon lunch, particularly that vegetarian/vegan options are sufficient.	Confirm hackfest sessions that are set so far. Confirm transit-to-FUDCon is set for all sponsored attendees. Get a barcamp leader (the person who stands up and explains Barcamp, drives the schedule creation on-site, etc.) Get people to start discussion and refinement on sessions proposed to date. Make materials and handouts needed for the user track. Handle last minute hotel arrangements as needed. Begin sending regular event updates to the attendees list if you haven't already. Ping sponsors and pre-emptively thank them.	Continue budget summaries. Confirm the arrival of food, swag, location, etc.
1 wk	Answer questions about location on attendees list as needed. Buffer sleep.	Last minute hotel arrangements continued. Updates to attendees mailing list continued. Buffer any last-minute conversation on the attendees list as needed.	Make sure we have swag and badge holders arriving at the event. Design generates remaining nametags so far so we have files to print for nametags for all attendees registered at this point; they should also have the hotel handout done by this point.
2 days	Print nametags, signs, and the hotel handout. Give hotel handout to hotel. Sleep a lot, and be contactable only by the (remote) remainder of the event team whenever possible to avoid becoming overwhelmed.	Continue to buffer last-minute requests on the attendees list and try to make sure local planners don't get overloaded. Start being (literally) on-call - begin to have someone contactable by phone and someone contactable by IRC at all times, in shifts.	Make sure stuff is delivered and paid-for.
1 day	Post signs, setup wifi and power. Sleep.	Arrive at the location city (if remote). Start FUDCon live; migrate on-callness to FUDCon live. Test hotel handout (if coming from out of town).	Make sure stuff is delivered and paid-for.
Morning-of	Show non-local planners to location early. Try to rest.	Make barcamp grid. Ensure FUDCon live is still up and running and ready for the load. Be on-call for the day. Open feedback surveys as needed.	Make sure stuff is delivered and paid for.
Right afterwards	Local thank-yous. Make sure location is cleaned up. Post-mortem meeting.	Wrap-up documentation (FUDCon Live). Publicize FUDCon live doc results. Thank everyone. Open/publicize feedback surveys as needed. Revise planning docs for the next round.	File receipts and close the books.