User:Ctyler/fudcon toronto 2009 retrospective

Personal notes and reflections (scribbles!) on being the local guy-on-the-ground for FUDcon Toronto 2009. This is a memory-jogger, mostly.

= FUDCon Schedule from the Local Perspective =


 * T-5 months - check on space, hotel, FUDpub possibilities
 * T-4 months - negotiate hotel rate, FUDpub arrangements, reserve space, open registration
 * T-1 month - find lunch caterer, give approximate vegetarian counts to caterer and FUDpub venue
 * T-2 weeks - order shirts
 * T-1 week - reconfirm arrangements, give final vegetarian counts
 * T-2 days - print badges and signs
 * T-1 day - put up signs

= Things to Do Differently Next Time =

Brain dump...
 * Use a non-wiki registration system so additional information can be collected
 * Ask who will be present on which days (useful for lunches, capacity planning)
 * Collect detailed contact information - cell phone number, IRC nick, e-mail address
 * Get tons of power bars
 * Get more networking capacity at hotel and venue
 * Arrange all lunches in advance
 * Larger hack room at hotel
 * Agree on a common Flickr tag (not 'fudcon')
 * Pitch barcamp talks in advance (video? wiki?) with voting (counts don't need to be accurate, they need to be representative, for planning)

= Things I Found Useful in Negotiating =


 * Play vendors off against each other, e.g., multiple hotels, multiple FUDpubs