I am being part of some of the Free Software Events happening in Chennai.
Sometimes the events are small gatherings and some times they are really huge.
Many times, we have missed some critical stuff and we were running behind them in the last minute.
Hence, this post to not down all stuff we need for any event.
1. Event Team
Create a event team with some volunteers. They are the pillars who are going to share the following tasks.
Make the team’s contacts like phone number, email are shared with all and announced publicly.
2. Venue
Fix the venue for the event.
Check with Colleges, Private Office, Govt Offices and Auditoriums.
Some times we get the hall for free. Sometimes, we may need to pay.
3. Date
Fix the date of the event.
Make sure that there are no big political, social, national, devotional or any other “al” event matches on the same day.
This is to make sure that the traffic is free for people to attend the event.
4. Web Page
Set a website or a blog for the event.
Post all the event planning and announcements regularly.
5. Posters
Create some digital posters on the event and share them across.
If possible print handouts/posters and share them too.
6. Marketing
We need people to attend the event.
Make sure your marketing team announce the event in the following channels.
- Mailing lists
- Social Media groups/events/pages
- Event websites
- Newspapers [ event of the day ]
- If possible, Advertisements on TV and FM
7. Agenda
Plan the agenda. It may be a training, talks, cd/book release, etc.
Fix the time for event start/end/sessions start end/lunch/break times
8. Call for participants – Online regisration
Set up an online space to register, if it requires.
A wiki or google docs or similar can be used.
9. Update the participants
Keep on updating the participants via email on the event progress.
10. Freebies
- ID Cards
- Tshirts
- Stickers
- Books
- Pamphlets
- Flyers
- Printouts
- CDs/DVDs
- PenDrives
can be given as freebies. Prepare them all two days prior. Put them all as packs to share easily.
11. Venue
Visit the venue one week before and check the following stuff.
1. Power
2. Chairs
3. Projector
4. Screen
5. Ventilation
6. Water Supply
7. Food Supply
8. Rest rooms
9. Place for banners
10. Mike/Speakers
11. Lights
12. Internet Connectivity
13. Shops nearby for stationary/medical/food
14. First Aid & Safety
15. Emergency contact person from the venue.
16. Stay facilities nearby
12. Call for Donations
We need money for all the events. We can call for individual donations or sponsors.
Check for interested companies and contact them to sponsor the event.
Then, Announce a call for donations with all the account details to do online money transfer. Send the receipts to the donors.
13. Press Release
Write up a press release and share it to all the media like TV/Newspapers/FM.
Make sure that they come to the event and cover the event.
14. Chief Guests
Fix the chief guest.
Check for their stay/travel to the event.
15. Gifts
Plan the gifts for the guests /participants/winners and buy them in prior.
On the Day of the event
16. venue
Make sure one or two persons reach the event in 3 hours before to check the venue for all the 15 items told before.
Tie the banners in front of the venue, hall and on the stage.
Check for power supply/lights/chairs/Rest rooms/Mike/Speakers
Store all the freebies in a room
Stick Posters around the venue.
Place route map/arrows to reach the hall, all around the venue.
17. Registration desk:
Setup a registration desk.
Use notebooks or laptops to get information about the visitors
Give the freebie pack
18. Food
Arrange for Food/Snacks/Cool Drinks/Water from nearby canteen or hotels.
Make sure that they reach on time.
19. Photos/Videos/Audio
Make sure that you have colunteers to capture the event via Photo/Video/Audio.
20. Live telecast/blog/tweet
If possible arrange for live telecast of the event. Live blog/tweet also fine.
After the event:
21. Upload Photos
We may be endup with 1000s of photos.
Check them and delete all the unwanted/blurred photos.
Resize them to 2048 resolution or lesser.
Upload them in online photo repositories like picasa/flickr/facebook.
Make sure that they are in creative commons license.
Give proper tags for the albums for easy searching.
22. Upload Videos
Resize the video.
Amplify the audio.
Upload them in youtube or similar sites.
23. Upload Audio
Check and remove the silences, noises of the recorded audio.
Amplify the audio.
Upload in soundcloud of similar sites.
24. Event Notes
Write the event notes with the following details.
Event Minutes
Links for Photos/Videos/Audio/Live blogs/tweets etc
Links for the various press that covered the event.
Update them in the website.
25. Send mail to participants/guests
Send mail to all with a Thanks note and Event Notes.
26. Celebrate
Wow. Congrats. The event is over and you and the team can have some celebrations.
Goto near par/beach and play some games.
Have some food together.
Dont Do:
If it is a event about Free Software like GNU/Linux demo day/Software Freedom Day, make sure that nobody uses any proprietary operating system or software for any of the demo or talk.
Check for any other Don’t do stuff and announce it in all the announcements.
Hope this list will help us to avoid any last minute tensions.
Form a team to take care of each activity and have great team works.
Reply here if you have something to add.
Thanks.
Going GNU 