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PLAN_A_MEETUP.md

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How to plan a meetup

This document is meant to help you plan a meetup. It is specifically tailed for the IPFS community, but should be easily translatable for other communities.

Pre-planning

Before hosting a meetup, you should identify:

  • Who is the meetup for? Beginners? Advanced users? Advanced Developers?
  • What topics should be covered?
  • What are your core values, and how do you want these to come off?
  • What is the tone? Will this be a hangout group, or a group for intense discussions, or a tutorial, or a hack group?
  • What will the format be?
  • How often do you plan on running it?
  • Who is able to run it with you?
  • What will the name of the meetup be?
  • How hyper-local will this be? What is your intended geographical spread?

You should:

  • Attend other meetups
  • Meet in person to discuss the above list, and write down your answers for them

Defining Roles

Splitting up organizational tasks into a few different, well-defined roles will help with making sure that everyone is able to do their best, and that there are clear expectations and exits for those who can't help out.

Have one person who is responsible and in charge of each of the following:

  • Facilitator
  • Master of Ceremonies
  • Venue
  • Sponsors
  • Food and drink
  • Social media - Before and During
  • Website // Meetup Group // Mailing List
  • Post-event blogger

Prerequisites

Meetups take a lot of effort. Here are some things you should set up before a meetup is planned:

  • A Meetup group. These can cost some initial money. Another option is Eventbrite.
  • A Twitter account.
  • A Newsletter. TinyLetter or Mailchimp are good for this.
  • A way for speakers to submit talks.
  • A way for the facilitators and committee to approve talks.
  • A ticketing system, if needed (Meetup Works for this.)

Date and Location

Once you have the date and location generally specced out, there are a few things to do:

  • Make sure that this isn't overlapping with any other similar events, at the same time or in the same location, and that it isn't too close to other large events.
  • Add the event to a MeetUp group. If there isn't a MeetUp group, create one.
  • Post about the event on Twitter
    • Plan out tweets for the event on a regular basis.
  • Send out a message to the newsletter.

ipfs/community issue

  • Open an issue in ipfs/community. Name it after the location, if there isn't one already. This issue can be used to ping people who are interested.

In that issue, answer these questions:

  • Why we should have a meetup at this location and on this date
  • If it would be awesome to have someone from Protocol Labs in attendance, and who makes the most sense.
  • How this will help the community, and what the proposed talks might be about.

If needed, please note that you'd like to email someone privately about:

  • Proposed budget
  • Needs (assistance find space, assets, bar tab, etc.) We'll get back to you.

On the day

Before the event

  • Thematically prepare the speakers. This is useful for cohesion, and makes the talk work better.
  • Tell the speakers how long they have, and stick to it.
  • Let the speakers know about what AV equipment they will have, and if they are OK being filmed.
  • Add in 5 minute buffers, time-wise, between each talks.
  • Get a copy of the slides from the presenters.
  • Get abstracts from presenters a few days before talk.
  • Announce before hand with adequate time.
  • Make it clear when the talks start on the tracking documents.
  • Prepare and test camera equipment the day before.
  • Communicate well with the space.
  • Find a bar space or non-alcoholic place, for afterwards. Meals are also good.
  • Get stickers and other swag.
  • Delegate as much as possible.
  • Ask about swag

At the event

  • Appoint a time keeper.
  • Tell the speakers before about any environmental issues (feedback from speaker, where to stand, etc).
  • Communicate clearly to speakers how the timekeeper will let them know and cut them off.
  • Communicate whether questions should follow talks or not.
  • Decide on an MC.
  • Project an agenda before you start.
  • Put out stickers.
  • Ask the speakers to talk slowly and clearly.

During the talk

  • Signal two minutes before the end of each alloted talk session.
  • Live tweet during each talk.

Post-planning

  • Follow up with attendees about their feedback
  • Perform a post-mortem meeting, with the attendees if possible, within one week of the event. All of the organizers should meet to do the post-mortem. Focus on: what went well, what didn't go well, and what could be improved for next time.
  • Make a write up about the event due within two weeks following the event. This should go into the IPFS Community Issue, and may also be turned into a blogpost.
  • Submission of final budget for event - this be will useful for future event planners.

Resources for Hosting

Guides

Much of this list comes from other guides already out there:

Other Resources