Hey Austin,
Yes, it would be good to get going soon. We started approx. 3 months before
the event like Thomas mentioned. It is important though to kick-off two
things at the same time:
1) Drafting and getting the proposal approved
2) Kicking off the practical organisation
If we would have treated 1) as a blocker for 2), we would've gotten in
trouble. I was not very involved in the proposal discussions, Gris and
Ahmet did a great deal of work there and I think they'd be happy to help
out with any questions you might have; but the proposal would definitely be
a good basis to start from.
With 2) I have some more info I could share.
We started by assembling a core team of people we knew were going to do the
bulk of the organising work (ideally a mix of 'community' forces, a PMC
member, and employees from companies who seem very keen to join forces)
Then there is the actual organisational part (which you can divide and
conquer with the team):
- Fixing the date(s) of your conference (this needs to go into the
proposal as well, so one of the first things to decide
- Estimating the budget and finding sponsoring companies: this will
decide what is possible and what is not
- Finding a venue that is convenient and fits your needs (how many
people are you expecting? we could maybe do a small poll on the mailing
lists and Twitter to see conference interest for this year). Ideally, your
venue is flexible for change as well (extendable rooms, ...). This goes
hand in hand with:
- Catering / food / coffee
- Video crew for recording the sessions
- Opening a CfP: this is something you probably want to do as soon as
possible. It will decide largely the content of the summit and what
sessions you will be able to offer to your audience. If will also be
crucial in communication later on.
- This goes hand in hand with constructing your agenda. Draft what you
are aiming for and share this with everyone (speakers included)
so they can
help you build the schedule. This will change a lot (up until the day of
the event if people cancel)
- Start collecting the speaker presentations
- Open attendee registrations as soon as possible: this will allow you
to estimate the number of attendees
- A small website could be useful to have an overview of the speakers
and schedule, combined with registrating functionality (e.g.
https://devfest.gdg.london or use https://splashthat.com)
- Starting the buzz (communications wise): think about mailing list,
social media (Twitter, LinkedIn mostly), blogposts, local communities that
might be interested, reach out to people that frequent your meetup, ask
sponsoring companies to use their channels, ...
- Also think about marketing of the summit (slide branding, banners
for social media, ...)
- Gather a team of people to help out on the day itself and list out the
on-the-day(s) tasks to divide the work. Have clear responsibilities for
everyone and have someone to keep the overview. Learning from our summit:
have someone dedicated to take care of the speakers (welcome them, make
sure they are comfortable for the talk, make sure they have everything they
need. A seperate room for speakers is a luxury, but a good one to have).
- Other things like:
- Swag
- Speaker gifts
- Photographer
- Social media branding (ask speakers to use hashtags, ...)
- Have a debrief questionnaire
Overall, try to keep closely in sync with your organising team (fortnightly
calls or weekly when getting closer to the event). A shared tracker for
you, team (and community - they can give feedback), might be useful as well
(find ours here
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pNoeLD0JBImc1-gja209mSuTVLNna_b1gmQ1r-_Z5t0/edit>
)
I will share some additional materials later with you. Happy to have a
quick call to answer additional questions and help out where needed :)
Best,
Matthias
On Sun, 6 Jan 2019 at 22:55, Thomas Weise <t...@apache.org> wrote:
> For the event in SF in April it would be necessary to get going soon.
>
> For the type of information that will be required, you could take a look
> at the proposal from the London event [1]. It was created with ~ 3 months
> lead time. Note the draft mistakenly used "Apache" in the event name -
> let's avoid that this time around. Also let's make it clear(er) who is
> organizing vs. sponsoring the event.
>
> Also see the event branding policy [2]. Note that approval for the event
> will be required from the PMC and when using Apache marks also from the ASF
> VP, Brand (or the PMC chair).
>
> Thanks,
> Thomas
>
> [1]
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h0y85vxt0AGYdz6SZCbV2jzUGs46_M-keUZTMsm2R0I/edit
> [2] https://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/events
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 12:39 PM Austin Bennett <
> whatwouldausti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Matthias, etc,
>>
>> Trying to get thoughts on formalizing a process for getting proposals
>> together. I look forward to the potential day that there are many people
>> that want (rather than just willing) to host a summit in a given region in
>> a given year. Perhaps too forward looking.
>>
>> Also, you mentioned planning London wound up with a tight time window.
>> If shooting for April in SF, seems the clock might be starting to tick.
>> Any advice for how much time needed? And guidance on getting whatever
>> formal needed through Apache - and does this also necessarily involve a
>> Beam PMC or community vote (probably more related to the first paragraph)?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Austin
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 1:09 AM Matthias Baetens <baetensmatth...@gmail.com
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Great stuff, thanks for the overview, Austin.
>>>
>>> For EU, there are things to say for both Stockholm and Berlin, but I
>>> think it makes sense to do it on the back of another conference (larger
>>> chance of people being in town with the same interest). I like Thomas
>>> comment - we will attract more people from the US if we don't let it
>>> conflict with the big events there. +1 for doing it around the time of
>>> Berlin Buzzwords.
>>>
>>> For Asia, I'd imagine Singapore would be an option as well. I'll reach
>>> out to some people that are based there to get a grasp on the size of the
>>> community there.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> -M
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, 20 Dec 2018 at 05:08, Thomas Weise <t...@apache.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I think for EU there is a proposal to have it next to Berlin Buzzwords
>>>> in June. That would provide better spacing and avoid conflict with
>>>> ApacheCon.
>>>>
>>>> Thomas
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 3:09 PM Suneel Marthi <smar...@apache.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> How about Beam Summit in Berlin on Sep 6 immediately following Flink
>>>>> Forward Berlin on the previous 2 days.
>>>>>
>>>>> Same may be for Asia also following Flink Forward Asia where and
>>>>> whenever it happens.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 6:06 PM Austin Bennett <
>>>>> whatwouldausti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I really enjoyed Beam Summit in London (Thanks Matthias!), and there
>>>>>> was much enthusiasm for continuations. We had selected that location in
>>>>>> a
>>>>>> large part due to the growing community there, and we have users in a
>>>>>> variety of locations. In our 2019 calendar,
>>>>>> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CloF63FOKSPM6YIuu8eExjhX6xrIiOp5j4zPbSg3Apo/
>>>>>> shared in the past weeks, 3 Summits are tentatively slotted for this
>>>>>> year.
>>>>>> Wanting to start running this by the group to get input.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * Beam Summit NA, in San Francisco, approx 3 April 2019 (following
>>>>>> Flink Forward). I can organize.
>>>>>> * Beam Summit Europe, in Stockholm, this was the runner up in voting
>>>>>> falling behind London. Or perhaps Berlin? October-ish 2019
>>>>>> * Beam Summit Asia, in Tokyo ??
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What are general thoughts on locations/dates?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Looking forward to convening in person soon.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>> Austin
>>>>>>
>>>>>
