OSCTC logistics

• Before Event
  • Picking date, time, and partner organizations
  • Space
    • You can use this checklist to help you pick a space, and then to check out the space leading up to the event.
  • Funding
  • Food
    • Because our events start early and run a full day, we like to provide breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack. This usually costs between $200-350, depending on the size of the event. Less, if we order pizza for lunch. Your needs may vary, but we like to get:
      • Breakfast: 1-3 boxes of coffee + milk + sugar, donuts/bagels/pastries, fresh fruit
      • Lunch: If possible, order sandwiches and salads rather than pizza. Try to provide vegetarian/vegan/dairy/gluten free options even if no attendees have listed it.
      • Snack: Something light (people generally aren't that hungry or are willing to eat lunch leftovers) but fruit and chocolate never hurt anyone.
  • Staff
    • We recommend finding staff as early as possible (as soon as you pick a date). We try to achieve a 4:1 or 5:1 staff to attendee ratio. This is particularly important during the afternoon workshop, and we often have staff who only come in the afternoon.
    • There is a template email we use when recruiting new staff.
    • Try to find:
      • People for the career panel. We usually have 3-4 people on the panel.
      • People to present tutorials/lead demos/lead career panel. Can be up to 5-6 separate people, but frequently organizers will present several parts of the day.
      • What we call a "software whisperer" - at least one person who is extremely familiar with setting up development environments and working with open source software, who will be able to handle most technical problems that come up.
  • Publicity
    • Step 1: Save the date email - if there are groups you are especially hoping to reach, it's worth sending a brief "save the date/time" email as soon as you've picked a date.
    • Step 2: Create publicity website
      • Instructions for making sites like ours are here.
    • Step 3: General Purpose Publicity
      • Once the site is made, and ideally in the time frame of 4-2 weeks before the event, we do our main publicity push. We try to reach out to:
        • The computer science department, computing clubs, ACMs, especially any diversity-focused groups such as Women In Computing groups. When doing so, we use this email template.
        • Individual science departments and clubs. When doing so, we use this email template.
        • If our hosts have given us permission, we will also reach out to students from other local colleges. When doing so, we prioritize women's colleges and community colleges, usually by emailing them a day earlier than others.
  • Communicating with attendees
    • See email templates
• During Event
  • ?
• After Event
  • Blog post
  • Follow up emails
    • See email templates
  • Event ideas