How to organize a DevSummit

Organizing a FreeBSD developer summit is not very difficult, as it mostly involves piggy-backing on an existing conference or event and borrowing their facilities. However, there is some hard-earned experience that is worth taking into account, because the success of a summit depends a lot on avoiding the logistics distracting everyone from getting work done. This wiki page tries to capture a few points worth remembering when running a devsummit.

Golden Rules

Scheduling

Plan well in advance--people will be coming from all over the world, and they don't want to pay 2x the airfare because you were lazy.

Travel

People get lost in new towns, your job is to make sure they find you.

Venue

Choice of venue is one of the most critical decisions you will make. Some points in no particular order:

Experience suggests that movable chairs and tables with a projector and whiteboards makes the best venue, and that these can be surprisingly hard to find on the campuses of so-called universities. Why is this? Hard to say, but it sucks.

Money

People

The people at a devsummit are what make it work.

Food

Developers think with their stomachs, so keep their stomachs happy. Nothing breeds discontent like soggy sandwiches and bad coffee.

Social activities

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and burns people out.

The Place People Stay/Sleep

Random stuff


CategoryCommunity CategoryHowTo

DevSummitHowTo (last edited 2022-10-06T22:51:20+0000 by KubilayKocak)