[Events] Advice want in starting a Python Workshop - UK

[Carl Karsten]

On Mon, Sep 8, 2014 at 1:15 PM, Shauna Gordon-McKeon <shaunagm at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Imran,
>
> This is so exciting!  Thank you for reaching out for help/advice.  I don't
> live nearby so I can't help in person but I'm happy to give advice from
> afar.  I coordinate Open Source Comes to Campus
> <http://campus.openhatch.org/> so I'm very familiar with the kinds of
> issues you're likely to run into.
>
>
>> I would like to give something back to the community and to be more
>> involved with the Python community. Can someone point me in the right
>> direction on how to get started? I am aware that there is course material
>> on the Boston Python site. How do I go about organising the event?
>>
>
> I'd start by thinking about the basics:
>
> - Where would you host such an event?  If you're having trouble
> brainstorming, I'd suggest looking at where meetup groups host large
> events, and at schools and companies nearby.  This checklist, which we use
> for OSCTC, may be useful:
>
> https://openhatch.org/wiki/Open_Source_Comes_to_Campus/Logistics/Space_Checklist
>
> - What are the costs of the event, and who can cover them?  The majority
> of the budget is usually food, which I believe you can apply to the Python
> Software Foundation to cover.  You may also need to pay a fee for the room
> and travel costs for mentors if the location is out of the way.
>
> - When do you want to host the event?  What's a good weekend, that works
> for you, for the venue, for anyone you already know you want to ask to
> mentor, and doesn't conflict with holidays, etc?
>
> Once you've got these figured out, you can move on to more details, such
> as figuring out where to publicize, how to keep track of sign ups, how to
> find and coordinate mentors, and more.
>
>
>> Do I need to be a super hot coder to be even considering this?
>>
>
> Oh my goodness no.  You don't need to be a coder at all.  The only benefit
> to being a coder is that you can lead lectures and be a mentor, so that's
> one less volunteer for you to find.
>
> You sound conscientious and friendly and that's 90% of the requirements to
> an organize a good outreach event right there.  I think you're going to do
> an amazing job.
>
>  :)
>
> - Shauna
>
>
big +1 to everything  Shauna said.

I would also encourage you to find 2 or 3 others that will be part of your
core event team.  You can do it all yourself, but that's bad.   You will
want a few people you trust (so not the internet) to help you with
decisions and delegate tasks:

food - catered in (nice) or send people out (cheap), or tell people to bing
a bag lunch.

spam -  here is the US recruiters will pay $100s to sponsor you in exchange
for 5 min of time to promote their company or service or whatever.  I
personally have no problem with this, up to you to figure out if you want
to go there.

CoC support - You will want a Code of Conduct, (just use PyCons) and you
will want a few people who are up for dealing with it.  (hopefully you
don't need this, but it is so much nicer to have it in place if you need
it.)

etc.

The exact format, location, size etc will be driven by the intersection of
what you want to do and what you can do.

and now for something different.

Instead of an all day event, I would suggest taking a shot at running a
monthly user group meeting.  find 2 or 3 people to talk about something,
find when and where they can get together, and then put the word out.  I
have attended such things when it was only 5 or 6 people, and its fun etc.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openhatch.org/pipermail/events/attachments/20140908/f58659b2/attachment.html>