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

[Aidan Feldman]

Great that you're interested in doing this! I run an office-hours-style
meetup in NYC, and have a guide on learned (the hard way) best practices:

http://hackerhours.org/diy-guide.html

Hope it's useful!

On Mon, Sep 8, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Carl Karsten <carl at nextdayvideo.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
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