The Minimum Viable Conference -- MountainWest RubyConf 2016

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 THE MINIMUM VIABLE CONFERENCE
TITLES

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 WHO WE ARE AND
OH BY THE WAY CONFERENCE

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 OSFeels.com WHO WE ARE
AND OH BY THE WAY CONFERENCE

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 WHO WE ARE AND
OH BY THE WAY CONFERENCE 2015 Strand McCutcheon Bri Dodson Utah Kate Newman Kristina Hjertberg Whitney Rose-Levis 2016 Brenna Flood Mixolidia Gautreaux

FIRST THINGS FIRST @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 FIRST
THINGS FIRST

• Help build or maintain your community • Create opportunities
for others • Get participation credit outside of "lots of open source commits" @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Why do you want to run a conference? Women In Tech - 88 WOCinTech Chat - CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/wocintechchat/21910883173/ ## Why do you want to run a conference? + help build your community + get participation credit outside of "lots of open source commits"

• Write up a mission statement • Work on your
elevator pitch • Create 2 paragraph write- up • Identify your ideals and values @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Make it ofﬁcial - write it down! The thumb that hurts from too-much-touchscreenalso aches to grip a pen! - Justin Hall - CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/justin/8501155973 ## Mission statement + Write up a mission statement + Who do we serve? + "elevator pitch" Open Source and Feelings (OS&F) is a conference dedicated to authentically designing and reshaping a supportive, inclusive, open source culture – to uncover and implement design patterns for a vibrant, skilled, and interdependent community. It is about the intersection between software and the humanities, and how we engage with the communities we're a part of. It is about deliberative crafting of its culture into what we want it to be, about developing strategies, skills, and solutions in order work as a community. + From there, work on a more complete write up of ~2 paragraphs + You’ll use this to pitch sponsors, early supporters, and to help presenters and attendees really understand your conference + Identify and document the ideals and values you'll operate under + not a CoC, but what are the bullet point goals you can refer back to whenever you're making a decision - will the thing I'm about to do serve or harm this conference? https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/justin/8501155973

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 SECURE A LOCATION #
Secure a Location

• Know your audience • http://osfeels.com/checklist @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest
RubyConf 2016 Find A Venue Broadway Performance Hall https://www.facebook.com/Broadway-Performance-Hall-121211941265491/ 1. Know your audience 1. Things good venues have 1. Here's a link to our checklist

• Accessibility Concerns • Audio/Video Capabilities • Catering @_jnf &
@kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 The Checklist Broadway Performance Hall https://www.facebook.com/Broadway-Performance-Hall-121211941265491/ Accessbility Concerns necessary stairs? elevators? wheelchair entry & seating? Audio/Video capabilities (Daryl & Becca) Built in? Who provides? Who supports? Screens? Mics? Mixers/PA? Recording capabilities? Projectors and Screens Adapters for laptops? Audio patch cables? Catering What are the rules for providing meals? Preferred/required providers? Place to setup/serve food? Place for attendees to eat?

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 SECURE SOME # Secure
Some Funding 1. Spam the world 1. Read Contracts 1. Getting creative with sponsorship opportunities

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Secure some “Cash rules
everything around me, C.R.E.A.M. Get the money. Dollar dollar bills, y’all.” — Wu-Tang Clan 1. Spam the world 1. Read Contracts 1. Getting creative with sponsorship opportunities

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Secure some 1. Spam
the world 1. Read Contracts 1. Getting creative with sponsorship opportunities

• Ask local business ﬁrst • Get ready to hear
“no” • Get creative with sponsorships @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Secure some 1. Spam the world 1. Read Contracts 1. Getting creative with sponsorship opportunities

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT #
Protect Your Investment The least fun, for me anyway, is managing the business aspects of running a conference. Anytime you ask people for money in exchange for goods and services, you're gonna have some business concerns. And some liability. Protect yourself, your event, and your community by doing the research and planning ahead. SECURITY GUARDS

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 There are no jokes
in this section.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Sorry.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Serious Business • LLC
• Accountants & Taxes • Bank Accounts • Business Licenses • Event Insurance • Budgets ## LLC Creating an LLC is surprisingly easy. It's a couple of forms on the internet for the state and federal government. Doing so gave us an entity that: 1. Let us collect money 2. Let us spend money 3. Provide liability protection for ourselves and our families

• Accountants & Taxes • Bank Accounts • Business Licenses • Event Insurance • Budgets ## Accountants & Taxes Those are pretty important things for a conference. Also, please don't forget to follow up with a tax accountant in your area. Earmark some money for them early on as they will repeatedly (and patiently, if you're lucky) remind you of all the nit-picky tax stuﬀ that will come up. Depending on your location and plans, you may have to do things like collect and pay sales tax, use tax, amusement tax, income tax, or some other combination of taxes. If you're not a tax professional, hire one.

• Accountants & Taxes • Bank Accounts • Business Licenses • Event Insurance • Budgets ## Bank Accounts As soon as you have a federal tax ID for the LLC, go open a bank account. Turns out opening a "business checking" account is moderately more involved than a personal checking account. Took me three trips to the bank to ﬁnally get it right. Separate accounts for the LLC means no cloudiness in what is conference money and what isn't. If it's a conference expense, it's paid with conference money from the LLC bank accounts and documented in the budget. Setting clear expectations and patterns here provides both an excellent paper trail for your accountant (they will thank you) and should guide any conversation about when/where/on whom conference money is spent.

• Accountants & Taxes • Bank Accounts • Business Licenses • Event Insurance • Budgets ## Business Licenses In pursuit of Minimum Viable Conference, I asked our first sponsor (the illustrious Starr Horne @ Honeybadger) what he needed from us to be able to give us a check. His answer was a tax id and mailing address. So I did exactly enough work to make those happen. I got the LLC put together, registered for a federal tax id, and sent Starr an invoice. He promptly paid and his early confidence got us off the ground. Turns out, while that was enough on Starr's end, there were a few more things for me to do. Most cities and/or states have business licensing requirements and even though we were never interested in turning a profit, the city was still expecting us to _act_ like a business. That means getting a business license from the city, registering with the state Department of Revenue, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. I am a terrible businessperson. Find someone knowledgeable, pay them to help you, and heed their advice. Shout out to my boy Patrick at CPM CPA in Seattle!

• Accountants & Taxes • Bank Accounts • Business Licenses • Event Insurance • Budgets ## Insurance Every venue I've worked with has included a clause in their contract requiring the LLC to secure "event insurance." This is a liability policy that protects the venue in the case of something going terribly, terribly wrong. To set this up, you'll need twenty minutes, a telephone, and probably something like $100. It's refreshingly inexpensive, wholly mundane, and everyone will feel better when it's in place. I picked our insurance agent because the name of the agency made me laugh (Tripple, Tripple & Tripple). Our two-day, single-track event for 300 people cost us about $90 to meaningfully insure.

• Accountants & Taxes • Bank Accounts • Business Licenses • Event Insurance • Budget ## Money is an unfortunate side eﬀect of conference organizing When you get started, you'll have no ideas how much anything is gonna cost. That's ok. Sit down in front of a spreadsheet and dream up some numbers. A half hour of internet research will get you a basic idea of what banquet halls go for in your area. Ditto catering, renting transportation, hotel blocks, and tshirt printing. Whatever it is you're interested in.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Decisions are driven by
adherence to or support of the organization mission and the available budget. Put each item that either costs of makes money in one column in the spreadsheet. The next column is your best guess--educated or otherwise--on how much you'll spend or make on that thing. The third and fourth columns are blank. They are what the thing actually costs or brings in and on what day that must happen, respectively. Tally the monies in a another row or column and congratulations, you've got a working budget. This isn't a line-item ledger of expenditure; it's a high-level accounting of how money is entering and exiting your accounts. There were more than a few decisions at OS&F last year that hinged on when money was available. Yeah, we end up net-positive whether we bought Item X or not, if I buy Item X today, can we pay Vendor Y tomorrow? Have that budget open in front of you during every organizer meeting. Decisions should be couched in their support of the organization mission and the available budget.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 CHOOSING PRESENTERS # Choose
Your Presenters

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 CHOOSE YOUR FORMAT ##
Choose Your Format

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 ## Choose Your Format

• It doesn’t hurt to ask, but ask early •
Respect their time and expertise • Stay in contact and keep them informed • Work with them to identify additional communities and sponsorship opportunities @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Inviting Speakers misc 12 - Dennis Hill - CC BY 2.0 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/fontplaydotcom/506702218/ ## Inviting Folks In our goal of creating a conference that the most number of people will enjoy (and find value in attending) you are in charge of curating the content. Similar to how movie studios have "tent pole releases" that they are reasonably sure will generate a large return, as an organizer a common approach is to find a handful of speakers who are talented and available to give talks, workshops, or other presentations on topics relevant to your conference. If announced early enough, these invited speakers can set not only the tone of the CFP submissions you'll receive and drive interest in potential attendees, but can help maximize your outreach beyond your own personal social networks and communities. For example, most of the organizers of OSFeels are Rubyists, but by getting a few high-profile Python and Node speakers, we were able to generate a large number of attendees and talk submissions from those communities, by leveraging the connections of those speakers. It also opened a number of sponsors we hadn't previously identified as possible sources of support. + it doesn't hurt to ask + ask early + make them feel special, because they are + give them as much info and support as you can + stay in contact and keep them informed about progress + invited speakers are an asset - keep them happy! + once they accept, work with them to identify communities and sponsors for additional outreach + they get publicity, too, so they want to help promote their appearance on your stage

• Blind it as much as you’re able • Offer
as much upfront information as you can • Make a wishlist of topics, panels, workshops you’d like to see to help inspire people • http://cfp.osfeels.com @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Running A CFP STV Indie SAMPLE BALLOT marked - Laurel L. Russwurm - ZERO 1.0 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelrusswurm/15456907727 ## Running a CFP + web based + blind it as much as you can + give as much information about the nuts and bolts as you can + expected length + expectations you have of speakers + submit slides for review? + attend a conference event to meet-n-greet + will you be video taping? will talks then be freely available? Get a release! + what compensation (honorarium? travel? hotel? free ticket at least?) are you oﬀering? + oﬀer example questions you want talks to address, or generic topics you'd like submissions on - don't expect speakers to work in a vacuum building custom content for your community + have a link to your CoC to remind folks of content expectations

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 PEOPLEOPS Like most endeavors,
the real challenge is in the relationships. Every organizer will bring with them a unique vision of the event, a set of goals and anxieties, and a different combination of skills. When we started this thing, we approached it like a bunch of open source developers starting a new project. Because that's what we were. We applied our understanding of work to the task at hands. Our organizer meetings were like sprint planning. Slack became an asynchronous swirl of half-conversations, standup-style checkins, and in-jokes. In our day-jobs as developers, certainly folks are empowered to steer the ship. The hierarchy is often formal, with project managers, team leads, and dev managers. These power structures come with their own problems, but, in their absence, projects will often spiral out of control. For OS&F, difficulties with decision making, accountability, and communication breakdowns slowed our efforts. Given that we were 100% volunteer driven, how were we to hold folks accountable for missing a deadline or not completing a task? As the months wore on, it became apparent that our defacto mode of consensus building for every decision was not going to work. There just wasn't enough time to discuss and reach consensus on every detail. So folks took chances. Kerri and I designed and ordered the attendee badges without involving the other organizers. Utah pushed ahead with converting the restrooms at the venue to be all-gender. I'm pretty sure I asked someone if it was cool to give free tickets to all my students, but I'm not positive who or when or what they said. Acting in this manner had consequences. Relationships were strained and damaged. Meetings grew tense, and asking for an update on a task could result in that task being unceremoniously dumped in your lap. It wasn't fun, and organizing became a chore, a job, a necessity to see the thing through. And we did. We persevered, and through equal parts grit and luck, kept the promises we'd made to attendees, speakers, and each other. About a month after the conference, we held a formal retrospective. We brought in (and paid) a professional facilitator to lead discussions. Our goal was to identify the pain and pleasure points of organizing, and identify the things we'd want to do differently next year. It was a good idea, and even if your organizing efforts are all sunshine and rainbows, take the time to review and reflect on that effort. Maybe future efforts could be even better. Here are some takeaways from our retrospective and subsequent discussion.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Communication Breakdown. • This
wasn’t a software project, but it kinda felt like one. • Consensus v. Deadlines • Accountability v. Volunteers • The retrospective is an important part of the process For OS&F, difficulties with decision making, accountability, and communication breakdowns slowed our efforts. Given that we were 100% volunteer driven, how were we to hold folks accountable for missing a deadline or not completing a task? As the months wore on, it became apparent that our de facto mode of consensus building for every decision was not going to work. There just wasn't enough time to discuss and reach consensus on every detail. So folks took chances. Kerri and I designed and ordered the attendee badges without involving the other organizers. Utah pushed ahead with converting the restrooms at the venue to be all-gender. I'm pretty sure I asked someone if it was cool to give free tickets to all my students, but I'm not positive who or when or what they said. Acting in this manner had consequences. Relationships were strained and damaged. Meetings grew tense, and asking for an update on a task could result in that task being unceremoniously dumped in your lap. It wasn't fun, and organizing became a chore, a job, a necessity to see the thing through. And we did. We persevered, and through equal parts grit and luck, kept the promises we'd made to attendees, speakers, and each other. About a month after the conference, we held a formal retrospective. We brought in (and paid) a professional facilitator to lead discussions. Our goal was to identify the pain and pleasure points of organizing, and identify the things we'd want to do differently next year. It was a good idea, and even if your organizing efforts are all sunshine and rainbows, take the time to review and reflect on that effort. Maybe future efforts could be even better. Here are some takeaways from our retrospective and subsequent discussion.

• Similar intent to event code of conduct, but tailored
for organizers • Outlines expectations, behaviors, consequences • http://www.osfeels.com/organizer-code-of-conduct @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Have an Organizer Code of Conduct ## Have an Organizer Code of Conduct. This is different than your event's Code of Conduct. It's there for similar reasons--to outline acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and processes/consequences for both--but it's tailored for a different audience. This will provde a minimal formal structure to ground discussions and resolve disagreements. When Bri proposed this—that’s Bri on the left, between Nat and Utah—the idea struck me as equal parts brilliant and novel. It shouldn't have been novel; it makes too much damn sense and I don't know why it never occurred to me before. You can read ours at http://www.osfeels.com/organizer-code-of-conduct/. It outlines our expectations for each others, and provides a framework for addressing and resolving conflict. As we work on 2016's event, we've referred to it several times already, and just having the language on hand to guide discussions has been beneficial. Part of adhering to the Organizer CoC is being mindful of everyone’s communication preferences. Slack, for us, gave the impression that everyone was always available, and that was certainly not true. Some folks will be in chat all day. Some folks work in restricted environments and won't have Slack access in daytime hours. Others may not be able to respond to evening emails, or have notifications on their mobile phones. Take the time to document how to reach folks. Respect their boundaries and utilize the channels they've defined. Doing so will increase the likelihood of timely responses, and indicate to the other person that you respect their time and value their input.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Document Your Decision Making
## Document Your Decision Making Write things down. Write down that you decided to write things down. Put that thing you wrote down about writing things down somewhere that all the organizers can see. Give it an ominous title like __This page will help us remember decision points that we have made for the 2016 conference. <3__ Tell yourselves that if it's not in the decision list, then it's not decided. Tell yourselves that if it is on the decision list, then it is decided. Be speciﬁc. Here are examples:

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Bad • We decided
to run a CFP.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Good • We are
going to use Blinder to run our CFP again. • We approved the list of questions for the CFP with minor additions (no subtractions). See the blinder repo for the ﬁnalized questions. • If we do workshops, we will run a separate CFW (call for workshops). • We will invite TAFT to participate in the CFP.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Even Gooder • Jeremy
to deploy new blinder instance for 2016 CFP (due 3/7). • list of questions are approved; minor additions (no subtractions) to last year's questions • ﬁnalized list of questions already in the blinder repo. • We want to run workshops • If we can, it will be separate CFW (call for workshops) process • Kerri to contact venue about availability/capacities of rooms for workshops (due 3/14) • We want to invite TAFT to participate in the CFP. • Exact details of participation TBD • More discussion needed, but we know we would like them to be involved Etc. These look like _notes,_ and they are, but they're notes about _decisions_. By attaching names to these notes/decisions, we can introduce some accountability. I'm a volunteer and if I couldn't get our CFP software up and running by 3/7, no one is gonna ﬁre me. But it will be something we have to talk about at the next meeting. I will feel some obligation to put in the time to get it done; it's in my nature. Put my name on a task and I feel some ownership. It's outcome is attached to my sense of accomplishment, and I don't want to let my co-organizers down.

• Don’t be a bottleneck. • Ask the right questions.
• Leave room for people to explore. @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Empower Your First-Time Organizers ### Empower People, Especially First-Time Organizers As a signatory on the bank account, I became a bottleneck and pressure point on a lot of decisions. If it involved money, it would eventually have to filter through me and I was perceived as having a kind of implicit veto. If I disagreed with something, I could just not write the check, effectively disenfranchising my co-organizers and devaluing their efforts. This was especially daunting for first-time organizers. This year, though my role is much the same, my tactics are different. In every meeting, I'm giving a budget update and putting it in terms of "our budget." Instead of asking folks to blindly plan an activity and "let me know what it'll cost," I'm asking questions like "is $700 a reasonable budget for this?" Though it seems like the former is less restrictive, first-time organizers may not know what's reasonable for a speaker's dinner or a facility rental. Giving a starting point allows for a more productive conversation. It involves them as a decision maker more directly. They may say "I'm not sure," but even then, they can use that $700 as a metric in their research and planning.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 DECISIONS WE COULD HAVE
MADE (but didn’t) # Decisions We Could Have Made, But Didn't If you're making a list of all the things you like about conferences, it is easy to go overboard and end up with a smorgasbord of every last thing your favorite conferences. Whether you're doing a Minimum Viable Conference or you've got a trust-fund from O'Reilly, it is important to think about each feature or event that you add, and ask "how does this serve our goals or mission statement?" When we did that for OSFeels, a number of items that other conferences frequently feature were on our list, seemingly mandatory to our very idea of what a tech conference is, but ended up on the cutting room ﬂoor for solid reasons.

• The venue's wifi wasn't super awesome • It was
going to be expensive to bring in our own network • It wasn't facilitating being present @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 WIFI Free WiFi - Bob Cotter - CC BY NC ND 2.0 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gibsonsgolfer/3796549315 ## Wifi 90% of conferences offer wifi, either a dedicated network provided by the venue, or a special access point brought in especially for the event. 90% of those end up being nearly immediately saturated with traffic, from work laptops, tablets, phones, and who knows what other devices that people tote to the conference space. Conference wifi is usually so bad that it's an unfunny joke to complain about it being crappy. Ultimately we decided to not offer wifi, and to not pass out the venue access credentials unless someone asked us directly. In our post-conference feedback questionnaire, a number of attendees pointed this out as something they wished we would change, but we had good reasons. > $4000 / 200 attendees = $20 per attendee ### It wasn't facilitating being present Although not expressly captured in our mission statement, given the often personal and sensitive nature of the talks, that attendees should be as present in the moment as possible. Checking out of a talk and ducking into work Slack or gmail for a few minutes, or seeing what's happening on Reddit are at best a distraction for everyone around you, and at worst a rude or disrespectful act towards the speaker and other attendees. One response we received to this policy was "But what if I had a work emergency?" If you attend a conference and are in a job that requires you to be on call, we assume you have means to do so, like a mifi or tethered phone.. and besides, its Seattle. Throw a rock in any direction and you'll hit a coffeeshop with free wifi where you can go and not take away from the communities experience.

• Hard to secure space • Logistical nightmare • Expensive
• Not all attendees would feel welcome • Safety @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 After Party Karaoke - ♣El Lucho♣ - CC BY SA 2.0 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/ellucho/5378130520 ## After Party I, Kerri, love to drink. Jeremy, you enjoy a wee tipple from time to time, yes? Not everyone does. There are lots of reasons why people don't like to drink, or don't like to be around alcohol. Beyond that, most after parties are loud, raucous events - they can be rough on those of us who are hard of hearing or are less outgoing. More and more conferences are choosing to make sure that their after parties are more inclusive, such as having an after party be a board game party, or as Madison Ruby did, got access to a children's museum after its regular hours - FUN! Primarily we decided to not have an after party for very practical reasons -- we couldn't find a venue on a Friday or Saturday night on Capitol Hill that was affordable, and while we did have a couple leads, it became clear that we didn't have the people power to handle the logistics. We needed to think about + hours of access - could we have the space as late as we wanted? + accessibility - could a person with a cane, walker, or wheelchair easily get around the space? + safety - could we (or our private security guards) monitor who was coming and going effectively? + location - is it near the venue, or are there low friction transit options? We didn't find a suitable location until the week before the conference, and by that point we realized that we didn't have enough time (or energy!) left to pull off a really great event. I wish we had, though - a good event where attendees could socialize and continue to feel part of a temporary community of conference attendees would've really been a big win, and planning a solid after party is already on the list for next time around.

• Expensive ($10-15 per attendee!) • Long lead times means
you need in the bank • Do you really need another shirt? @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 T-Shirts & Swag Silverlight T-shirt - Pittaya Sroilong- CC BY 2.0 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/pittaya/2534310944 ## T-Shirts/Swag

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 We did some swag,
like stickers and buttons, which a sponsor (StickerMule) paid for. This was cool because it was durable promotional items that we gave away in the weeks leading up to the conference. We also did awesome notebooks… hey, anyone want a notebook?

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Besides, sponsors bring a
lot of swag already…

• Hard to get exact numbers • OMG • Price
increase could price some attendees out • Logistical headaches abound @_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Catered Meals Food Lives Here - Ignite New Zealand - CC BY 2.0 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/techedlive/3918973002 ## Feeding Folks Holy moly, food is expensive! It was going to cost us ~$30 a head, or around $6000 total to provide a catered meal for 200 people for each day! That is an amazingly high expense, especially since we know that: + many attendees will go "off site" for lunch with coworkers or friends + we'll never dial in all the food restrictions correctly, wasting food and leaving some people potentially unfed + some people would be priced out of attending by an $85 ticket instead of a $55 ticket + we would've had to provide extra space for tables to eat at, staging, cleanup, and a banquet license + it would've been such a complex affair that it would've required the near full-time attention of an organizer With the price quote in hand, we decided instead to set people loose on the neighborhood, to spend (or not spend) their own money on food that they wanted to eat. If someone brought their own lunch from home, great. On a corporate per diem, great. Deal with it yourself, and lower the cost for everyone (as well as the organizational complexity for us.) We used our Ada Developer Academy volunteers wisely, designating a dozen of them as Lunch Leaders. Each was given a destination restaurant to go to, so that no single lunch spot got entirely swamped with hungry attendees. Each Lunch Leader wrote the name of the restaurant and its cuisine -- diner food, Indian, pizza, Russian dumplings -- on a sign, and held it aloft in the theatre lobby. When they'd gathered around them a rough group of about what we felt that restaurant could hand, away they'd go! We gave them the advice to NOT try to sit the entire group together, which forced groups of 4-6 to sit together at separate tables, furthering one of our goals of getting different groups of people interacting. One side effect was that the neighborhood itself became part of the conference, as people got outside the confines of the venue and got to explore Capitol Hill with its funky stores, its issues of tech gentrification against existing "Gayborhood" residents, capturing a lot of the current character of Seattle. It also provided a richer experience for attendees to intermingle and have space to talk about the conference and the talks they'd seen outside of the venue of the conference itself. Such a distance allowed for some really great discussions to occur, judging from the number of groups that said they missed the start of the afternoon sessions because they were lingering over empty plates!

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 The Outro: Go Forth
and Be Awesome Our hope is that you use the information we've presented to create similar efforts. I don't really care what the focus or theme of your event is, just that you find something you care about enough to want to bring a bunch of strangers together to examine it, celebrate it, improve upon it. Open Source & Feelings is a pretty silly name for something that ended up being so serious. The levity in the name, the jokes it inspired, exist to provide balance to difficult conversations about burnout, isolation, homogeny, and discrimination. It also was a platform for discussions about joy, finding a niche to call your own in a daunting industry, and not just making space for, but appreciating and celebrating the contributions of diverse, inclusive teams and products. I can look back on our effort. Our successes and failures, and feel good about what we accomplished. Our hypothesis on the Minimum Viable Conference was more or less confirmed. Events like OS&F and Mountain West are important. They provide opportunity to elevate ideas and voices that can improve our abilities, our understanding, our workflows, our relationships, and more. As we begin work on OS&F 2016, I am confident in our ability to provide value--real, tangible, meaningful value--to attendees, presenters, sponsors, and my fellow organizers. All of these events, like any other product we build, come with a cost. These regional conferences are a labor of love, done because we believe in our collective ability to learn, to teach, to inspire, and to change things for the better. Whether it's technique or technology, code or communication, these events are the soapboxes we need to move forward as an industry. Thank you.

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Questions & Answers (maybe)
LET ME ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 LINKS wishlist checklist CFP
Organizer CoC

@_jnf & @kerrizor MountainWest RubyConf 2016 Our hope is that
you use the information we've presented to create similar efforts. I don't really care what the focus or theme of your event is, just that you find something you care about enough to want to bring a bunch of strangers together to examine it, celebrate it, improve upon it. Open Source & Feelings is a pretty silly name for something that ended up being so serious. The levity in the name, the jokes it inspired, exist to provide balance to difficult conversations about burnout, isolation, homogeny, and discrmination. It also was a platform for discussions about joy, finding a niche to call your own in a daunting industry, and not just making space for, but appreciating and celebrating the contributions of diverse, inclusive teams and products. I can look back on our effort. Our successes and failures, and feel good about what we accomplished. Our hypothesis on the Minimum Viable Conference was more or less confirmed. Events like OS&F and Mountain West are important. They provide opportunity to elevate ideas and voices that can improve our abilities, our understanding, our workflows, our relationships, and more. As we begin work on OS&F 2016, I am confident in our ability to provide value--real, tangible, meaningful value--to attendees, presenters, sponsors, and my fellow organizers. All of these events, like any other product we build, come with a cost. These regional conferences are a labor of love, done because we believe in our collective ability to learn, to teach, to inspire, and to change things for the better. Whether it's technique or technology, code or communication, these events are the soapboxes we need to move forward as an industry. Thank you.

The Minimum Viable Conference -- MountainWest R...

The Minimum Viable Conference -- MountainWest RubyConf 2016

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