Getting event off the ground

[hotnuts21]

I am looking at putting together a Joomla training workshop and joomla day over the course of a few days. However I have no idea where to start or how things are done elsewhere.

What I have so far is a plan a location and a facility to hold the event.

My plan is to make the event for both developers and users.

I aim to have it over 3-4 days. Wed/Thur - Sat.

Wed/Thur - Friday would consist of training and development as these would be more interesting to developers and so in the week would enable them to do it in 'work time'. This would be a range of training workshops and development lectures.

Saturday - this would be the Joomla Day. It would have a few workshops on using joomla, J1.5, and a few lectures/demonstrations in the same type of thing.

There would be a number of issues covered but particularly translation, what is going on in our area with joomla. how to create a component, SEO etc

The facility also has a fantastic and very powerful Video conferencing system which can be piped to a number of rooms. So the lectures would also be VC to other locations in the world. During the day people in other locations can put together questions to the 'board' of speakers. At the end of each day all locations would be linked for a live Q+A session. Attendees would also be able to submit their website for review and two or three would be reviewed by the board of dragons (made up of speakers, commercial developers, SEO experts etc) at the end of the last day.

So I am wondering how do I get speakers/talkers from the core joomla team, how much notice do they need.

The big question though is costs!
Firstly do the J team charge for showing up?
How do people go about hiring venues and speakers?
Do other events charge for attending?
Have other events taken sponsorship to cover costs and how has this worked?

Also it would be good to know what sort of numbers people have experienced at their own events, particularly Joomla Days. This will help to get an idea of possible interest and which roooms/locations to use.

Some feedback/thoughts would be good.

[Wendy]

I'm not on the events team, but I too am in the organizing stages of a Joomladay, so thought I'd reply. 

I found this thread quite helpful.  As well, Alex (akede) is the person to contact directly for information.  He has more about that here

Once you get the info you need from him, you'll find it's a little bit easier to manage all the details

[hotnuts21]

Thanks I have PM'd him so lets see what happens.

[akede]

Dear Paul,

sorry to say but this does not fit together.

A Joomla! training is a commercial event while a Joomla!Day is non-for-profit only. This means it will be very trick to get something approved under the term of a Joomla!Day.

The answers of your other questions are directly related to the first decision: what kind of event is it?

Where do you want to organize the event, and what is your personal relationship to the regional community?

Alex

[hotnuts21]

HI Akede,

I took a few days after reading your reply, because I was a little disappointed when I first read it and I was not sure if I just read it wrong so wanted to leave it a while before replying. Im still a little disappointed because I posted in the support thread looking for some support to get an event off the ground that is centered around promoting Joomla. I read through a lot of posts in this section of the site and I dont remember you asking other people their relationship to the community.  Also you say that some of my ideas would be difficult to get approved under the term of a Joomla! Day, but I cannot find any information where all this information is and what goes towards a Joomla day, hence this post in the first place. There are some posts which are slightly helpful, but I think some of this information needs to be put down somewhere easy to find and made a lot clearer, or when people ask for help/guidance they get it in a friendly way.

Anyway I will answer your questions/worries/points here.

The commercial aspect is something that never even entered my head, this is again why I was asking questions. It seems some people charge to attend their Joomla day? But if we were to do this, it would be purely to cover any costs associated with putting on the event, I mean how do people cover the cost of these events?  I notice some Joomla! days are put on by companies who I presume cover the costs, this too could be deemed as a commercial interest. Any speakers who turn up to Joomla days would also be considered as Commercial activities/events would they not?

The fact that PicNet a private company is hosting all the bug squishing days could also be construed as a Commercial move, a very clever marketing trick although these are strictly not Joomla! days I would like some clarification of what 'commercial' actually is.  The most interesting bit is that I never actually mentioned having a commercial aim, and I still don't. I would be happy to put on the event at a loss to myself. I only mentioned having a few days of training first, something which again I have noticed in just about all the Joomla days past I have read about they all contained some aspect of training.

I will try and make my plan a little clearer. Basically a Joomla day is great, but I was thinking of making it more of a Joomla event which encompasses more people and activities. 

- During the weekdays (wed or Thur through till Friday) there would be what I would call events, lecturers, training for those involved in the development side of Joolma the techies. I would plan to get some speakers, developers in to do the training, but I would look for someone/business/organisation to cover the costs of these, or charge just to cover costs not to make a profit!! (this is why I am asking for help and guidance, as hinted at in my topic title).
- On the Friday I may also have an afternoon of how to run your Joomla site, aimed at those small companies who may be considering or who have downloaded joomla to use, but are not techies. This would cover basic installing of templates, configuring but mainly administering and adding content. There would also be the more indepth training whatever for the hardcore.
- On the Saturday would be a general Joomla day, so those who have been there for the preceding days can have a relaxing day and mingle with others, there would also be the usual events available training, lectures, demonstrations and maybe a quick fun Welsh lesson There would of course be a little crossover from some of the things that have gone on over the previous few days, however the Saturday would be aimed at those people who could not make a few days of events and could only come for the one day.

Dont think of it as a Joomla Day but a Joomla Conference held over a few days to the same (non commercial) aims of a Joomla day. This would make it accessible to as many budgets and skills as possible, and flexible enough for people to decide how and when they want to attend, giving something for everyone. Hey maybe the developers can get on board and have a major meet up too!!

Ok when and Where. Well I did post that in another post but I will repeat it here.
My plan is for next August/September and to be held in Aberystwyth, Wales, UK. We have many conferences here and I have yet to find anyone who hasnt fallen in love with the place after visiting.  I am hoping for it to be JoomladayUK2008, particularly as there was not one this year, but if one does get off the ground next year, it would maybe be called JoomladayWales. Or maybe something catchy like JoomlaConf '08. As for Venue it would either be at the National Library of Wales as it has a good main lecture room and also some break out rooms that can be utilised. Alternatively if the event was really popular it would have to move next door to the Aberystwyth Arts Center.

As for my position in the community, im not sure if you mean the physical or Joomla community. But i will give you a run down on both. Firstly joomla community. You can look at my back posts and also google my username and you will see I am active on the internet with this username my posts are split into three type, questions , humour and helping others where I can.
I am involved with the Welsh and Docman projects here on Joomla and I also released a few modules back in the Mambo days and the first mambo/Joomla Vbulletin bridge. I have been actively using and supporting people using Joomla since the early Mambo days. Im not the most active member, but I do try to help and give back when I have the time.  I was also behind this press release http://www.joomla.org/content/view/4257/33/ and the project.

In the 'real' world, I am a self employed web developer and I have been building and promoting Joomla since 2004. I have given a presentation to local business clubs in the Welsh Development Agencys IT POD, on using (then mambo) which can still be seen online at http://www.sankesolutions.co.uk/presentation/.  Currently I am on a one year contract with Culturenet Cymru to develop and build a National Community Archive website, as well as support the IT needs of the project.
In my spare time I volunteer to save lives at sea with the Aberystwyth Lifeboat, you can see more about that at http://www.aberystwythlifeboat.org.uk (currently being rebuilt in Joomla 1.5). I also run the lifeboat shop (Voluntarily) and am boathouse manager for the Lifeboat (voluntarily). My company also produces Joomla sites for charitys free of charge although for obvious reasons we keep this quiet. We are currently working on 6 Charity sites.

Apart from that I only have time to sleep and eat, the later of which I usually do when I am working

All this is just ideas at the moment as I am looking for some help and guidance in setting this event up, and I am hoping that you have enough information and that we can move forward together to get something put together for what I think will be an exciting event!

I hope I have answered your question thoroughly and you do not forsee any problems with what I am proposing, I am willing to work with you guys to take this forward.

Paul

[akede]

Hi Paul,

HI Akede,

I took a few days after reading your reply, because I was a little disappointed when I first read it and I was not sure if I just read it wrong so wanted to leave it a while before replying. Im still a little disappointed because I posted in the support thread looking for some support to get an event off the ground that is centered around promoting Joomla. I read through a lot of posts in this section of the site and I dont remember you asking other people their relationship to the community.  Also you say that some of my ideas would be difficult to get approved under the term of a Joomla! Day, but I cannot find any information where all this information is and what goes towards a Joomla day, hence this post in the first place. There are some posts which are slightly helpful, but I think some of this information needs to be put down somewhere easy to find and made a lot clearer, or when people ask for help/guidance they get it in a friendly way.

No problem to discuss this here. In fact I think it was a very wise decision to wait a bit as your response is very well.
The main reason those things are not directly visible for you us that most of the times the people contact me via mail and we discuss those things via this medium and not the forum. The primary document for that is the Joomla!Day charter which I can send to you. Please just send me a mail.

Anyway I will answer your questions/worries/points here.

The commercial aspect is something that never even entered my head, this is again why I was asking questions. It seems some people charge to attend their Joomla day? But if we were to do this, it would be purely to cover any costs associated with putting on the event, I mean how do people cover the cost of these events?  I notice some Joomla! days are put on by companies who I presume cover the costs, this too could be deemed as a commercial interest. Any speakers who turn up to Joomla days would also be considered as Commercial activities/events would they not?

I think answering your questions might help for the understanding of others too. Good questions.

Ok, what is a commercial aspect for us?
A Joomla!Day event is dedicated to the Joomla! Community only.

A combination of a paid training course and a Joomla!Day is not acceptable. Why? If you earn money via a training this is fine. But using the Joomla!Day as an advertising for the platform for those trainings is the critical aspect. If you combine those events and with that combine websites and promostions you get the problem of a conflict of interets.

Related to the costs and entrance fees.

I even recommend every organiser to ask for entrance fees!
The reason is simple. The entrance fee shows a clear commitment of the person to attend your event and also you can very transparent show the budget of the event to your community. One problem with purely sponsored events is that the community has quite a lot of resentments
because they might think that the sponsors control the event (which might not even the be the case, but this is the assumption).

The fact that PicNet a private company is hosting all the bug squishing days could also be construed as a Commercial move, a very clever marketing trick although these are strictly not Joomla! days I would like some clarification of what 'commercial' actually is.  The most interesting bit is that I never actually mentioned having a commercial aim, and I still don't. I would be happy to put on the event at a loss to myself. I only mentioned having a few days of training first, something which again I have noticed in just about all the Joomla days past I have read about they all contained some aspect of training.

My assumption of a commercial event was based on the combination of training and community event. I'm doing trainings myself and I know how much work those trainings are. Doing them totally for free is a nice gesture but not something we would ever ask anybody for. We have no issue with trainings being commercial in fact this is what we will ever support as this also raises the quality of code.

The marketing trick of PicNet you address is in fact no trick at all. Same with Google or JoomlaTools who are hosting those days as well the companies donate basically their infrastructure to make the events happen. As with any other sponsor we reckon this and name the sponsors. The same will happen at any Joomla!Day a sponsor supports. Anybody who is supporting Joomla! or a community related event deserves to be named. So no worries here. When ever you with your own company, or any of your sponsors agree for supporting a Joomla!Day you are free to add a link and name of the related site. Nothing needs to be hidden.


A second point which I saw reading your first post.
You try to setup a very long and huge event. I don't know your experience with events - from my experience with Joomla! events I can say anything longer than 2 days is extremely complicate and difficult to prepare. This is why we always suggest starting with a one day event. As the event is dedicated to the community it always happened that the community also suggests talks and sessions. This is one part you normally don't need to bother about. If your event is only one or two days the whole budget topic gets far less complicated and with that more easy to finance.

Joomla!/OSM can support you in any budgeting issues. We have a fixed budget for any Joomla!Day which we will invest for your convenience.
How the money can be used we can easily discuss on a mail.

I will try and make my plan a little clearer. Basically a Joomla day is great, but I was thinking of making it more of a Joomla event which encompasses more people and activities. 

- During the weekdays (wed or Thur through till Friday) there would be what I would call events, lecturers, training for those involved in the development side of Joolma the techies. I would plan to get some speakers, developers in to do the training, but I would look for someone/business/organisation to cover the costs of these, or charge just to cover costs not to make a profit!! (this is why I am asking for help and guidance, as hinted at in my topic title).
- On the Friday I may also have an afternoon of how to run your Joomla site, aimed at those small companies who may be considering or who have downloaded joomla to use, but are not techies. This would cover basic installing of templates, configuring but mainly administering and adding content. There would also be the more indepth training whatever for the hardcore.
- On the Saturday would be a general Joomla day, so those who have been there for the preceding days can have a relaxing day and mingle with others, there would also be the usual events available training, lectures, demonstrations and maybe a quick fun Welsh lesson There would of course be a little crossover from some of the things that have gone on over the previous few days, however the Saturday would be aimed at those people who could not make a few days of events and could only come for the one day.

Dont think of it as a Joomla Day but a Joomla Conference held over a few days to the same (non commercial) aims of a Joomla day. This would make it accessible to as many budgets and skills as possible, and flexible enough for people to decide how and when they want to attend, giving something for everyone. Hey maybe the developers can get on board and have a major meet up too!!

Yes this sounds far more like a Joomla! Conference or similar event than a single Joomla!Day . We had this idea already and actually we are working on this in the events team. I would love to talk to you about the details and give you some insides of what we have in mind.

The term "Joomla!Conference" or "Joomla!Convention" or "Joomla!Conf" is protected and OSM decided that this kind of event needs to be driven by the Joomla! events team - may be this is a good reason for you to join this team ;-).

Ok when and Where. Well I did post that in another post but I will repeat it here.
My plan is for next August/September and to be held in Aberystwyth, Wales, UK. We have many conferences here and I have yet to find anyone who hasnt fallen in love with the place after visiting.  I am hoping for it to be JoomladayUK2008, particularly as there was not one this year, but if one does get off the ground next year, it would maybe be called JoomladayWales. Or maybe something catchy like JoomlaConf '08. As for Venue it would either be at the National Library of Wales as it has a good main lecture room and also some break out rooms that can be utilised. Alternatively if the event was really popular it would have to move next door to the Aberystwyth Arts Center.

As for my position in the community, im not sure if you mean the physical or Joomla community. But i will give you a run down on both. Firstly joomla community. You can look at my back posts and also google my username and you will see I am active on the internet with this username my posts are split into three type, questions , humour and helping others where I can.
I am involved with the Welsh and Docman projects here on Joomla and I also released a few modules back in the Mambo days and the first mambo/Joomla Vbulletin bridge. I have been actively using and supporting people using Joomla since the early Mambo days. Im not the most active member, but I do try to help and give back when I have the time.  I was also behind this press release http://www.joomla.org/content/view/4257/33/ and the project.

In the 'real' world, I am a self employed web developer and I have been building and promoting Joomla since 2004. I have given a presentation to local business clubs in the Welsh Development Agencys IT POD, on using (then mambo) which can still be seen online at http://www.sankesolutions.co.uk/presentation/.  Currently I am on a one year contract with Culturenet Cymru to develop and build a National Community Archive website, as well as support the IT needs of the project.
In my spare time I volunteer to save lives at sea with the Aberystwyth Lifeboat, you can see more about that at http://www.aberystwythlifeboat.org.uk (currently being rebuilt in Joomla 1.5). I also run the lifeboat shop (Voluntarily) and am boathouse manager for the Lifeboat (voluntarily). My company also produces Joomla sites for charitys free of charge although for obvious reasons we keep this quiet. We are currently working on 6 Charity sites.

Apart from that I only have time to sleep and eat, the later of which I usually do when I am working

All this is just ideas at the moment as I am looking for some help and guidance in setting this event up, and I am hoping that you have enough information and that we can move forward together to get something put together for what I think will be an exciting event!

I hope I have answered your question thoroughly and you do not forsee any problems with what I am proposing, I am willing to work with you guys to take this forward.

Paul

Answered my questions fully!

The primary thing I wanted to know how the relationship from you with your UK community is. I think with the English speaking people talking about a regional community is a bit complicated. We had a Joomla!Day UK already once (2006). We would need to check if we can get the domain name from Brian. In general I think it would be great to have a Joomla!Day in the UK again. July/August 2008 sounds like a very good plan to me.

Many thanks for this thoughtful post and sorry if I have formulated the first response not precise enough.

Kind regards

Alex

[hotnuts21]

Its nice to see how a bit of forward thinking and respectable dialogue can combine to find a way forward with something. Its very often threads like this that end up becoming flame wars and out of hand.

I am very busy up until the end of Jan/Feb which is one of the reasons I thought of having the event later in the year, so I have more time to organise things. But I would be delighted to join the Events team and discuss a Joomla conf/day UK/Wales in the new year.

I will drop you a PM with my email.

regards
Paul

[akede]

Very wise words.

No problems we have enough time.

Kind regards

Alex