Difference between revisions of "How To Plan A Code4LibCon"

Latest revision as of 19:32, 3 March 2025

General Process

While this is the general chronology of running the conference, it never hurts to plan ahead. Before hosting proposals for the next year are solicited, you can prepare some components of your proposal. Before your proposal is accepted, you can recruit volunteers to serve on committees. In particular, it helps to have at least a few initial people who will form the nucleus of your Local Planning Committee (LPC).

• When the call for next year's host goes out, prepare a proposal
  • See Successful Code4Lib Conference Proposals from prior years
  • Identify venues for both the conference and the hotel (if different).
  • Prepare cost estimates. The primary factors are:
    • Lodging (hotels) - see if hotels offer discounted room block quotes
    • Venues (conference, workshop, reception, other activities)
    • Catering
    • Wireless: If you are proposing to host the conference on a campus, check with your IT folks about any additional costs. If you look at a hotel or other venue, make sure you talk to them about bandwidth and costs.
    • Do you have organizational relationships which might ensure extra sponsorships? If so, factor in that this might reduce the registration cost. For instance, when we were at the Library of Congress in 2018, they were also our largest sponsor.
    • You can reference data from previous years to estimate minimums and maximums.
  • Use our conference planner (CONCENTRA)
    • Since 2014 in NC, Code4lib has contracted with CONCENTRA to help manage and plan the conference. Their expertise is invaluable. You can ask them questions while preparing your proposal. CONCENTRA knows Code4Lib and our unique structure and well as how to plan various aspects of conferences (hotel room block, catering, bus to reception, etc.). Look for Jennifer Cummings in Slack or use their site's contact link.
    • See if your institution has a conference planning services group or something similar - if so, they can also be very helpful and will know more about campus spaces and costs (e.g. if there are free rooms to use for pre-conferences).
• Get approved by the community and start planning
  • Receive access to the Code4Lib Conference Drive folders with information from prior years
  • Construct a planning timeline (see templates in Drive)
  • Find a hotel, negotiate and sign a contract with them. CONCENTRA does this but this Sample RFI is still a useful reference; note the WiFi requirements
  • Put out a call for committee volunteers (on the listserv, in Slack)
• Put on an amazing conference! If you get this far, you have survived the worst part.
• The final duties of LPC are putting out the call for next year's proposals and writing up reflections.

Location

Code4Lib has been hosted on university campuses and also located purely in hotels. Campus facilities tend to be more affordable, but housing can be scattered and challenging. Hotels are more expensive but cohesive.

If your campus or town has a conference center, that is a logical starting point. Large hotels are also an option. In recent years, the conference has been smaller (a little over 200 attendees). If you are unsure how many attendees to plan for, look at historical attendance figures or ask in the code4libcon channel in Slack. In general, 200-400 attendees is a good range.

A couple of isolated rooms for the conference but away from the main space are important for both the Community Support Squad to hold private discussions and to private a place of quiet respite for weary conference-goers.

Workshops

Workshops have been held before and after the conference. They are referred to as "pre-conferences" or "post-conferences" in planning and publicity materials. There should be space to facilitate 10-20 workshops. It is helpful if they can be located in the same building but not necessary.

These can be class or meeting rooms but should have a projector and ideally a whiteboard. Electricity for attendees is also important.

Reception

A nice reception venue can be appealing to many attendees. In the past, we have gone to museums, libraries, and more fun venues. If Philadelphia, we went to The Mütter Museum. In D.C., we went to the Library of Congress. In Michigan, we went to "fowling" (football bowling).

A nice reception at a separate location is not strictly necessary. It might be possible to do catering at the conference venue in the evening, for instance.

Transportation

Consider how folks coming into town will get to their lodging. Is the airport far? Are there free shuttles? Is it possible to get there via a major railway?

If lodging and the venue are separate, how will attendees get to the conference venue? Are there shuttles? If we need to purchase a bus, how much will it cost?

Most years, we pay for a bus to the reception venue, as it tends to be in a different location.

Local Appeal

Successful proposals in the past included local spots that attendees will be interested in: cultural institutions, tourist attractions, book stores, libraries, restaurants, and nightlife. The Social Activities committee plans around these venues. It is nice to have a nighttime location where Game Night can be held (which can be a workshop room).

There is nothing wrong with doing a conference in a location we've been to before, or in a location that is close to last year's location. In the past, Code4Lib tended to bounce between the East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest, but that is not a requirement and should not dissuade any location from submitting a proposal.

Committee List

Each year we copy the prior year's list of committees (see Category:Conference Committees) to a new wiki page. If you are looking for information on a committee or new volunteers, prior years can provide some names, but know that not all committees keep their membership on the wiki up to date.

Brief descriptions of the primary committees:

• Planning (LPC) - primary committee, should have delegates on most others, makes major decisions
• Website - creates and updates the website using a template and data provided by other committees
• Sponsorship - acquires sponsorships to reduce costs
• Keynote - solicits suggestions from community and communicates with keynote candidates
• Pre-conference - plans workshops
• Program - plans posters and conference talks
• Scholarship - solicits diversity scholarship applications and selects candidates
• Community Support Squad (CSS) - enforces the Code of Conduct
• T-Shirt - solicits T-Shirt designs
• Social Activities - plans social events at the conference such as Game Night
• Streaming - runs the livestream
• Host Voting - solicits proposals for next year
• Accessibility - consults on physical and digital accessibility, e.g. of venues and the conference websites

You will also need on-site volunteers during the conference for tasks like MCing the conference, timing talks, and running microphones for audience questions.

Code4Lib is democratic; most committees faced with multiple options (keynote, pre-conference, program, t-shirt, host voting) host community votes to determine some or all of their choices.

Some committees are small, even a single person. Some years may have some unique committees not present in the list above. For more information on any particular committee, look in their Drive folder or on the wiki.

Planning

Budgeting

• Conference_Financial_History_At_A_Glance

Wireless

Historically, Code4Lib has had trouble with wifi bandwidth at venues. Hotels will lie about their wifi. Try to receive assurance that every attendee will be able to simultaneously have 1-2 devices connected to the network. It's best if you are able to visit the venue to verify its network characteristics.

It is good if the venue allows VPN traffic as many folks use a work VPN. It's also nice if commonly used ports, like 22 for ssh/git, are usable.

Aspiration Tech (an org doing unconference facilitation) has developed a great list for assessing and negotiating event wifi.

At the Conference

Code of Conduct

LPC may be consulted by the CSS if a Code of Conduct violation occurs. These have sometimes necessitated someone being removed from the conference or an announcement being made from the stage.

Keynotes

• Speaker gifts
• Small honorarium
• Offer to make dinner plans

Lightning Talks

• Sign up ahead of time on papers in the venue
• Load slides onto the podium in the break before
• Everybody lines during the time slot (image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schwartzray/4393881044/ )

Conference

• Power - everyone would like to plug in their laptop (and possibly their phone)

Photography

Code4Lib uses different colored lanyards to articulate personal photography preferences.

• Green = it's ok to take my picture
• Yellow = please ask before taking my picture
• Red = don't take my picture

Podium

1. Water at the podium
2. Provide height adjustable podium, if available. Otherwise:
3. Provide a stand (apple box?) for presenters who would like to use one

Video

1. Videos are streamed at https://youtube.com/code4lib
2. Presenters can opt out of having their likeness recorded and streamed. They may not opt out of having their voice and presentation (i.e. slides, etc.) recorded and streamed.
3. Presenters must not use unlicensed music in their presentation. Likewise, unlicensed music must not be used between presentations.
4. Video must be able to work with the house A/V crew and set up the day before the main con begins.
5. Lighting must be provided for the speakers.

Calls for Hosting

To do: This has not been kept up to date. We should use examples from recent years and remove older ones.

See Category:Conference Hosting Proposals.

Further Readings

The most recent year's Lessons Learned (in Drive) are more likely to be relevant. Some of these links are quite old but may still contain valuable insight on problems that have happened over the years.

• Code4Lib Conference Lessons Learned (from 2014)
• 2017_Lessons_Learned
• How To Organize a Conference - Some excellent thoughts on conferences in general.