Hi guys,
I've got some great feedback from Thaung Su Nyein who was the
organising team leader at BarCamp Yangon 2011. This guy is calm,
collected and super-sharp.
The summary below is the plan for the most successful BarCamp so far,
in arguably one of the most difficult countries ever to have a BarCamp.
Some of these steps may be obvious, but note the high level of
planning and effort that they put into marketing and PR, and also into
organising volunteers.
My notes:
There were, as I recall, 30 organisers total and ~100 volunteers. 8
rooms (not quite enough). Sessions were 45 mins + 15 min overrun/
break. No need for lunch break, people just left a session 15 mins
early. Sessions were smooth. At no sessions I went to did speakers
need to be told they were out of time. Schedule was topic papers on a
single board, with copies on the doors of rooms. It was easy to
schedule/reschedule and easy for participants to understand.
Note that participants bought their own food at the canteen! Worked
great! No headache! No big rush! No left-over food! No mess to clean
up. No worries about food sponsors. No hungry participants. Everybody
got food they liked. Venue's canteen must have been happy. Only the
volunteers got free food (and, after it was all done, beer. Boy, was
that bit fun :D).
Ceremonies:
There were opening and closing ceremonies. The closing ceremony was
grandiose but light-hearted and fun, with lots of handing out of
appreciation certificates (making volunteers proud and thus likely to
help in future), and a lucky draw with top prize of a netbook (smart
move - another reason for people to stay until the end). Some
participants were invited to talk about how the event could be
improved, or their feelings of the event. The closing ceremony was
great as it looked impressive for the TV and newspaper cameras there.
It said "we were successful" in a way that the media could easily
carry. It sent forward a lot of good will and rounded the event off
tidily.
Problems:
Some rooms were a bit too far away from the others. BarCamp Bangkok
was better in this regard somewhat, as all the rooms were in close
proximity, on two floors.
Didn't realise where one of the rooms was until near the end. A map
would have helped.
On the first day, some people's topics, meant for day two, were put up
too early (day 1) and this caused problems. On the second day they
changed policy: sessions had to be confirmed at least 30 mins before
otherwise they'd be rescheduled. I'll need to ask them again how well
this actually worked in the end.
There was a girl there pretending to be an organiser and deliberately
trying to disrupt the event by sending people to the wrong places.
People were warned to ignore her.
Anyway, I recommend people to have a read through this prior to the
meeting.
Mike
Dear Mike,
I'd like to thank you also for helping to organize more
international barcampers to be able to participate at this year's
BarCamps in Yangon and Mandalay.
We value these international barcampers not just because they are
foreigners, but because they (you) live in places where there's a
lot more exposure to trends, new technologies, open technologies,
youtube, new experiences, new kinds of services, etc.
Our network here doesn't permit us to view YouTube (the greatest
learning tool that we don't have access to now) or join WebEx
conferences - due to bandwidth and/or access policies.
So, we can read the online articles and e-books, but without seeing
a video of something in action, we are left guessing how that goes.
So, having international barcampers come and show things to us in
person, really speak a thousand words.
I just wanted to reiterate this to you, it's what I basically told EJ.
Now about the organization and operation prior to BarCamp Yangon
2011, the following is a gist of what we did.
1. Start announcing on Facebook that we will be re-forming a new
organizing team for the next BarCamp. Convene a meeting to form that
new organizing team 6 months before the expected date. Organize the
team into clearly defined groups with duties and responsibilities.
2. Choose the date for the BarCamp event. Set 2 days of weekend
which does not run into conflict with any major holidays or travel
periods or final examination dates, etc.
3. Book the venue after the second or third meeting once the date
and venue are confirmed. In Myanmar, a place like Myanmar Info-Tech
is hard to find.
4. Start publicizing the event, asking for sponsors. Keep updating
Facebook pages and official website regularly. Issue press releases.
Keep ourselves in the news by coming up with new activities (e.g.
Logo competition!, T-Shirt design contributions requested, etc.).
5. Hold a couple of press conferences. Time the first one so that
your marketing group can start going around to potential sponsors as
the first major wave of publicity hits the news papers. Time the
second one so that any remaining sponsor slots can be filled and
potential volunteers are made aware that BarCamp is xx weeks away.
6. Post notices at nearby universities or large training centers,
about a month or so before BarCamp.
7. Hold a Pre-BarCamp a week before BarCamp. This is basically the
first time when volunteers are open invited and asked to come in and
register. Make sure Pre-BarCamp date, time and place are announced
as widely as possible. We had about 140 volunteers show up for BCY11.
8. At Pre-BarCamp, explain to volunteers about upcoming event, the
organizer team's preparations, the roles the volunteers are expected
to help out in. Define clearly each volunteer type's duties and
responsibilities.
9. Hire a video documentary team to document both PreBC and BarCamp.
10. Friday before BarCamp, all organizers and volunteers are asked
to come in at 8am and work throughout the day. Most volunteers do
not have to stay the whole day. But they should come in and pick up
their badges, get briefings from their leaders, etc.
11. The organizer team setup:
Team Leader
Coordinator
- Assistant Coordinator
Group Leaders
- Admin Group (arrange productions of t-shirts, vinyl banners,
venue, food, etc.)
- Marketing Group (get sponsors and raise funds)
- PR & Web Group (publicity, website, press releases)
- Tech Support Group (network setup)
- Finance Group (keep accounts)
12. Volunteers roles:
- Medical (doctors on standby for medical emergencies)
- Planners (decoration, arrangements)
- Room Coordinators (2 volunteers assigned to each room, make sure
speakers arrive and leave on time)
- Tech Support (projectors, network, laptops)
- Translators (translate for international barcampers)
- Media (handle media requests, press interviews)
- Registration desk (accept registration forms, hand out delegate
packages)
13. Raise enough money to pay for venue, food for volunteers
(participants buy their own food), arrange outside food sellers to
come in and sell (with 3000 participants, the regular restaurants at
the venue can't handle the crowd!).
14. Invite IT persons from other cities and countries to join.
15. Have point/contact persons for everything.
16. Make cool delegate packages to attract participants.
17. Days before BarCamp, start promoting heavily on online and
offline media, about all the cool things that are going to happen at
BarCamp.
18. Hold monthly organizer team meetings where everyone attends.
Also hold irregular impromptu meetings with key persons for urgent
matters.
19. Setup a group email in Google Groups. All communications can be
searched later in this one place.
I've CC'ed the group leaders and key persons here, so you can ask
them directly for more information.
Coordinator "Mr Tin Htoo Khaing" <[email protected]>
Assistant Coordinator "Mr Wayne Wai Lin Tun" <[email protected]
>
Admin Group Leader "Mr Aung Myo Lwin (Agga) " <[email protected]>
Marketing G Leader "Mr ZawZaw myolwin" <[email protected]>
PR G Co-Leader "Ms Htaike" <[email protected]>
PR G Leader "Mr Nyi Lynn Seck" <[email protected]>
Tech G Leader "Mr Ravi Chhabra" <[email protected]>
Finance G Leader "Ms Myint Myint Nwe" <[email protected]>
thanks and hope to see you again at next year's BCY,
tsn
On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Michael Amy
<[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Thaung Su Nyein,
Thanks for organising BarCamp Yangon 2011, it was a great success
and the international participants were honoured and grateful to be
part of it.
As you know, John Berns was the main organiser of BarCamps in
Bangkok so far, but has now moved to Singapore. Jordan is starting
to think about organising the next BarCamp in Bangkok.
I believe we have a lot to learn from how BarCamp Yangon was
organised. I think that part of the success of BarCamp in Yangon
comes from a massive demand for such an event, but also from having
effective marketing and PR teams. BarCamp Bangkok 4 had, as far as I
know, minimal marketing effort, and faced many problems in
organisation.
Can you share with us any of your experience to help us to create a
better event in Bangkok?
In particular I'd like to know what teams there were, how those
teams were structured and how they communicated at and before the
event. What meetings were held, how long did the planning take and
what problems needed to be solved? Who were the marketing people so
I ask them questions directly?
Thanks for your time,
Best regards,
Mike Amy
On 24 Feb 2011, at 2:06, j0rd wrote:
I just came back from Barcamp Yangon 2011. It was attended by many
organizers of Barcamp Bangkok. The topic came up "what the heck are
we going to do for Barcamp Bangkok", so I figured we'd schedule a
Barcamp Bangkok 2010 - Wrap up meeting to start the ball rolling.
To try and keep this meeting brief and focused, this meeting is only
open to those who have helped organize Barcamp Bangkok in the past.
Even if you're not planning on assisting with Barcamp 2011, please
show up.
To keep things on topic, I'd like people to prepare a list of items
on:
* What issues we faced at Barcamp Bangkok 2010 and how can we
resolve them for 2011.
I'm not interested in seeing issues brought up, which you do not
have creative and feasible solutions for.
At the end of the meeting, I'd like the group to decide on what
organizational groups we will need (marketing, accounting, web) and
what their duties will be.
Following the wrap up meeting, we will plan a real Barcamp Bangkok
2011 organizers meeting, which will be open to all those who would
like to assist with Barcamp Bangkok 2011.
The meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 2nd (7pm) at Bug and
Bee coffee shop in Silom (Sala Daeng BTS Station), Top Floor. If you
can not make the meeting, please prepare your list of issues and
solutions and email them to me on March 1st and I'll present them on
your behalf to the group.
For more information about the venue please visit this link:
http://www.bugandbee.com/02ourshopSilom.htm
PLEASE RSVP by responding "+1" as soon as possible so I can reserve
some space at Bug and Bee.
Cheers,
Jordan
--
Barcamp Bangkok 4: October 23-24, 2010
More details at http://www.barcampbangkok.com/
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--
Barcamp Bangkok 4: October 23-24, 2010
More details at http://www.barcampbangkok.com/
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Barcamp Thailand" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
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[email protected]
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