Pat's Guide to Running Events | Hacker News Reader

Pat's Guide to Running Events

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48 pointspaulannesley14 comments

Doing events at a cafe with a good barista and a coffee tab instead of a bar tab sounds awesome. As does the eradication of mediocre (or worse) food & drink, and useless bags of landfill.

There are a couple of things on that list I'd niggle with.

* Single vs multi-track. Personally I like both kind of events depending on the what and why. You get a lot of energy by everybody being in the same place. Equally sometimes there's a lot to be gained by splitting things up so people can explore different ideas then come back together again. You can use multiple tracks to get folk to think about different things - then come back together to cross pollinate ideas. It can be very energising if done right.

* 30m or less is just wrong as far as I'm concerned. You can certainly have an excellent event that just has 30m or less talks - but that's going to exclude some topics and some methods of presentation. So you need to be aware of that. Instead I'd phrase it as make sure to get the right length for the content. Push presenters hard on how they're going to use that time. Sometimes you'll find that 90m workshop is better as a 10m lightning talk. Sometimes you'll find that 30m talk is better as a 90m workshop.

Other random tips that I'd add in:

* Think about accessibility issues for those with wheelchairs, crutches, etc. and stick something in the publicity about it.

* Provide space for socialising during the event. Not everybody will have the energy or the interest to go to every session. Have somewhere for them to hang out and talk.

* For tech events especially - have caffeine available mid-morning, lunchtime, and mid-afternoon. People need their coffee/soda fix. If they can't find it onsite they'll wander off to get it. Keep people at the venue.

* Plan for smokers. Some people smoke. Make sure you know where they should go, and how to let them know when the next sessions are kicking off.

* Give some space for people to decompress, talk and socialise between sessions. Schedule in more than change-over time between sessions. Allow space for people to get up, stretch, and talk. They come back with more energy and enthusiasm.

* It's impossible to please everybody. Whatever you do some people will like some things and hate others about how you structure an event.

* Follow up with attendees after the event. Try and figure out what worked and what didn't for next time.

Don't forget to put vegetarians options for food, and clearly mention that is is vegetarian.

That's a great point - I guess part of me is blind to that because my diet is mainstream, but also, I'm surprised that there's still events that don't provide solid vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free options. Thoughtlessness at best, really.

Nut-free is also a good candidate, though obviously at some point budget and common sense will constrain.

I would expect good caterers should provide dining options that avoid common allergies - and certainly they'll accept dietary requirements if they're anything close to competent.

As an event organizer of events at many different levels, I will always make sure to have a vegetarian option, but I usually stop there. It becomes increasing more difficult, expensive, and complex to try to guess how much of and many different diets may be represented.

That being said, I do usually push for healthier-than-average food. I also started a "War on Pizza" in Seattle to get other event organizers to stop serving Pizza at events...

What do you replace pizza with, and how does it compare cost-wise?

I started a thread about this exact topic on Quora, which has 26 answers now: http://qr.ae/pcIQa

It's funny because most of the best technical speakers I receive in my conferences have always a specific food option. May be this is that which make them so good in what they do :)

Don't forget to put vegetarians options for food, and clearly mention that is is vegetarian.

And when you do please remember that people other than the vegetarians eat it! Omnivores will happily chow down on the veggy/vegan/whatever options - so you need to at least double-down on the percentages.

Lost count of the number of events where I've gone hungry coz they've got "10% veggy food" coz 10% of the attendees said they were veggy.

Personally when organising events I aim for 50/50 omni/veggy, with about 10-20% of the veggy option being vegan. The omnivores never notice. The veggy/vegan/dairy-free folk notice and love you for it.

Don't underestimate how getting fed well affects peoples opinion of an event (and the reviews and publicity you get afterwards ;)

Poster sessions in a large space?

Might help with 'socializing' and even the 'event party' aspect. Non-extroverts could use QR codes to find the authors of interesting posters &c and have a chat.

Very good advice. And the large noisy bar scene for parties is a pet peeve of mine too. But that could be a side effect of not being 21 any more. :-)

Pen and paper in a bag please

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