August 2008

Events: Perspectives from a Joomla! Day Organizer

Ten steps to a successful event

Written by Wendy Robinson

So you've read all about the Joomla! Days that have taken place around the world, and you'd like to see one in your local area. How can you make it possible? Start one yourself! Here are some tips and ideas based on the recent Joomla! Day Vancouver that will help to you get your own Joomla! Day off the ground.

Your first step in starting a Joomla! Day in your area should be to contact Alex Kempkens, the Joomla! Core Team Events leader, or one of Joomla!'s Events Mentors for permission to use the Joomla! Day name and access to the forums and Joomla! Day Charter as an organizer.

Once you have approval for the event, that's when the fun of planning begins!

So what are some basic things you'll need for you Joomla! Day?

1) Support Team

When people offer to help you organize your Joomla! Day (even if six months in advance) take them up on it! Organizing an event such as this will not only be one of the most rewarding and educational experiences you will have, but it will also be one of the most difficult if you choose to do it on your own. It all looks easy on paper, or listed in an article. But when it comes down to making the plans, booking the venues, finding food, sponsors, prizes and accommodations it is more than a one person job! Brainstorming with like minded individuals is a great way to accomplish tasks, but also an opportunity to make some new friends and contacts.

2) A Venue

Ideally you'll want to find a venue in a central place that people can easily get to. For Joomla! Day Vancouver, we chose a large room in the public library building down town. It was a great choice as it is a city landmark that most locals know of, also because of its location in the city centre there were hotels near by where people from out of town could stay without having to travel too far to get to the event. We'll talk more about hotels a little further down.

It is best to source out a venue that comes equipped with the following:

• Projector and screen
• Internet Access
• A surplus of chairs
• Room for a booth or table outside of the event space to take registrations

In some cases, it can be found that it's best to rent a venue that has two rooms available to use. This works well when you want to give people the option of multiple platforms (beginner vs expert or designer vs programmer).

3) Presenters

Presenting at a Joomla! Day can be done by anybody willing. What works best is to have some ideas for topics ready ahead of time and invite people to pick one to present. You may have seen or heard of certain people talking about specific topics at other Joomla! Days and want to invite them to yours to do the same. That works too.

As much as Joomla! is a community driven project, people are often interested in hearing Core Team and Working Group members presentations. Depending on time, availability and resources, you can invite people from within the team to attend and present at your event. This is something you'll want to do well ahead of time so that there is time to prepare travel arrangements for anyone from out of town.

Don't forget your local Joomla! users when it comes to a presentation schedule. In Vancouver, we opened up some "Project Spotlight" time slots that allowed for attendees to stand up and take the stage for 15-20 minutes at a time and share a project they've done using Joomla! It was a great opportunity for the audience to hear some new ideas, but also for the presenters to get the word out about their project and even get some questions answered and new ideas suggested.

4) Schedule

It is wise to know well ahead of time how many hours you want your event to run for. This will likely be determined by the amount of time you are able to rent the out the venue.

There is no set terms for creating a schedule. Ultimately the schedule will be unique to your event's needs and will depend on the format of your presentations. Be they lecture style, Break out sessions, Birds of a feather or conference style make sure you have enough time scheduled including coffee and lunch breaks. Also make sure you've got the right amount of space for what you intend to do.

5) Refreshments

While it's not a requirement to provide refreshments to your attendees, it is often a highly appreciated 'perk' of registering for an event.

We kept it light in Vancouver with coffee/tea and pastries in the morning, followed by sandwich and wrap trays along with baked goods in the afternoon. We chose a locally operated catering franchise who were very cooperative with our limited budget in mind. The food and drinks that were supplied went over very well with the guests.

For those who wanted something different than what was offered, there were also a number of eateries on the upper level of the building where people could go for lunch without straying too far from the meeting room. With that in mind, we were able to get back on schedule fairly quick after the lunch break.

6) Give Aways

People like free stuff. In your planning stages, brainstorm some ideas to use for door prizes, bonuses for registering early, and incentives for attending. Some things that have proven successful:

Event Tshirts - If you choose to offer tshirts as part of registration, consider making it an early bird special! Doing so will allow you enough time to organize sizes and to get the shirts early enough to have them ready for people when they show up at the door of your event.

Door Prizes - In Vancouver we held some random ticket draws throughout the day for door prizes that were donated by our sponsors and presenters. Items on the list included Joomla! books, hosting packages, Web site design packages, Extension club memberships and live Joomla! 1.5 telephone support.

There are countless ideas you could use for door prizes. It's a fun way to entertain people in between presentations, and it is also an incentive for people to donate items as it gives them a large audience for exposure of their products and services.

7) Spread the Word!

We encourage organizers to post a thread about your Joomla! Day in the Events Forum. That's a good way to not only gain exposure for your event, but also to gauge what kind of community/international interest there is in your chosen location.

As you will have lots of information and planning to share it is wise to set up a website for your event. To get approved use of the name Joomla! in your domain, please use the request form on the Open Source Matters website. You may also find it useful to set up a discussion forum on your Joomla! Day website where people can share ideas from presentation topics to carpooling to the venue the day of.

Now you need to communicate your event and your website to the global and local communities. Start keep an eye out for local bloggers and social networking gurus who show interest in the Open Source world as well as Web development and design. Offer them a link on your Joomla! Day website in exchange for media coverage. Maybe you can even get a couple of people to do some live blogging at the event itself.

8) Sponsors

As these events are strictly not for profit (event organizers should not gain financially from the proceeds of the event) you will want to seek out some sponsors. Your major expenses will likely be the rental of your venue, any food or drink you plan to offer and also give aways like tshirts and door prizes (optional). Our Joomla! Day in Vancouver averaged out at about $4000 inclusive. Selling tickets at $25 each with an attendance of about 100 paid guests would have left us $1500 short of funding our event if not for some very generous sponsors who donated the cost of the tshirts and contributed to the food and venue bills.

Sponsorship is not only a great way to earn money to facilitate your event, but its also an opportunity for interested companies and individuals to gain some advertising/exposure. Set up a sponsors page on your Joomla! Day website where sponsers get listed with logos and links to their sites. With a good attendance level, this is great exposure for them.

How do you get sponsors? It's really just a matter of asking the right people. Do you develop Joomla! websites professionally? Maybe you've got some clients who would like to 'give back' to the CMS that powers their website by offering a sponsorship amount. Also, local eateries and cafes may consider giving you a reduced rate on refreshments. Are you a regular customer with a particular Hosting service? No better place to get their name out then a conference of web design and development enthusiasts and professionals. As well, some of your presenters and guests may want to offer some door prizes or give aways to the crowd.

9) Registration

You've made all the plans. Now you need a way for people to sign up and pay any registration fees. First, decide a price for your registration fees. Remember, the objective is not to profit personally from a Joomla! Day. Your registration fees should go towards the basic costs of the day (venue, food, a/v equipment, etc). We found that $25 CAD was just enough to cover our needs in Vancouver beyond what was being sponsored. This, of course, all needs to be relevant to your country's currency and costs. The main thing is to keep basic needs in mind and allow room for any sudden changes of plan that may occur. Don't forget to factor in any Paypal and/or registration/shopping cart fees that may be imposed as well.

Next you need a good system to take registrations online. We used Eventbrite, which we found to work very efficient. With Eventbrite there is a small fee per ticket charged which you can either include in your registration fees or tack on to the price per ticket. You can find a few registration components in the Joomla! Extensions Directory that may also suit your needs. One example is Open Freeway for Joomla!

On the day of the event, arrange to have a table for registrations set up outside the room. This allows people to be able to settle in the event room without being distracted by people coming in. You should have a list of paid attendees handy as well as change (money) available for taking late registrations.

10) Accommodations

While most of your guests will be people who live within your region, you may find that your event attracts people from some very far corners of the world. In Vancouver we had attendees from all over the United States (Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico) as well as some from Australia, Austria and Scotland. Not to mention a few from Eastern Canada as well.

Your out of town visitors will need a reasonably priced place to stay while they're in town, and though it is not your official responsibility to arrange that, it is another one of those highly appreciated 'perks' that will help to draw people to your Joomla! Day.

Some important things to consider when choosing a hotel:

• Is it close to local tourism attractions?
• Will it require more than a few blocks walk for your guests to get to your Joomla! Day?
• Are their food/entertainment establishments near by?
• Is there reasonable ride service to and from the nearest airport?
• Will the hotel be willing to offer a reduced rate for your group?

Whether your Joomla! Day is a small gathering or a large scale event, I guarantee you will walk away from the day with a sense of major satisfaction. When I first decided to organize an event here in Vancouver, my expectations were for a small meet up of 20-30 local Joomla! enthusiasts in a cozy coffee shop downtown. When the interest started rolling in however, things changed!

Thanks to Joomla! Day Vancouver I not only got to meet some amazing local people but also some very good friends who came in from around the world and who I've had the pleasure to 'work' with on various Joomla! projects over the years. That, in itself, was the greatest reward for all the hard work that went into the planning. We had a fantastic time finally getting to meet in person and I think everyone left here with a renewed inspiration to dive in contribute to making Joomla! as successful as possible.

Still today, over a month later, I am receiving emails from people who came to the event and want to know what the plans are for Joomla! Day Vancouver 2009. And yes, the preliminary plans are already in the works! We'll keep you posted...

For further information and ideas, please drop us a line in the Events forum or feel free to leave a comment here. We will do our best to answer your questions and point you in the right direction for a successful Joomla! Day in your city.

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