Yearly Archives: 2012

Here is a list of documents we are working on to help planners of WordCamps and other WordPress events. This is just a static reference. All discusion and updates will be on http://make.wordpress.org/events/

A/V

• AV release form for Speakers – Must have one for every speaker
• Working with AV – Best practices for recording good presentations and dealing with A/V tech in general.

Communication

• Email Lists – Working with MailChimp (or other mail providers; e.g. campaign monitor)
• Promotion & Outreach – How to get the word out about your event. Creating partnerships.
• Social Media – Streamlining workflow for Facebook/Twitter presence; tracking event activity on day-of.
• Survey Template – Post-event survey.
• Pre-event Email – Template for pre-event email to attendees
• Recording & Reporting Policies – Inform participants they will be photographed / reported on – inspiration: http://dc.adacamp.org/information-for-participants/policies/

Schedule

• Schedules – What formats to use (e.g. iCal); planning your schedule / Check out http://guidebook.com/
• Session Types – Common + uncommon presentation types (e.g. tutorials vs. panels)
• Unconference (Day) Guidelines – Best practices for organizing the unconference: timing, content, organization

Financial

• Budget Sample – suggested amounts and percentages for different types of events
• Budget Template – Currently provided by WC Central to WCs.
• Invoice Template – Currently provided by WC Central to WCs.
• Financials Guide – Funneling money through WCC; requirements for out-of-country events. Cover sponsors, vendors, refunds, late registration, additional attendees at speaker dinner, organizer reimbursements, Non-profit letter.

Location/Venues

• Insurance Guidelines – What to look for / choosing the right provider.
• Venues Guide – Finding good venues (event, afterparty, speakers dinner). Also floorplan and set-up.
• Do’s & Don’ts of Venue Selection
• Accommodations – Finding hotels, motels, BNB’s, and other locales to get you a discount.

Logistics

• Timeline – In a countdown to event format
• Organizer Tasks / Agreement – Dividing tasks between organizers, assigning responsibilities, list of mutual understandings

Registration

• Registration Guide – Templates for registration; release forms (for speakers);
• CampTix – How to use, best practices, pricing suggestions

Speakers

• Speaker Guide – Best practices for presenters; tips and tricks; advice from longtime WordCamp speakers.
• Checklist of Best Practices – A quick reference for wrangling speakers
• Speaker Submission Form – Questions to ask potential speakers.
• Choosing Speakers Guide – A guide for organizers on how to choose appropriate speakers.
• Speaker invite templates – Invites to speakers, confirmation, request for materials, logistics template emails
• Speaker rejection templates – How to thank people for submissions / proposals but not accept them
• Speaker Dinner – How to choose a location, who should be invited, how to manage the budget

Sponsors

• Sponsorship Guide – Templates for sponsorship tiers; how to choose sponsors; guidelines (e.g. GPL requirement).
• Checklist of Best Practices – A quick reference for wrangling sponsors
• Fundraising – Who to ask, what to say, what to offer, how to make sure commitments are fulfilled.

Suppliers

• Food n’ Drink Guide – Best practices for choosing a caterer; dealing w/ dietary restrictions; budget management.
• WCC Wrangling – Ensuring vendors are paid on time; communicating w/ WordCamp Central.

Printing

• Swag - Best practices/advice for swag. Includes stickers!
• Event Signage – Listing signage type + best practices (e.g. schedules on doors, what info?)
• Badges – Several templates and ideas

Volunteers

• Volunteer Wrangling – Estimating how many you need, recruiting, training,
• Volunteer Job Descriptions – Typical hours required, expectation of volunteer time, etc.

Website

• Website Guidelines – Site map; what content you should have in place.
• Logo and Site Design – No Fauxgo, asking for, rewarding and acknowledging volunteer designers, WordCamp oneword
• WordCamp Theme – How to style, and how to use CPTs
• Snippet Library / FAQ – Answers to questions organizers get asked a lot. Explanation for organizers and public version.

See anything we missed? Have some of these materials you would like to share? Again this is just a reference. All discusion and updates will be on http://make.wordpress.org/events/

I successfully installed HomeBrew, Node.js, and nearly have Grunt.js – I just have a few errors in npm and now I have a headache.

To be honest, I have been under the weather for a few days so the headache is unrelated, but it was fun.

Anyway here are the steps so far:

• http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/
• https://gist.github.com/3182604
• http://shapeshed.com/setting-up-nodejs-and-npm-on-mac-osx/
• https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt#installing-grunt

The two errors I get to look at tomorrow are:

npm WARN prefer global node-gyp@0.7.1 should be installed with -g ronn@0.3.8 node_modules/ronn

and

npm WARN cannot run in wd npm@1.1.66 npm prune ; rm -rf test/*/*/node_modules ; make -j4 doc (wd=.)

Update: I fixed the first one (I think) by running

sudo npm install -g node-gyp

The second one doesn’t seem to be much of a problem.

Note: This article is for developers. It is an outline of steps that need to be taken to build the plugin.

1. Define a custom-post-type so that this can live next to a the rest of the content on a site. Slug: wiki, of course
2. Define shortcode [w pagename] that links to the correct page if available. If not, suggest alternatives and give option to create page.
3. Enable front-end editing for this CPT.
4. Expose revisions on the front-end.
5. Add ability to define pages that will act as the header and one or more sidebars.
6. Add widgets that do page menus, topic menus, etc.
7. Create a [widget] shortcode
8. Add custom user levels
9. Add ability for non-privileged users to submit edits in a format that editors can just click to commit.