In recent months, I ended up subtweeting quite a bit on things that stood out for me with conferences\u2026 Mainly pointing at organizers but in parts also attendees. Unsurprisingly however, it seems like those tweets for the most part triggered a couple of entertaining and facepalm moments for some but mostly not the right people, which led me to trying to find a more constructive way to share my feedback and ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will not name or shame any events or persons \u2013 this isn\u2019t about creating a negative list but to hopefully share some of my experiences and ideas in a way that maybe leads to some improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please share your thoughts and inputs on this \u2013 happy to be corrected, where I\u2019m wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, my opinions are not in any particular order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While it may be the most important point \u2013 I think it has been stressed out enough by others. Have a Code of Conduct\/Guidelines\/Rules or whatever you want to call it for your event, make it clearly visible and: enforce it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If people don\u2019t play by the rules or don\u2019t accept them, they shouldn\u2019t be part of your event. No matter if they are an attendee, speaker, volunteer, sponsor or organizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First of all, as an organizer, keep in mind, that “you get what you pay for”. If you\u2019re not paying your speakers \u2013 which is perfectly fine with me on free and community run events \u2013 don\u2019t expect them to create exclusive content just for you or spend hours to make their presentation work with your template. I would still consider it fair to expect each speaker to deliver their content to the best of their abilities \u2013 a free session should still be a great session. But they signed up to deliver a session for you \u2013 not to spend hours or days with unpaid labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you do require a template to be used \u2013 make that clear at the call for speakers and publish it WELL<\/u><\/strong> in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be clear on session lengths, expectations on levels and contents and also on timings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your event will only run for one afternoon in your timezone, this will be in the middle of the night for some speakers. And they may or may not be fine with that. But if you tell them in advance, it\u2019s their choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your event is virtual \u2013 let speakers know in advance if they deliver live or pre-recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be aware that speakers may also be delivering content to promote themselves. Unless you pay them for their time \u2013 they should totally be allowed to do so by pointing out their books, courses or services (without turning their presentation into a marketing slide-show).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, don\u2019t run a Call for Speakers if you aren\u2019t looking for speakers. Sounds silly? Let me explain. If you already know, who you want to speak at your event \u2013 that\u2019s fine. It\u2019s your event. You can hand-select and currate every single session. But don\u2019t label it as a \u201ecommunity selected\u201c outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are only looking for speakers that fit a certain criteria (\u201eWe only accept Women speakers\u201c, \u201eWe only accept speakers that have not spoken at our event before\u201c, \u201eWe only accept speakers that were born on February 29th\u201c) \u2013 that is also your choice. But make it clear and transparent, so I don\u2019t waste my time creating submissions for you if you knew from the beginning, you weren\u2019t even going to look at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And vice versa for those submitting: If an event says \u201ewe only accept submissions from new speakers\u201c and your bio starts with \u201eI am a regular speaker at major international conferences\u201c, maybe you should read the event\u2019s description before submitting your sessions\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past years, I\u2019ve had (and will have in the future) the honor and joy to run tracks and events focusing on new speakers. My good friend William Durkin and I saw the need for this and started the DataGrillen Newcomer track which turned into New Stars of Data when the world became virtual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only is it very fulfilling to see how successful some of our first time speakers became with their speaking career \u2013 proving that all they needed was a stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also shows: There are so many smart and amazing people out there that are simply not heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This also means, as a seasoned speaker, maybe try to step back a bit and make room for new speakers. Many events and user groups will play it safe and pick a lineup of well known people. Maybe, just let them know that you\u2019re available to speak, but would prefer to see a new speaker instead? Maybe offer to co-present with a new speaker or mentor them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n New speakers are also the best way to increase diversity amongst speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why should we care? If the fact that we live in 2021 so you shoudn\u2019t have to ask that question isn\u2019t enough\u2026 Diversity isn\u2019t just helping Women in Tech, the LGBTQIA+ community, people of color, visually impaired people or any other underrepresented peer group that you may think of. It\u2019s is helping all of us \u2013 because diversity brings new perspectives to the table. And new perspectives are a core part of learning. And isn\u2019t that why we attend events?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some events do a great job on this so by simply looking at their past line ups, it may be obvious that diversity not only matters to them but that it is a vital part of their event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it\u2019s not that obvious\u2026 make it obvious. A single tweet \u201eWe are looking for women speakers\u201c <\/em>doesn\u2019t equal you\u2019ve \u201etried everything\u201c<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a speaker \u2013 ask your organizers what they are doing to solve this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As an organizer \u2013 ask fellow organizers how they can help you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have an amazingly helpful community. Help will come \u2013 if you sincerely ask for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When speakers reach out to you as an organizer \u2013 or an organizer reaches out to you as an attendee: Try to be responsive. We all have day jobs. So it simply helps if we don\u2019t have to chase you for weeks only to ask if you\u2019re still interested in speaking for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When an email starts with \u201eplease read the whole email\u201c, this is probably what you should do \ud83d\ude0a.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inform your speakers of the call for speakers outcome in a proper way. Don\u2019t let them find out through the schedule if they are in or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This definitely includes: Sending rejection emails. People took the time to write and submit an abstract. This doesn\u2019t entitle them to be part of your event. But you should at least show them the respect to inform them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And: Any changes you make or require after things have been agreed on: Talk to people. Sounds stupid? Then how is it, that I still see events changing their schedule after it has been published without informing affected speakers? Up to the point that a recent event removed a few confirmed speakers to make room for \u201emore important people\u201c (which is a no-no as it is) and didn\u2019t even tell them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are really running a community event, you\u2019re the first volunteer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially with virtual events, if you have sponsors \u2013 it should be clear where that money is going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your entire cost base is a little website and a web conference software (GTM, Zoom, Teams, you name it), and many of us have those licenses anyway, you should not need a sponsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you do have additional cost \u2013 like you\u2019re sending out speaker shirts or gifts \u2013 cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If not \u2013 make sure that money goes back to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or don\u2019t pretend to be a community event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This last point goes out to the speakers \u2013 and doesn\u2019t refer to emergencies obviously. But in this virtual world, I see more and more events where speakers either cancel on very short notice or simply don\u2019t show up at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody forces you to submit to an event. But if you do, you\u2019re accepted and agree to a schedule \u2013 it should go without saying that it\u2019s a fair expectation that you show up at the agreed time and deliver your session. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, I do appreciate that you may agree or disagree to some or all of these thoughts \u2013 let me know what you think and maybe, we can drive some change for good together \ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In recent months, I ended up subtweeting quite a bit on things that stood out for me with conferences\u2026 Mainly pointing at organizers but in parts also attendees. Unsurprisingly however, it seems like those tweets for the most part triggered a couple of entertaining and facepalm moments for some but mostly not the right people,… Continue reading Some thoughts on data platform community events<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bweissman.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}