openSUSE:Event organization

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How to organise an event for openSUSE

In-house Events

When organising events at Novell locations, it is helpful to know who contact for what.

The golden rule is, it is never too early to tell people what is happening.

Timing

Nuremberg is a busy trade fair city and if your event coincides with one of the larger trade fairs, you may find that all the budget accommodation nearby is booked up.

Locations

  • Community space (formerly Kölbl & Kalb) This can seat over a hundred people
    • Pro: Easy public access, good multimedia support. Good for presentation-style events.
    • Con: Nearby offices make it hard to have 24hr access. Power and networking is not present, has to be provisioned in advance.
  • Meeting rooms The meeting rooms in the Novell office can easily be used for smaller to medium size events.
  • Business Center The EBC can be productive for ~30 people hacking/presenting or for more people if the format is a social event

Events inside the Novell office need appropriate guest access cards. Talk to Reception for these.

For hacker events, discuss in plenty of time with Reception and Facilities what kind of access (how many days, working hours) are required so that extra cleaning and security can be arranged as needed.

If you need extra rooms, talk to Facilities (Olli F.) before just occupying meeting rooms, since these may be needed and also need cleaning/tidying.

Staffing

Don't assume that you can run anything but the smallest event single-handedly or you will burn out. Responsible staff must be there all the time to handle contingencies and provide security. Arrange a timetable with other Novell employees to provide cover and get some backups in case of illness.

Accommodation booking, catering and invoices

  • Talk to Jacqueline J. and Melanie R., as they have the necessary business knowledge to make large group bookings and invoicing go smoothly
  • Catering is also subject to demand, for larger groups restaurants may need a couple of months' notice.
  • In-house catering TBD

Hardware support

  • The Boosters Team has the large HP TouchSmart screens to use, Henne handles their administration.

Networking

  • Don't make any assumptions about what network provision is available in-house - things change quickly. Otherwise you may find the only network available is ports 80 and 443 over the guest wireless network.
  • ACS (Stefan G. and Andreas M.) can set up networking for you given enough notice. You probably want a separated Ethernet with unfiltered Internet access and a wireless network. Christian D. handles configuration of the wireless access points.

Power

  • If you are organising a hacker meeting, you need power for visitors' laptops. ACS should be able to supply you with some power strips, otherwise there are some in the Boosters Team conference kit.

Media

  • Jürgen W. is our master videographer. If you need to have a talk filmed and uploaded later, talk to him in time so he can plan to be present with the camera. Tom S. can extract the .dv files from the camera for editing and post-production.

Publicity

  • Michael L. has contacts with the local LUGs and local press. Klaas F. has contacts with the universities and polytechnics, if you want students to attend.
  • Use news.opensuse.org (Boosters have write access) and blog repeatedly about your event.