DjangoCon 2015 Checklist

DjangoCon Reset

• Create a new DjangoCon repo (wiki, etc)
• Thank you blog post
• Solicit post-mortem feedback from staff
• Enter DjangoCon 2014 expenses
• Backup DjangoCon 2014 Wufoo data
• Add the Confreaks & Slidedeck links to the DjangoCon 2014 schedule pages
• Fill existing DjangoCon staff roles (use wiki, since site isn't launched yet)
• Identify and fill new staff roles
• Review the past DjangoCon survey results
• Determine tentative dates PyCon example (attendee focused)
• Determine tentative milestones PyCon example (staff focused)

DjangoCon Staff

• Reset/cull staff mailing list ([email protected])
• Update staff page on the site
• Schedule monthly staff meetings
• Succession planning
• Collect staff phone numbers and mailing addresses before DjangoCon

Budget

• Brainstorm fun ideas
• Determine budget for design
• Determine budget for website
• Determine budget for financial aid
• Determine budget for swag
• Determine budget for t-shirts
• Determine budget for the opening reception
• Review budget with the DEFNA board
• Enter all DjangoCon expenses

Communications

• Email all attendees 1 month before DjangoCon
• Do two email blasts to user groups (call for proposals, registration)
• Update the @DjangoCon twitter account bio with the new DjangoCon dates
• Blog call for launch day sponsors PyCon example
• Blog site launch PyCon example
• Blog call for proposals - talks PyCon example
• Blog call for proposals - tutorials PyCon example
• Blog call for proposal reviewers PyCon example
• Blog financial aid PyCon example
• Blog call for proposals reminders PyCon example
• Blog registration opens PyCon example
• Blog early bird ticket warning PyCon example
• Blog keynote selection
• Blog accepted talks, tutorials PyCon example, and posters
• Blog financial aid reminder PyCon example
• Blog tutorial schedule and registration PyCon example
• Blog talk schedule PyCon example
• Blog sold out warning
• Blog sold out
• Blog sprints PyCon example
• Blog about sponsor workshops
• Blog after parties
• Blog passports required
• Blog about tutorials, final registration push
• Blog about the opening reception
• Blog about onsite lightning talk selection
• Blog about the location of DjangoCon 2016
• Blog DjangoCon re-cap
• Blog Thanks!
• Monitor twitter on-site during DjangoCon
• Tweet events as they happen on-site during DjangoCon

Sponsors

• Call for launch day sponsors
• Review & update sponsorship prospectus
• Email past sponsors about being launch day sponsors
• Create guidelines for sponsor swag
• Create ad guide for sponsors (sizes, formats, etc)
• Create sponsors manual
• Update sponsor information on the site
• Email sponsors - reminders about print program assets
• Tweet each sponsor as they sign-up
• Collect the sponsor assets for the print program
• Help coordinate sponsor after parties
• Help answer the emails from sponsors with questions
• Thank sponsors on-site during booth setup
• Send out a sponsor satisfaction survey

Website

• Make past DjangoCon site static
• Branding & design pass PyCon example
• Stand up new DjangoCon site
• Compile a wish-list of website improvements
• Determine who will be making these improvements
• Replace all references to 2014 with 2015
• Review all content to make sure it's current (English)

Misc Tech

• Solve the mass email problem (mailgun?)
• Update DjangoCon.us site to be more current
• Password manager
• Notify Freenode as soon as we know our IP for the conference

Keynote Selection

• Ask the community for input PyCon example
• Have a committee determine the keynotes
• Reach out to the keynotes
• Collect the keynote bios and headshots
• Update the keynotes page on the site
• Create talk proposals for the keynotes, so that they can be scheduled
• Assign someone to be "responsible" for each keynote (as in keynote happiness)
• Book the keynote hotel rooms
• Reimburse keynotes for flights
• Select a keynote master of ceremonies
• Thank the keynotes

Financial Aid

• Reset the [email protected] mailing list
• Determine the financial aid ticket price
• Determine the financial aid tiers
• Determine the financial aid selection criteria
• Update the financial workflow in the app
• Update the financial aid page on the site
• Use consistent naming on the website: financial aid, not assistance
• Review the financial aid applications
• Generate financial aid promo codes for registration
• Make sure financial aid recipients can register for one tutorial at a reduced rate
• Make sure financial aid recipients know about the free sponsor workshops
• Draft & send the accept/decline emails
• Save those emails in this repository for future reference
• Be prepared to answer a lot of email from financial aid recipients with questions
• Update the room sharing site, since we will not be pairing people going forward
• Let financial aid recipient know to get their invitation letters and visas ASAP
• Determine how grants will be distributed (cash, paypal, cheque)
• Figure out how we can make grant distribution less hard
• Get money from the bank (on-site)
• Determine precise dates, locations for on-site grant distribution
• On-site grant administration
• Put money back in the bank (on-site)

Registration

• Reset the [email protected] mailing list
• Determine which events will use the DjangoCon registration system
• Determine which events will use something else like Eventbrite
• Determine this year's conference prices
• Update the registration pages with prices etc
• Make sure the registration system supports Unicode characters
• Make the registration page "looks" better
• Add a registration FAQ to the registration menu
• Help answer misc emails to the registration mailing list

Talks

• Reset the [email protected] mailing list
• Update the call for proposal pages
• Enable talk proposals on the site
• Review proposals
• Provide proposal feedback
• Draft & send the accept/decline emails
• Save those emails in this repo for future reference
• Determine the talk schedule
• Publish the talk schedule
• Email all speakers with A/V requirements etc before DjangoCon
• Save that email in this repo for future reference
• Create registration for a program committee lunch

Tutorials

• Update the call for proposal pages
• Enable tutorial proposals on the site
• Review proposals
• Provide proposal feedback
• Determine tutorial stipend amount
• Communicate the stipend amount in the accept emails
• Draft & send the accept/decline emails
• Save those emails in this repo for future reference
• Create a form to collect instructor info (address, tax info, etc)
• Schedule the tutorials
• Publish the tutorial schedule on the site (without room numbers)
• Monitor attendance numbers, cap tutorials, etc
• Update the tutorial schedule on the site with room numbers, based on enrollment
• Email all instructors with A/V requirements etc before DjangoCon
• Save that email in this repo for future reference
• Prepare a tutorial survey
• Create registration for a tutorial instructors lunch
• Drop printed material (or an alternative) off in each room
• Take tutorial attendance
• Distribute tutorial survey link

Sponsor Workshops

• Only one day this year? (the Thursday)
• Enable workshop proposals on the site
• Have each sponsor enter a bio and workshop proposal
• Accept the workshop proposals
• Schedule the sponsor workshops on the site
• Create registration for the sponsor workshops

Lightning Talks

• On-site selection only (update the proposals page to reflect this)
• TODO

Sprints

• Update the sprints pages on the site
• Encourage projects to have a list of easy tickets ready and publish them beforehand
• Brainstorm ways to make sprints friendlier to new contributors
• Make sure sprint supplies have been ordered
• Create the sprint room allocation boards
• Make sure sprinters know when & where lunch is so food isn't wasted
• Check the temperature of the sprints rooms

Swag

• Design DjangoCon stickers
• Order DjangoCon stickers
• Design DjangoCon swag bag
• Order DjangoCon swag bag
• Brainstorm a fun DjangoCon souvenir (travel mug, etc)
• Water table during swag bag stuffing
• Music during swag bag stuffing
• Better box cutters for opening swag boxes
• Add volunteer slot to swag bag stuffing setup

Opening Reception

• TODO

Outreach

• TODO

Code of Conduct

• Add photography policy to site

Volunteers

• Update the volunteer pages on the site
• Do not reset the organizers mailing list [email protected]
• Help answer emails on the organizers mailing list
• Create the on-site volunteering spreadsheet (reg desk, swag had out, etc)
• Email volunteers before DjangoCon with more details, where they should meet etc
• Save those emails in this repo for future reference

Session Chairs & Runners

• Add session staff sign-up to the schedule - the [s] buttons on the schedule
• Call for session chairs and runners
• Make sure those session volunteers have registered and are still attending
• Email all session chairs and runners before the conference with more info
• Save that email in this repo for future reference
• Make sure session staff know about any messages that should be announced

Opening & Closing Messages

• Determine who will give the opening messages
• Determine who will give the closing messages
• Have the survey ready for the closing messages

Staff Room

• Staff room supplies
• TODO

Green Room

• Green room supplies: flipchart paper, 4x150 post-it notes in different colors, pens, printer, printer paper, large analog clock
• Prepare staff + speaker check-in board
• Prepare and print session staff + speaker information sheets ("Green Room" folder in Google Drive)

A/V

• Determine which company will be doing the A/V
• Who's creating video splash screen?
• Video Editing?
• Create new YouTube channel for the current year under the DjangoCon account (David Wolever has login info)
• Create spreadsheet with YouTube video titles + descriptions for A/V crew to copy+paste into YouTube; video crew will paste YouTube video URLs into this spreadsheet.
• Make sure that spreadsheet includes the DO NOT PUBLISH flag
• Ping PyVideo with URL for the spreadsheet (Will or Sheila)

DjangoCon Videos

• ConFreaks
• YouTube account
• Slides?

DjangoCon Pictures

• Create a flickr group for DjangoCon pics
• Tweet that group from the DjangoCon twitter account
• Create a slide-show with those pics (closing ceremony)

Food

• Publish menu online this year, so that people know what they can eat etc
• Ask the convention center to label the food so that people know what they can eat etc
• Menu: Tutorials, Day 1, Morning Break
• Menu: Tutorials, Day 1, Lunch
• Menu: Tutorials, Day 1, Afternoon Break
• Menu: Conference, Day 1, Breakfast
• Menu: Conference, Day 1, Morning Break
• Menu: Conference, Day 1, Lunch
• Menu: Conference, Day 1, Afternoon Break
• Menu: Conference, Day 2, Breakfast
• Menu: Conference, Day 2, Morning Break
• Menu: Conference, Day 2, Lunch
• Menu: Conference, Day 2, Afternoon Break
• Menu: Conference, Day 3, Breakfast
• Menu: Conference, Day 3, Morning Break
• Menu: Conference, Day 3, Lunch
• Menu: Sprints, Day 1, Lunch
• Menu: Sprints, Day 2, Lunch
• Menu: Opening Reception
• Menu: DEFNA lunch
• Menu: Program Committee lunch
• Menu: Tutorial Instructors lunch
• Menu: Staff room / green room coffee etc
• Menu: Water in the hallways

Venue Room Allocation

• Storage
• Staff Room
• Green Room
• Plenary
• Talks
• Tutorials
• Sponsor Workshops
• Sprints
• Misc Lunches
• Lunches
• Breaks

Signage

• Order easels from the venue
• Registration desk branding
• Podium branding
• Floorplan signage, with accessibility info
• Blank Signs with sleeve to use for directions etc
• Swag Bag Distribution Sign
• Opening Reception sponsor banner
• Coffee break sponsored by banner
• Expo hall cocktail table stickers
• Print sprint room sign-up board on foam core
• T-shirt signs (when unclaimed t-shirts will go on sale, etc)

T-shirts

• Determine a printer
• Publish the sizes & t-shirt brand in advance
• Design
• Staff shirts
• Fun run shirts
• Order them

Lanyard & Badges

• Badge Design
• Lead retrieval considerations
• Different badges for different attendee types

Print Program

• Determine who will be making the print program
• Print program cover design & review
• Create dropbox folder for content
• Have the print designer create a floor plan
• Welcome message from the chair
• Expo hall booth map
• Email all speakers asking them to make sure their bios and desc are current
• Save that email in this repo for future reference
• Email sponsors multiple times about the print program deadlines
• Save those [generic] emails in this repo for future reference
• Export content from app
• Create a spreadsheet for print program change requests
• Have someone review the print program
• Determine how many print programs to order
• Order them

Printed Schedule Handout

• Compile a list of all events (rooms, times)

Visa Letters

• TODO

Feedback & Thanks

• Have survey ready before DjangoCon
• Have thank you blog post mostly written before DjangoCon
• Have staff thank-yous ready before DjangoCon
• Don't forget on-site volunteers