ApacheCon playbook

This playbook is focused at ApacheCon or Roadshow volunteers who are actively involved in planning and running Apache events. Please be sure to bring your questions to the planners@ mailing list!

What to do before, during, and after an Apache event

This is a set of recommended actions that an event organizer may do before, during, and after ApacheCon.

Many of the recommendations in here can, of course, be applied to any Apache event or Roadshow, including third-party events, or project events run by PMCs.

If you do these things, you gain the benefit of promotion from the larger Apache community. Also, these are based on our experiences running ApacheCon.

This is a work in progress - please feel free to make suggestions!

Before You Start

Review the Event Branding Policy and secure permission for any events not produced directly by the ASF or its contracted producer(s). If you are an Apache PMC running your own event, please review the policy to ensure you’re presenting the best face for ASF brands.

https://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/events

Planning Topics To Cover

Venue requirements/considerations
- Attempt to select venue and date prior to the previous event, so that it can be announced from stage a year in advance
- BarCamp - having an extra shoulder day before/after the event, with space for group discussions
- Hackathon - central space with power and network, and round tables for group collaboration
- Wifi - reliable 200+ Mb/s. ApacheCon attendees expect fast wifi. Preferred info: ‘apachecon’/‘httpd1995’
- Hard network drop in keynote room for streaming video. Hard network drop for reg desk.
- Room for media training - consult with ASF Marketing & Publicity
- Board room for monthly board meeting (if the conference falls during board meeting). Consult with secretary@apache.org
Communication
- Notify members@, commiters@ and all dev@ and users@ lists of an upcoming event. Note special procedures for committers@ and dev/users@ addresses.
- Notify all PMCs that there is space available for project summits - if they can provide curated content by deadline. Work from scarcity (ie, only 4 rooms available!) rather than making this appear to be a free-for-all that people can wander into later on.
Marketing Coordination

Coordinate with M&P to create, publish, and update event-specific promotions on ASF social media channels including Twitter, LinkedIn, and LinkedIn Showcase page (affiliated page).
Establish budget for paid digital ad campaign for Roadshows three months before date of event.
Coordinate with M&P to research spend options, negotiate rate, and secure media buy for digital advertising campaigns for Roadshows.
Coordinate with M&P/Central Services to create artwork for online promotions and digital ad campaigns.

CFP
- Ensure the CFP system is working before announce
- Blog post on blogs.apache.org
- Notify dev@community.apache.org
- Notify trademarks@apache.org (See above for event branding approval)
- Notify committers@, members@, and all users@ mailing lists
- Announce on announce@apachecon.com
- Tweet on @apachecon
- Schedule tweets for CFP deadlines, two months, one month, 2 weeks, 1 week, and last day before close
Talk selection
- Assemble program committee and choose a program chair. Provide this to producer so they can add everyone’s details to the CFP and send the PC all reviewing instructions.
- Review talks within timeline set by producer. Provide producer with list of accepted, rejected, and waitlisted talks in a schedule format.
- Come up with a list of desired keynotes. Invite those that you may know personally and circle producer in on anyone that confirms.
- Prepare slide template to send to speakers with talk acceptance
- Talk acceptance email should contain:
  - The title and abstract of their accepted presentation (speakers often submit more than one)
  - Registration discount code for speaker, and an explicit requirement that they register themselves
  - Reminder how they need to register for hotel room block
  - Suggested Tweet to encourage them to self-promote
  - Information about scheduling a Feathercast recording
  - Link to schedule
  - Link to Code of Conduct
  - Links to apachecon-discuss@apache.org, IRC channel, Twitter
  - Room setup details including screen resolution, what connector types available
  - Reminder to bring their own laptop
  - If audio or video recording is expected
  - Requirement that if they can’t make it inform us clearly
- Fallback email should contain
  - Definition of fallback, and explanation of how/when they might have their talk accepted
  - Registration discount code for fallbacks
Conference Schedule Announcement
- Blog post on blogs.apache.org
- Tweet schedule link to @apachecon
- Announce to announce@apachecon.com
- Announce on all users@ mailing list
- Prepare suggested tweets for all sessions
- Schedule tweets for all rate change dates, 1 and 2 weeks, and 1 day out from each date.
- Update https://wiki.apache.org/apachecon/SpeakerResources with speaker template, email addresses, dates, etc.
- Notify committers@, members@, and all users@ mailing lists
Extra events to be scheduled
- State Of The Feather - coordinate with operations@ and President/EVP
- PGP Key signing
  - Time/place
  - Where to send keys
  - Need paper and a printer for the event
- BarCamp - ensure space, signage, room available times, and BarCamp coordinator is ready
- Is the board meeting during ApacheCon? If so, we need a room with a speaker phone for members to attend “in person”. If not, ask Secretary to consider moving the board meeting so that it is during ApacheCon. Promote to membership.
In months before event
- Etherpad: Who/what/where (many planning teams find etherpad or similar to be helpful), eg https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/aceu-2016-people
- Etherpad: Hackathon topics, eg https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/aceu-2016-hackathon
- Blog post on blogs.apache.org announcing the above
- Tweet links to the etherpads
- Mention these on apachecon-discuss@apache.org Also mention
  - IRC
  - Twitter
  - Schedule
- Get the preferred twitter accounts of the sponsors, and thank them publicly for sponsoring (coordinate with producer/fundraising)
  - Twitter
  - Blog post on blogs.apache.org
- Ask PMCs about upcoming or recent major releases that we can announce at the event. Keep press@apache.org in the loop on this, as well as our press contact at producer.
- Update the wiki - https://wiki.apache.org/apachecon/FrontPage - every week
- Notify committers@, members@, and all users@ mailing lists
- As we get closer to the event, contact speakers every other week with updates, and reminders
- Contact keynote speakers frequently to ensure that everything is planned, booked, and promoted correctly
- Frequent updates to sponsors.
- Educational outreach
  - identify local universities
  - Reach out to CS department
  - Make posters and offer a free ticket in exchange for printing, posting them up
- User group outreach
  - Identify local usergroups/meetups
  - Offer reg code for these groups
  - Get local contact to attend meetups and promote the event

During

Lots and lots of photos. Tweet them. Put them on Flickr, Google Images, and so on. Tag them #apache and #apachecon. Encourage the official photographer to use these tags as well, so that they show up in our photo feed. See also: https://www.flickr.com/groups/apachecon/
Man-on-the-street interviews with attendees, sponsors, about why they’re there, and why people should attend the next event. See rbowen@apache.org or ask on apachecon-discuss@apache.org at least 3 weeks in advance if you want to borrow digital recorders for this purpose.
At every plenary session:
- Introduce yourself
- Thank the sponsors (review sponsor prospectus for who gets named specifically)
- Announce the hastags for the event, including #apache, #apachecon, and #acXXYY where XX is geo (na, eu, etc), and YY is date (eg 18)
- Encourage people to take photos and post them to our ApacheCon Flickr group
- Announce the evening events
- Announce the next event after the keynote
- Thank the sponsors of the ASF
- Mention @TheASF and @apachecon Twitter accounts at every opportunity.
- If this is not ApacheCon (ie, some other project event) mention that Apache Foo is part of the larger Apache Software Foundation community, and mention ApacheCon.
Announce next year’s event(s)

After

Tweet photos from the event, mentioning the next event. “Did you miss Seville? See you in Miami!”
Tweet thanks to the sponsors
Tweet any videos, recordings that we have
Archive event information from https://wiki.apache.org/apachecon/FrontPage to event-specific page eg https://wiki.apache.org/apachecon/ACNA2016
Update the https://apachecon.com and https://archive.apachecon.com pages when needed

Websites

There are several different pages/directories that store event-related information, both about ApacheCon and other ASF related events.

Main ApacheCon website, including separate archive.apachecon directories: https://apachecon.com/ https://svn.apache.org/repos/infra/apachecon/www.apachecon.com Flat HTML, published instantly upon checkin

General event info page: https://events.apache.org/ https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/concom/site/trunk/content/ Managed by the Apache CMS, publishing is a separate step

ComDev Event Calendar listing: https://community.apache.org/calendars/ https://community.apache.org/about/#about-this-website

Events to Attend

About Apache Events

Getting Involved

ASF