Events Playbook

We have three gatherings per year. Spring EthCC, Summer special / unique, and Fall Devcon. Rings will organize special meetings, and regional events can help spread work around continents and countries.

Who can organize events?

The tautology is something like, EthMagicians self-organize events, so if you organize an event, you're a Magician.

We do need usage of donations to be OK'd, a commitment to transparency, a commitment to inclusion, and a general goal of running a low cost to participants event.

Announcing an Event

Go to the Meetings page and put in a link for a new event. That page will become the agenda / spot for notes & fleshing out collaboration. Introduce / announce it in the Fellowship Gatherings category to gather support and collaborators.

Interest and Registration

It can be useful to invite people to say they will be coming in the forum and/or public participant list on the agenda (see the Smart Contract Security thread for lots of people chiming in they want to attend), but you will want to have registration to understand a couple of things:

• how many people are coming / do you have room for
• food sensitivities / how much food & drink to have on hand
• email for notifying updates as event gets closer
• interest in topics (we don't have a good process for this, but could start with Rings)

Tools for registration:

• Google Form
• Picatic - Boris has a sample for Council of Berlin and can add you to the FEM team / help with setup

Try and get a registration page, even with incomplete information, up as soon as possible. This can be a direct email communication channel. Don't do an "interest" page, just do registration and then update information / send out new info as it arrives.

It's important to note that registration is not required to attend and participate.

Host Organization

The concept of Host Organizations also comes from the IETF and other standards processes. It is also required for various accounting purposes, since EthMagicians is not a formal organization, so we don't have a fiat bank account.

What is needed is a group of people / a company with connections on the ground in the city where the event takes place.

Responsibilities include:

• a point person on their organization for local coordination
• scouting venues, booking the venue
• handling accounting, including fiat sponsorship invoicing, paying for venue, video, etc.
• organizing the catering
• enlisting local volunteers

Ideally we sign up Host Organizations ahead of time as one of the first things along side of location and timing. The Summer Council will be our experimental one that doesn't stand alongside other events, so will be in most need of this. Regional or Ring events are also going to need this outside of the EthCC and Devcon events.

Food & Catering

You don't have to include food, but it can be useful to keep people focused and are good social / getting to know each other opportunities.

If you don't include food, make sure to announce it, and then leave extra time for a lunch break (1.5 - 2 hours) so people can get food on their own.

Video & Livestreaming

Capturing video of discussions and presentations is very valuable. Livestreaming we probably need some more work on to truly include people who are remote, but have also had feedback that people appreciate it.

For the Council of Berlin, we connected with the Viewly team and have an Ethereum Magicians channel.

Good audio is as important or more important than video, especially for transcribing later.

TO DO: fill in links to Livepeer process and/or directory

Budget, Donations, Sponsorship

Budget

With video coverage, breakfast & lunch, & low-cost venue, it costs about $5K - $10KUSD to run an event. This does not include people time for event organization and coordination, which can take 5 - 10 hours per week for 2 - 3 months from multiple people.

TO DO: link to budget template

Donations

The Magicians have our donations page which can be used to collect ETH sponsorships and individual donations.

Fiat sponsorships should go through the Host Organization and paid out to cover expenses.

Donations should be asked at registration time, and suggested at around $25USD per day per person (this should at least cover food costs is the rational).

All are welcome, and payment or registration are not required to attend and participate.

Sponsorships

Sponsors are thanked at the beginning of the day and the closing, have links and logos in various web presences, and mentioned on Twitter. We thank sponsors for supporting and participating, and also encourage them to participate, but sponsorship doesn't mean coverage over the agenda and work being done.

An organization volunteering to host / organize a Ring meeting (for example) is totally appropriate especially if it is an area they work on, but it should continue to be an inclusive event.

Below is an outline of the types of things to get sponsored so that organizations can see directly what they are supported.

• Host Organization: the Host Organization is usually an in-kind sponsorship, but they may choose to sponsor additional items as well
• Food: if the cost for the venue is low, it is likely that food will be one of the most costly items. Breakfast and Lunch are suggested to be covered if possible. They can be broken up into 4 sponsorships (breakfast day 1, lunch day 1, etc.) or 2 or 1 really big sponsorship
• Venue: this can be expensive, especially as event sizes grow and we want multiple rooms / working spaces; in some venues you may need to bring or additionally pay for projectors, sound system, and AV techs to be on hand to support it; this can also be split into Day 1 Venue Sponsor, Day 2 Venue Sponsor, or even Room Sponsors
• Video Crew & Livestreaming: ideally we will have a Livepeer / View.ly directory of video crews over time; Berlin was 1800EU for 3 people for 2 days, covering one room with video, audio, and livestreaming.
• Community Sponsor: it's important to always have a Community Sponsor tier for organizations that want to support. $500USD equivalent is the suggested tier

Here are some ideas for extras that aren't needed to run an event, but can be covered if there is sponsor interest and volunteer organizer time:

• pre-event dinner, closing party
• design/graphics/art -- digital posters, logos, NFTs and other things that are unique to that event but tie into EthMagicians themes
• travel bursaries
• bounties
• t-shirts, stickers, or other swag: try to stick to useful items for swag -- re-usable water bottles or mugs

Around the Conference

A pre-conference or post-conference dinner is a great idea, and will happen naturally. It can be an opportunity for a sponsor to host, can be self organized, can showcase a regional cuisine or activity, etc.

Sessions

WIP

Running the Event

• Name Tags
• Markers
• Index Cards for Unconference Session Planning
• Tape

WIP