http://ericholscher.comEric Holscher - Posts tagged conference2024-02-28T16:22:28.832631+00:00ABloghttp://ericholscher.com/blog/2018/feb/13/conference-mentorship/Conference Mentorship2018-02-13T00:00:00+00:00<section id="conference-mentorship">
<p>I have had the opportunity to provide mentorship to folks who have organized conferences twice in 2017.
Through this process I have realized the value in this practice,
and I’d like to write this to promote others to do to same for first year conference organizers.</p>
<p>I think this is a practice that would be very valuable to build inside the global Pycon & Write the Docs community conferences.
Having a mentor who has done it before will make life much easier for the people putting together their first conference.</p>
<section id="how-to-mentor">
<h2>How to mentor</h2>
<p>The most recent experience I had was doing this as PyCascades.
Looking back,
I would say the role could be defined as this:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Provide a working example of major documents that a conference needs (budget, volunteer & organizer schedules, sponsorship prospectus, conference schedule)</p></li>
<li><p>Provide perspective when people had questions about how to do something, or worrying about small details that wouldn’t matter. Focus the group on the right problems.</p></li>
<li><p>Play part-time cheer leader. Reminding people that we were <strong>doing great at something really hard</strong>, much better than a first-year conference had any right to be doing.</p></li>
<li><p>No major organizational tasks would be assigned to me</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The total time commitment,
outside of attending the actual conference,
was around <strong>25 hours</strong> over the entire calendar year.</p>
</section>
<section id="the-value-provided">
<h2>The value provided</h2>
<p>I believe the value in this was on a number a levels.
One of the biggest was really psychological,
I believe it put the other organizers at ease knowing I had done this before.</p>
<p>The major value that I provided as I see it was:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Having a starting point to work from, instead of creating things from scratch</p></li>
<li><p>Stopping additional work from happening that didn’t need to happen, based on my previous experience</p></li>
<li><p>Making people feel more confident that we could actually produce the event, making the entire thing possible in the first place</p></li>
<li><p>Reducing the amount of time spent stressing out over things that didn’t matter in the end</p></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="examples">
<h2>Examples</h2>
<p>I think having a few examples would be useful here to really drive home the value.</p>
<section id="financial-aid">
<h3>Financial Aid</h3>
<p>PyCascades was a first year conference.
We were really worried about being inclusive and bringing in a diverse crowd.
It was really hard to figure out how much to budget for financial aid,
because it was dependent on how much sponsorship we got.</p>
<p>This was a major source of stress for the organizers,
but I tried to provide perspective:</p>
<blockquote>
<div><p>We’re a first year conference. Doing <em>any</em> financial aid is amazing, so we can’t beat ourselves up over not having <em>enough</em>!</p>
</div></blockquote>
<p>We ended up having a great financial aid program that allowed folks to attend,
but giving perspective really helped people <em>feel good</em> about what we were doing.</p>
</section>
<section id="sponsorship">
<h3>Sponsorship</h3>
<p>Small conferences are often dependent on sponsorship to be great.
We budgeted tickets to cover the basics like the venue,
but depended on sponsorship for the nicer thing we were able to provide.</p>
<p>After a couple months of trying to get sponsors,
the other organizers were feeling unsure about the response.
It felt like nobody was going to sponsor and everything would be terrible.
I knew that this was just part of the process and was able to resure folks:</p>
<blockquote>
<div><p>It takes <em>months</em> for organizers to process sponsorship applications.
This isn’t a simple purchase,
but if we keep up the good work we’re doing,
sponsors will come on board.</p>
</div></blockquote>
<p>Thanks to the tireless effort of the <a class="reference external" href="https://www.pycascades.com/about/organizers/">entire team</a>,
we ended up with over 15 sponsors for a first year conference.
But it didn’t <em>feel</em> that way from the start,
and I was to show that it would just take time.</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="you-should-be-a-mentor">
<h2>You should be a mentor</h2>
<p>If you have organized a conference before and have a good grasp on the operations,
you should help mentor another conference.
It’s one of the highest leverage ways you can spend your time,
if your goal is to help expand a community in the real world.</p>
</section>
<section id="next-steps">
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>I’d also love to open source the basic documents that I provided to the organizers of PyCascades from my work on Write the Docs.
I think having a shared repository of basic conference starting documents would go a long way to making this a scalable system of organizing conferences,
and allowing mentors to learn from each other over time.
It’s all the same value that we get from open sourcing code,
but for building a community in real life!</p>
</section>
</section>
I have had the opportunity to provide mentorship to folks who have organized conferences twice in 2017.
Through this process I have realized the value in this practice,
and I’d like to write this to promote others to do to same for first year conference organizers.2018-02-13T00:00:00+00:00http://ericholscher.com/blog/2019/sep/19/helping-first-time-conference-attendees-with-welcome-wagon/Using a Welcome Wagon to Help First-Time Conference Attendees2019-09-26T00:00:00+00:00<section id="using-a-welcome-wagon-to-help-first-time-conference-attendees">
<p>You walk into the room and you’re wearing the <em>wrong</em> thing.
Everyone else is dressed casually,
but you are not.
You feel silly and find the quickest excuse to leave the situation.
This is an example of a common situation:
not knowing what is expected of you when you enter a new place.</p>
<p>It’s stressful to enter a new group without knowing what to expect.
It breeds anxiety and self-doubt,
and makes it much less likely you’ll join any activities.</p>
<p>At <a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/">Write the Docs</a>,
we’re working to make the community easier to join because we want everyone to feel welcome.
We do this with the Welcome Wagon program,
which helps attendees at both the planning and the attending stages of the conference.
We hope that this breaks down barriers to help them get the most value from our community.</p>
<section id="welcome-wagon-guide">
<h2>Welcome Wagon Guide</h2>
<p>One major part of the Welcome Wagon is our <a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/portland/2019/welcome-wagon/">guide</a>.
It documents how to successfully navigate our community.
It’s basically a <em>User Guide</em> for the conference.
It covers:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Common questions, like “How do I take part in the unconference?” and “Where is everything?”</p></li>
<li><p>How to plan your time at the conference</p></li>
<li><p>What is expected of you while you’re at the conference</p></li>
<li><p>Tips and tricks for having the best time at the event</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We answer attendees most common questions before the event,
making expectations more explicit and enabling people to focus on enjoying their time instead of spending it worrying.
This reduces anxiety and also makes it more likely that people will have a good first experience with our community.</p>
</section>
<section id="welcome-wagon-events">
<h2>Welcome Wagon Events</h2>
<p>The second major part of the Welcome Wagon is a set of events at the conference itself.
We have a team who are the humans who are the “Welcome Wagon”,
and they lead the Welcome Wagon events at the conference.
You will find their pictures in the guide to make it easy to recognize them at the event.</p>
<p>Currently we:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Provide an introduction the evening before the conference</p></li>
<li><p>Give venue tours the evening before and the morning of the conference</p></li>
<li><p>Invite the attendees to ask the Welcome Wagon team questions any time throughout the conference</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The goal of these events is to introduce the Welcome Wagon team to people,
as well as to explain how the conference and community work.
Attendees can ask the Welcome Wagon team questions throughout the conference,
because they know their faces and that they will be helpful.</p>
</section>
<section id="run-a-welcome-wagon">
<h2>Run a Welcome Wagon</h2>
<p>If you’re curious about how to run a Welcome Wagon at your conference,
you’re in luck.
We have a <a class="reference external" href="http://www.writethedocs.org/organizer-guide/confs/welcome-wagon/">organizer guide</a> that explains how to do it.</p>
<p>We strongly believe that iteration across a number of events and perspectives are the best way to make great things.
So if you adopt a similar program at your conference we’d love to hear about it.
We are always open to feedback and ideas to make the program better as well.</p>
<p>You can also look at our examples from our 2019 conferences in order to get a better idea:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/portland/2019/welcome-wagon/">Portland 2019 Welcome Wagon</a></p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/prague/2019/welcome-wagon/">Prague 2019 Welcome Wagon</a></p></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="credits">
<h2>Credits</h2>
<p>I wrote this blog post,
but the Welcome Wagon wasn’t my idea.
It was created by Christy Lutz and Leona Campbell at our Portland conference.
We have been working to refine it over the years,
and I’m just hoping to promote it so other people can learn from our work.</p>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../../2017/aug/2/pacman-rule-conferences/"><span class="doc">The Pac-Man Rule at Conferences</span></a></p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../../2019/sep/19/helping-first-time-conference-attendees-with-welcome-wagon/"><span class="doc">Using a Welcome Wagon to Help First-Time Conference Attendees</span></a></p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../../2023/feb/10/we-dont-do-that-here/"><span class="doc">We don’t do that here: Setting social norms</span></a></p></li>
</ul>
</div>
</section>
</section>
You walk into the room and you’re wearing the wrong thing.
Everyone else is dressed casually,
but you are not.
You feel silly and find the quickest excuse to leave the situation.
This is an example of a common situation:
not knowing what is expected of you when you enter a new place.2019-09-26T00:00:00+00:00http://ericholscher.com/blog/2023/feb/10/we-dont-do-that-here/We don’t do that here: Setting social norms2023-02-10T00:00:00+00:00<section id="we-don-t-do-that-here-setting-social-norms">
<p>I have long been a fan of social rules to make events more inclusive.
Ever since I attended my first tech conference,
I’ve seen the career-enhancing power of events,
but they have never been equally accessible to all people.</p>
<p>As organizers we need to be working to improve the spaces that we are responsible for,
and I’d like to share one powerful concept that can help.</p>
<section id="a-powerful-tool-for-settings-norms">
<h2>A powerful tool for settings norms</h2>
<p>I came across the concept of using <cite>We don’t do that here</cite> as a backstop for settings norms,
and I’m thinking about how we can apply it at <a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/">Write the Docs</a> events.
Here is a quote from the blog post where I heard this idea,
so you can get a sense of the idea:</p>
<blockquote class="epigraph">
<div><p>If no one has told you yet, as your career in tech progresses you will eventually become a “custodian of culture.” If you run a meetup or a team, if you lead an open source project, or if you organize an event people will be looking to you to know what is and isn’t okay in that space. You get this responsibility whether you want it or not. […]</p>
<p>When I’m able I’d much rather spend the time to educate someone about diversity and inclusion issues and see if I can change how they see the world a bit. But I don’t always have the time and energy to do that. And sometimes, even if I did have the time, the person involved doesn’t want to be educated.</p>
<p>This is when I pull out “we don’t do that here.” It is a conversation ender. If you are the newcomer and someone who has been around a long time says “we don’t do that here”, it is hard to argue. This sentence doesn’t push my morality on anyone. If they want to do whatever it is elsewhere, I’m not telling them not to.</p>
<p class="attribution">—<strong>Aja Hammerly</strong>, <a class="reference external" href="https://thagomizer.com/blog/2017/09/29/we-don-t-do-that-here.html">We don’t do that here</a></p>
</div></blockquote>
<p>I really loved this framing, and it spoke to me directly as someone who is responsible for a conference.</p>
</section>
<section id="the-responsibility-of-a-community-leader">
<h2>The responsibility of a community leader</h2>
<p>I’ve written in the past about the value of having people dedicated to setting culture at your events,
most recently in <a class="reference internal" href="../../../2015/oct/16/the-importance-of-being-welcoming/"><span class="doc">The Importance of Being Welcoming</span></a>.
The most powerful way to set culture is by being a good, positive example.
Our Welcome Wagon does a wonderful job of this,
showing by example how to be a welcoming and open member of a community.</p>
<p>That said,
you sometimes need to be able to shut down behavior as well.
<cite>We don’t do that here</cite> is a powerful tool,
when used by someone in a position of cultural power.</p>
<p>My first attempt at making a rule from this concept is:</p>
<blockquote>
<div><p>As a person with a position of power,
it’s your responsibility to enforce community standards.
Start by setting a good example of how a community member should act,
but <cite>We don’t do that here</cite> is a powerful tool for shutting down negative behavior.</p>
</div></blockquote>
<p><cite>We don’t do that here</cite> allows you to reinforce culture in a way that can’t be argued.
However,
it fully depends on your position of power,
to set the norms of the community.
Being able to use it effectively,
the community needs to agree ahead of time on what the standards are.
Deciding on a shared community vision for this can often be the hardest part.</p>
<p>You must define and enforce community standards if you wish to grow a healthy community.
<cite>We don’t do this here</cite> is a powerful tool to keep,
for the (hopefully) rare situation when you need it.</p>
</section>
<section id="examples">
<h2>Examples</h2>
<p>Aja’s post had a couple good examples.
I’ll include one here,
so you have a good understanding of how to use this in a social setting.</p>
<blockquote>
<div><div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Them: Tells an off-color joke.</div>
<div class="line">Me: “We don’t do that here.”</div>
<div class="line">Them: “But I was trying to be funny.”</div>
<div class="line">Me (shrugging): “That isn’t relevant. We don’t do that here.”</div>
</div>
</div></blockquote>
<p>This is a wonderful example of being an ally,
someone who speaks up to ensure that the space is more welcoming.</p>
<p>Read the <a class="reference external" href="https://thagomizer.com/blog/2017/09/29/we-don-t-do-that-here.html">full post</a> for other examples.</p>
</section>
<section id="further-reading">
<h2>Further reading</h2>
<p>I found this concept originally in Chris Holdgraf’s <a class="reference external" href="https://chrisholdgraf.com/blog/2023/fosdem/">FOSDEM 2023 report</a>.
Aja Hammerly’s <a class="reference external" href="https://thagomizer.com/blog/2017/09/29/we-don-t-do-that-here.html">blog post</a> is where I learned more.</p>
<p>Have you found a useful rule or technique for making your events friendlier and more accessible?
I’d love your suggestions on how to spread this idea more widely.</p>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../../2017/aug/2/pacman-rule-conferences/"><span class="doc">The Pac-Man Rule at Conferences</span></a></p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../../2017/dec/2/breaking-cliques-at-events/"><span class="doc">Breaking Cliques at Events: The Snowball Rule</span></a></p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../../2019/sep/19/helping-first-time-conference-attendees-with-welcome-wagon/"><span class="doc">Using a Welcome Wagon to Help First-Time Conference Attendees</span></a></p></li>
</ul>
</div>
</section>
</section>
I have long been a fan of social rules to make events more inclusive.
Ever since I attended my first tech conference,
I’ve seen the career-enhancing power of events,
but they have never been equally accessible to all people.2023-02-10T00:00:00+00:00