How to get into the Program Committee of the classroom conference, and why it is needed
The program committee is the engine of any conference. It is thanks to his work that you see cool guys on the stage with interesting reports. The reverse is also true - if the speeches of the speakers are clearly raw, then the blame for this also falls on the PC.
We at AppsConf understood this from the very beginning, so we approached the issue fundamentally and began to recruit PC members in April, six months before the conference itself. Basically, the selection method was simple - friends and friends of friends, in which we were sure. But there is a clear understanding that such a search method greatly limits us in the appearance of new people on the team with non-standard ideas - so we decided to tell in a separate article what the program committee is, how it works and how to get there .
Important note : I am talking about everything using the example of AppsConf, but this is more or less true for many other conferences.
Goals are arranged in order of priority.
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All fast communication is conducted via Telegram chat . There are discussed some organizational issues common to all participants in the initiative. Sometimes a decision is quickly made on some issues from the speakers. We try to keep it in order, doing without flooding and long discussions of some individual speakers. This is transferred to the cards in Trello.
We work with speakers in Trello . Each potential speaker is a card that can be in one of 9 statuses:
A card always has at least one performer - this is the curator. Sometimes more performers are those PC members who have signed up to perform some actions, for example, to watch a recorded record.
The curator is the person who is in charge of the speaker from the moment he submits the application. His duties include:
In general, the speaker’s curator is the face of the entire program committee. In the opposite direction, it works in a similar way - even though other members of the PC also view the runs, the curator remains the main information carrier.
There is one important rule that we almost always adhere to: the curator should not be a colleague or friend supervised . It helps to be more objective, not to accept excuses like: “everything will be fine, you know me,” and, if necessary, refuse with a calm heart.
I myself faced such a situation when I supervised a good friend. Each run repeated about the same story. I gave a number of recommendations, but he consistently ignored them and continued to work in the direction he considered necessary. And, not wanting to spoil the relationship, I could not make hard decisions and put before the fact - either follow the recommendations of the PC, or exclude from the program. As a result, the report went worse than it could, and feedback from the audience in many ways repeated all the proposals for improvements from the PC.
Another PC tool is the schedule grid . It begins to take shape at the early stages of the conference preparation and makes it possible at any time to evaluate whether there are enough reports already submitted to fill all the slots completely. The more reports submitted, the higher the quality bar for the report to hit the schedule.
Drawing up the final grid is a separate large analytical work, which includes the following factors: the report's rating, the speaker’s fame, the similarity of topics in the neighboring slots, the conference day, the proximity of lunch and much more. Ideally, the grid should be designed so that for representatives of all segments of the target audience at any time there was an interesting event .
And our last tool is phoning, which is now held every two weeks, and closer to the date of the conference will switch to a weekly mode. At these calls, we jointly walk through Trello and discuss speakers in all statuses, due date of which has already reached the current date. Various marketing ideas, partnership proposals and other issues related to the objectives of the program committee are also discussed there.
This is the main part of the work of the program committee member. The runs themselves are held in Zoom or Hangouts, recorded on video and attached to the speaker card. After some time, the curator collects feedback on the run and sends it to the speaker, after which they set the date for the next rehearsal. This feedback covers all aspects of the report - its content, slide design, the quality of the speech itself. In addition to experience and chuika, we are guided by several important resources:
Each report usually runs through at least two runs , after which it can change almost completely. In addition to the curator, the runs are scanned by a few PC members. On average, in order to take a report into the program, we need estimates from three people.
And here everyone has their own motivation. This is what the members of AppsConf say.
Everything is simple here. On the website of any conference there are contacts of the organizers. Write to them about yourself, your experience as a speaker or organizer, or about the lack thereof. Tell us what you think is a good conference, which you usually see in the reports. Give examples of speeches that you like.
In most cases, enthusiasts who would like to help with the selection and training of speakers, in short supply, so you tear off with his hands. As for AppsConf , this year the program committee has long been formed and is working. But you can email me at Telegram (@etolstoy), and I’ll be happy to save your contacts for the next conference season.
We at AppsConf understood this from the very beginning, so we approached the issue fundamentally and began to recruit PC members in April, six months before the conference itself. Basically, the selection method was simple - friends and friends of friends, in which we were sure. But there is a clear understanding that such a search method greatly limits us in the appearance of new people on the team with non-standard ideas - so we decided to tell in a separate article what the program committee is, how it works and how to get there .
Important note : I am talking about everything using the example of AppsConf, but this is more or less true for many other conferences.
About the objectives of the program committee:
- Type an interesting target audience program.
- To grind all reports, both in content, and in terms of speaker performance and slide design.
- Promote the conference by talking about it in the community.
- To improve the conference from all sides - to work on other formats, sponsor stands, think over souvenirs and so on.
Goals are arranged in order of priority.
')
About the organization of the PC
All fast communication is conducted via Telegram chat . There are discussed some organizational issues common to all participants in the initiative. Sometimes a decision is quickly made on some issues from the speakers. We try to keep it in order, doing without flooding and long discussions of some individual speakers. This is transferred to the cards in Trello.
We work with speakers in Trello . Each potential speaker is a card that can be in one of 9 statuses:
- Ideas for invitations (the first stage of the funnel, thoughts on how cool the guys should be invited to participate).
- Invited (sent an invitation to the conference).
- He thinks (he answered the invitation and took the time to think, or the process of discussions began).
- I agree (gave the nod to participate, the topic is already known).
- I submitted an application (instead of abstract consent I submitted a specific application in the admin panel of the conference).
- Work on the report (the first phoned the speaker, made a work plan, appointed the next phoned).
- Postponed until the end of the CFP (submitted report, the author of which is not ready to invest in preparation before confirming its acceptance into the program).
- Admitted to the program (those whom we have already decided to accept to the program).
- Refused (everything is clear).
A card always has at least one performer - this is the curator. Sometimes more performers are those PC members who have signed up to perform some actions, for example, to watch a recorded record.
The curator is the person who is in charge of the speaker from the moment he submits the application. His duties include:
- find out in the correspondence the missing details of the report, for example, by requesting its detailed plan;
- make an acquaintance call, tell about the conference and the preparatory process, find out the details of the report;
- conduct such a number of runs that will be sufficient for complete polishing of the report (usually more than two).
In general, the speaker’s curator is the face of the entire program committee. In the opposite direction, it works in a similar way - even though other members of the PC also view the runs, the curator remains the main information carrier.
There is one important rule that we almost always adhere to: the curator should not be a colleague or friend supervised . It helps to be more objective, not to accept excuses like: “everything will be fine, you know me,” and, if necessary, refuse with a calm heart.
I myself faced such a situation when I supervised a good friend. Each run repeated about the same story. I gave a number of recommendations, but he consistently ignored them and continued to work in the direction he considered necessary. And, not wanting to spoil the relationship, I could not make hard decisions and put before the fact - either follow the recommendations of the PC, or exclude from the program. As a result, the report went worse than it could, and feedback from the audience in many ways repeated all the proposals for improvements from the PC.
Another PC tool is the schedule grid . It begins to take shape at the early stages of the conference preparation and makes it possible at any time to evaluate whether there are enough reports already submitted to fill all the slots completely. The more reports submitted, the higher the quality bar for the report to hit the schedule.
Drawing up the final grid is a separate large analytical work, which includes the following factors: the report's rating, the speaker’s fame, the similarity of topics in the neighboring slots, the conference day, the proximity of lunch and much more. Ideally, the grid should be designed so that for representatives of all segments of the target audience at any time there was an interesting event .
And our last tool is phoning, which is now held every two weeks, and closer to the date of the conference will switch to a weekly mode. At these calls, we jointly walk through Trello and discuss speakers in all statuses, due date of which has already reached the current date. Various marketing ideas, partnership proposals and other issues related to the objectives of the program committee are also discussed there.
Conduct runs
This is the main part of the work of the program committee member. The runs themselves are held in Zoom or Hangouts, recorded on video and attached to the speaker card. After some time, the curator collects feedback on the run and sends it to the speaker, after which they set the date for the next rehearsal. This feedback covers all aspects of the report - its content, slide design, the quality of the speech itself. In addition to experience and chuika, we are guided by several important resources:
- Wiki for speakers of all conferences Oleg Bunin.
- Recommendations from members of the PC, collected in this article .
- The Zach Holman Tutorial speaking.io .
Each report usually runs through at least two runs , after which it can change almost completely. In addition to the curator, the runs are scanned by a few PC members. On average, in order to take a report into the program, we need estimates from three people.
And why should I?
And here everyone has their own motivation. This is what the members of AppsConf say.
- To defend the interests of the community. Unwittingly you get early access to reports, you personally meet the speakers, you unwittingly begin to understand the topics that are of little interest to this. And attending a conference with a VIP ticket is a pleasant feeling.
Evgeny Suvorov, Head of Mobile Architecture Unit Development, Avito - For me, participation in a program committee is a new experience; in Yandex, public events are organized a little differently. It is also an opportunity to meet personally interesting people: organizers and speakers.
Roman Busygin, iOS developer, Yandex Music - I like to help experts in the field fully disclose the topic to listeners.
Stas Tsyganov, Head of Mobile, Tutu.ru - Egor Head of App platform Avito, and I work in Avito. But in fact, work in the PC gives you the opportunity to meet and work with speakers, great open people.
Dmitry Gryazin, Android developer, Avito - This allows you to see more reports than at the conference itself, and gives you the opportunity to draw more interesting details from the speaker and make his report, and hence the world around, better :)
Kirill Popov, Android developer, Odnoklassniki
How to get into the PC
Everything is simple here. On the website of any conference there are contacts of the organizers. Write to them about yourself, your experience as a speaker or organizer, or about the lack thereof. Tell us what you think is a good conference, which you usually see in the reports. Give examples of speeches that you like.
In most cases, enthusiasts who would like to help with the selection and training of speakers, in short supply, so you tear off with his hands. As for AppsConf , this year the program committee has long been formed and is working. But you can email me at Telegram (@etolstoy), and I’ll be happy to save your contacts for the next conference season.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/417585/
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