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Program committee playbook

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Richard Zowalla edited this page Oct 26, 2023 · 28 revisions

Goals

  • Organise the selection, promote and celebrate incredible content for our target audience

  • Select tracks and track leads and help organise their work.

    • Rotating track leads / co-leads?
    • Fair / blind / inclusive reviews, constructive feedback to authors.
    • Good balance of talks, always something to go see.
    • Work with the track chairs to publicize CFPs and selected talks

  • Work with the communications committee for announcements.

  • Work with the tech committee (including website)

    • Publishing the schedule and reference materials
    • Making slides and videos available after the conference?

  • This document doesn't contain personal identifiable information about committee members, track leads, speakers, etc.

    • It does link to other sources (websites, social media and public/private mailing lists) with this type of information.

Questions

  • What other than talks? Lightning talks?
    • Who finds and approaches keynote speakers?
    • Poster sessions!
    • Birds of a feather
    • Key signing party (during a break)
  • How many submissions can we expect to deal with?
  • What percentage of accepted should we expect to actually show?
    • Waitlist percentage?
    • Backup talks to fill in?

Telling a story

A conference should be a rewarding experience for everyone: the audience (of course), but also speakers, sponsors, as well as generating content for future viewers.

  • Beginner track chairs pick talks.
  • Intermediate track chairs pick the whole track as a coherent story.
  • Advanced track chairs coordinate across tracks. Like "after this talk you may want to skip over to this other track for this talk"

Structure and schedule

ACNA 2022 / CoC NA 2023 Structure

  • ACNA 2022

    • 9 rooms, 7 keynotes, 160 talks (normally 5-7 talks simultaneously)
    • Lightning talks had the exclusive last slot on the second last day.
    • Last day: 1 keynote and later start.

  • CoC NA 2023

    • 10 rooms, XX keynotes, 149 talks (normally 7 talks simultaneously)
Start Duration Note
09h00 15m +5 Welcome
09h20 30m +5 All 1
09h55 30m All 2
10h25 55m Coffee
11h20 40m +10 Talk 1
12h10 40m Talk 2
12h50 90m Lunch
14h20 40m +10 Talk 3
15h10 40m Talk 4
15h40 20m Coffee
16h10 40m +10 Talk 5
17h00 40m +10 Talk 6
17h50 40m Talk 7 / BOF

CoC EU 2024 [Suggested structure][CoCEU24Timing] Radisson Blu Carleton

Rooms

  • Harmony Hall (380), breaks out into:
    • Melody (80)
    • Symphony (80)
    • Rhapsody (80)
    • We will use Harmony Hall for the welcome and keynotes, and the first coffee break to separate into the smaller rooms.
    • We can join the rooms again for the Talk 9 slot on the last day (lightning talks, closing and hypotonicity).
  • Carleton Hall (80)
    • There are obstructing pillars in the room in the large configuration.
    • We'll use this space for posters and part of the coffee / social space.
    • There's a opportunity to separate out half the room with dividers for social space.
  • The restaurant is available after lunch for self-organised get-togethers.
  • Mirror lounge (40)

Structure

  • 8 talks per day in 4 rooms ==> 12 room·days or 96 talks
  • The last Talk 9 can be assigned to Birds of a Feather, or requested by the track using Talk 8 for a bonus talk (with a compelling reason).
  • The last Talk 9 on the last day should be a closing session.
Start Duration Note
09h00 15m +5 Welcome
09h20 30m +5 All 1
09h55 30m All 2
10h25 45m Coffee
11h10 30m +10 Talk 1
11h50 30m +10 Talk 2
12h30 30m Talk 3
13h00 60m Lunch
14h00 30m +10 Talk 4
14h40 30m +10 Talk 5
15h20 30m Talk 6
15h50 20m Coffee
16h10 30m +10 Talk 7
16h50 30m +10 Talk 8
17h30 30m Talk 9 / BOF
18h00 End of day

Timeline

Estimation

(Estimated dates are based on ACNA 2022)

What ACNA 22 CoC EU 24 Notes
Call for Tracks T-216 2022/03/01 T-286 2023/08/22 Just after CoC Asia
Call for Tracks T-216 2022/03/01 T-271 2023/09/06
Call for Tracks closes T-202 2022/03/15 T-272 2023/09/05
Announce tracks T-195 2022/03/22
Call for Reviewers T-192 2022/03/25
Call for Presentations T-187 2022/03/30 T-240 2023/10/07 CoC NA
Call for keynote suggestions T-158 2022/04/28 T-158 2023/12/28
Call for Presentations closes T-133 2022/05/23 T-143 2024/01/12
Track allotments finalized T-124 2022/06/01
Track schedules due T-115 2022/06/10
Speaker notifications sent T-102 2022/06/23 T-98 2024/02/26
Speaker confirmation deadline T-94 2024/03/01
Schedule announced to public T-90 2024/03/05
First day of the conference T 2022/10/03 T 2024/06/03

Communication examples

What ACNA 21 ACNA 22 CoC NA 23 CoC Asia 23
Call for Tracks 2022/03/01 2022/03/01 2023/02/08
Call for Tracks closes 2022/03/15 2023/03/01
Announce tracks 2022/03/22 2023/03/06
Call for Reviewers 2022/03/25
Call for Presentations 2022/03/30 2023/03/08 News Site Twitter 2023/05/30
Call for keynote suggestions 2022/04/28
Call for Presentations closes 2022/05/23 2023/07/13 2023/06/06
Track allotments finalized 2022/06/01
Track schedules due 2022/06/10 2022/05/31 2023/07/27 2023/07/05
Draft schedule available 2023/08/01
Speaker notifications sent 2022/06/23 2023/07/28
Schedule announced to public 2023/08/07CoCNA23-Schedule
First day of the conference 2022/10/03 2023/10/07 2023/08/18

Call for Tracks

Goals:

  • Identify the categories of talks that will make up the program.
  • Finding track leads (and others interested in joining the Program Committee).
  • Testing community interest in different subjects, merging/splitting as necessary.
  • Estimating the number of sessions per-track and tentatively blocking out rooms and dates to help guide the CfP.

Questions:

  • What exactly is a track lead volunteering for?
    • Publicity for the CfP? Competing for audience at the event?
    • Do they need to be at the conference? Should they be giving a talk?
    • Are there hidden responsibility or benefits? (Free registration, speakers dinner?)
    • If we merge tracks, how do we make sure everybody feels valued?

Audience:

Notes:

  • The CFT got taken up and published to LinkedIn
  • Next time, clarify that this is a step before the CFP, which will be held later

Call for Tracks text

It's back and it's new! We're excited to announce that the first edition of Community over Code Europe (formerly known as ApacheCon EU) will be held at the Radisson Blu Carlton Hotel in Bratislava, Slovakia from June 03-05, 2024! This eagerly anticipated event will be our first live EU conference since 2019.

We are eager to craft an exceptional experience for all attendees, and we're looking for your help.

As we plan the schedule of sessions, we are seeking input on what tracks to host for this year's live event. Please note: this event is smaller in both time and space than Community over Code NA, and we'll need to be judicious in selecting a program with something for everyone. There will be approximately 90 slots available for presentations.

To kickstart this process, we are issuing a general Call for Tracks. If you have a compelling proposal for a track at Community over Code EU 2024, please respond to this email with the following information:

  • To: planners@apachecon.com
  • Subject: [EU Tracks] - {name of track}
  • Short description of the track
  • Track lead name(s)
  • Expected number of sessions for your track
  • Optional: ASF Projects that might be interested in contributing presentations for your track

Track leads are responsible for promoting the CFP for their tracks, selecting presentations and working as part of the program committee to coordinate the schedule. Given the constraints, it's likely that we will need to merge tracks and adjust the number of sessions per track. Your help in making these decisions is highly valued; please don't hesitate to join the discussion on planners@apachecon.com.

Track selection will be based on:

  • Past attendance and interest
  • Track lead experience and expertise
  • Relevance to new technologies and approaches

Please have this information to planners@apachecon.com[1] by 2023/09/05 at 23h59 UTC, so we can begin the selection!

Additionally, we are thrilled to introduce a new feature this year: a poster session. This addition will provide an excellent platform for showcasing high-level projects and incubator initiatives in a visually engaging manner. We believe this will foster lively discussions and facilitate networking opportunities among participants.

[1]: https://events.apache.org/involved/mailing-lists.html "Apache Conferences and Events Mailing Lists"

Tracks

Community over Code 2024 Proposals

Room Mon AM Mon PM Tue AM Tue PM Wed AM Wed PM
Melody
Rhapsody
Symphony
Mirror
Carleton 1 Poster (same) (same) (same) (same) (same)
Carleton 2
Restaurant

Past events

Community over Code 2023 Tracks

Room Sat Sun Mon Tue
C3 Groovy (same) Fintech (same)
C4 Search (same) Community (same)
102 Streaming (same) Data Engineering Geospatial
103 Big Data: Storage (same) Big Data: Compute (same)
104 Incubator Performance Engineering Serverside Chat with ASF Infra Frameworks
108 API/Microservices Sustainability Content Wrangling Track (empty)
109 Cloud and Runtime Tomcat and httpd Highlights Internet of Things

ApacheCon NA 2022 Tracks

  • Big Data
  • Cassandra
  • Cloud Runtime/Cloud Native
  • CloudStack
  • Community
  • Data Engineering
  • FinTech
  • Geospatial and Remote Sensing
  • Groovy
  • Highlights
  • Incubator
  • Internet of Things
  • Libraries, Frameworks and Developer Tools
  • Performance Engineering
  • Pulsar Event Streaming
  • Search (Lucene/Solr)
  • Tomcat

Call for Presentations

Goals:

  • Fill the conference with useful, interesting talks that people want to see
  • Provide opportunities for new speakers, in an welcoming, inclusive environment.

Audience:

Call for Presentations Draft

dev@ list preamble:

(Note: You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the dev@
list for one or more projects of the Apache Software Foundation.)

It's back *and* it's new!

We're excited to announce that the first edition of Community over
Code Europe (formerly known as ApacheCon EU) which will be held at the
Radisson Blu Carlton Hotel in Bratislava, Slovakia from June 03-05,
2024! This eagerly anticipated event will be our first live EU
conference since 2019.

The Call for Presentations (CFP) for Community Over Code EU 2024 is 
now open at https://eu.communityovercode.org/blog/cfp-open/, 
and will close 2024/01/12 23:59:59 GMT.

We welcome submissions on any topic related to the Apache Software
Foundation, Apache projects, or the communities around those projects.
We are specifically looking for presentations in the following
categories:

* API & Microservices
* Big Data Compute
* Big Data Storage
* Cassandra
* CloudStack
* Community
* Data Engineering
* Fintech
* Groovy
* Incubator
* IoT
* Performance Engineering
* Search
* Tomcat, Httpd and other servers

Additionally, we are thrilled to introduce a new feature this year: a
poster session. This addition will provide an excellent platform for
showcasing high-level projects and incubator initiatives in a visually
engaging manner. We believe this will foster lively discussions and
facilitate networking opportunities among participants.

All my best, and thanks so much for your participation,

Ryan Skraba (on behalf of the program committee)

[Countdown]: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/to?iso=20240112T2359&p0=1440

To do

  • Don't forget to list the track leads in the schedule.
  • Mention the tracks and track leads in the opening remarks every morning.
  • Coordinate hosting the talks in your track with TAC.
  • Prepare for each talk:
    • Ask the speaker if they want to be introduced, if so, obtain the intro they want.
    • If there's a Q&A part, prepare a pertinent question to launch the discussion (ask the speaker if necessary).
  • At the talk:
    • Arrive early to a talk and ensure speaker has everything they need.
    • Ensure no technical issues in the room.
    • Introduce the speaker.
    • Part way through the talk, count the room! These stats are important.
    • 10 minute end of talk warning
    • 5 minute end of talk warning
    • End the talk.

Resources

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