Gran Canaria Desktop Summit

GUADEC 2009 and Akademy 2009 will be held at the same time and same place, in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, from July 3rd to July 11th 2009.

This page is for the organisers of the event to track major tasks and their sub-tasks during the organisation of the event.

For reference, past GUADEC organisers have put together the very impressive GuadecPlanningHowTo

Check list

• Infrastructure
  • Auditorium
    • Do we have final space requirements?
    • Have the space requirements and budget been finalised with the Cabildo?
    • Do we have sufficient power sockets?
    • Will the coffee shop be open during the conference?
    • Do we have a list of banner and poster needs within the auditorium?
    • Do we have a list of requirements for the Auditorium for the welcome area, exhibition stand, A/V, catering, ...?
    • Are there cloakroom facilities for people who wish to leave bags during the day?
  • Networking
    • What are the bandwidth requirements?
    • Do we have a quote for bandwidth supply?
    • Do we have a list of equipment needs for wifi access points, routers, ethernet wiring, etc?
  • Sound
    • do we have an A/V engineer on hand?
    • Does every conference hall have:
      • a microphone?
      • recording facilities?
      • audio hook-up with laptops possible?
  • Printing - banners, posters
    • Do we have a full list of requirements for printing?
    • Banners: How many are we printing? What size? Do we have quotes?
    • Posters: Are we printing any? What size? How many? Quotes?
    • Conference programme: Are we printing one? No.
  • Catering
    • What catering is available on-site for people who want to avail of it?
    • Are we having sponsored coffee breaks? A paid cafe bar?
    • Can we bring water and food into the facilities?
    • Is water sponsored? How many bottles? Ice cream in the afternoon?
    • Lunch options: Are we providing facilities? Recommended options? Sponsored lunch?
  • Merchandising - t-shirts, caps, ...
    • What merchandising are we getting done? Caps, flip flops, t-shirts, water bottles?
    • Do we have a t-shirt design?
    • Do we have a cap design?
    • Do we have quotes for 800 and 1000 units?
    • Are any sponsors including a sponsored gift for attendees? Which ones? What are they giving?
  • Volunteer co-ordination
    • How many do we need?
    • Pre-conference: Have we planned preparing merchandising for easy distribution? Are there conference bags? Are they prepared with t-shirt, cap, USB key, etc?
    • Do we have volunteers assigned to buy required equipment, furniture, etc?
    • For equipment rental, is a volunteer assigned to collect and return rental equipment?
    • Do we have a volunteer working with the tourist office to collect travel brochures, maps, and other useful local information?
    • Do we have a volunteer to meet each keynote at the airport and take them to their hotel?
    • Do we have a volunteer for each advisory board member?
    • Can volunteers meet groups traveling together, or arriving around the same time?
    • Do we have enough volunteers on the welcome desk?
    • Have volunteers on the help desk been briefed on donation system?
    • Do we have a cash box, and someone responsible for it?
    • Do we have a process for accepting donations and distributing merchandising? Is the space laid out appropriately to avoid logjams?
    • Do we have a volunteer for each presentation hall?
    • Are the volunteers briefed to introduce speakers, and willing to do so?
    • Are the volunteers briefed on time management?
    • Do we have volunteers for audio and video recording? Are they briefed in using the equipment?
    • Social events: do we need volunteers for information or cloakroom?
    • Are there volunteers for every remote site? On each tour bus?
    • Have we briefed volunteers on the location of conference hotels, event locations, local transport options?

    • Do we have volunteers on sysadmin & networking duty?

    • Do we have a volunteer to fetch breakfast and lunch for volunteers?
    • Have we organised a volunteer party for Friday night after the conference?
  • Website - infrastructure needs, access for organisers, development needed, etc.
  • Hacking room
• Content
  • Keynotes
    • Who is being invited?
    • Who is inviting them?
    • Who has accepted/declined?
    • Do we have a bio and photo for each keynote to put online?
    • Have we done a press release on our keynotes?
    • Do we have flight times and hotel for each keynote?
    • Is someone meeting them at the airport?
  • Call for papers
    • Do we have a text for the call for papers?
    • Do we have a procedure and infrastructure for accepting proposals?
    • Has the submitterr included a bio and photo for the website?
    • Is there a theme or themes we are insisting on in particular?
    • Who will be selecting content for the conference?
    • Do they have guidelines and deadlines?
    • How many presentations will be accepted, in what themes?
    • Do we have a draft conference schedule?
  • Video
    • Will we be doing video streaming?
    • Is there a camera and microphone for every conference stream?
    • Do we have a procedure for getting content archived and online quickly?
  • eV and foundation meetings
    • Do we have required rooms allocated?
    • Have we finalised needs for the meetings?
  • BOFs
    • Do we have infrastructure for planning BOFs, hacking sessions and other informal sessions?
    • Are BOF rooms equipped with whiteboards, markers, flip-charts?
    • Do BOF rooms need overhead projectors?
  • Lightning talks
    • Do we have infrastructure for planning lightning talks?
    • Do we have an agreed way to decide the lighhtning talks which will be accepted, in the case of over-subscription?
    • Has everyone with a planned lightning talk included their presentation slides beforehand in a pre-approved format?
    • Do we have a shared laptop for lightning talks to load the slides on?
    • Do we have a nice way to let the speaker know they are running out of time?
    • Has the shared laptop been tested with the projector?
  • Spanish language content
• Attendees
  • Travel
    • Have we listed an array of travel options for arriving at the island?
    • Are the recommended arrival and departure dates clear on the site?
    • Have we published a way for people to co-ordinate and get group rates?
    • Have we got a template visa invitation letter ready?
    • Are we answering requests for visa information letters promptly?
    • Do we have a procedure to handle fraudulent visa requests?
    • Are we meeting groups at the airport? (esp. from sponsors or pro attendees)
  • Accommodation
    • Have we assembled a list of recommended accommodation options?
    • Is an agreement in place with the travel agency to allow people to book there, and find availability in one place?
    • Do we have sufficient accommodation choices at the needed price points?
    • Have we reserved hotels for keynotes and other invitees, or ensured that they are aware they need top book themselves?
  • Registration
    • Is the registration process available in the website?
    • Can the organisers consult the list of registered attendees?
    • Have we published a release that registration is open?
    • Do we have a way to track donations of registered participants during the conference?
  • Press
    • Have we contacting specialised press regularly with releases?
    • Have we contacted local press with releases?
    • Do we have a list of journalists registered to attend the conference?
    • Have we organised press badges for press attendees?
    • Who is co-ordinating press relations during the conference?
    • Have we asked keynotes and other headline speakers to be available for interviews?
    • Have we planned their interview schedule?
• Leisure
  • Parties
    • How many parties will there be organised together?

    • Have we planned a party (pizza & beer) to thank volunteers on Friday the 10th?

    • How many parties will be organised independantly?
    • When will the parties happen?
    • What is needed at the parties in terms of drinks and food?
    • For each party: is there a sponsor?
    • What is the budget for the party?
    • What is the required capacity?
    • Where will the party be held?
  • Tourism
    • Have we contacted the tourist office to have maps, guides for nightlife, beaches and sights available for attendees?
    • Have we finalised the number of spaces on tours?
    • Have we got a procedure for people to sign up for tours?
    • Is there some financial participation to ensure we don't have massive drop-out rates?
  • Other events
    • Will we have a FreeFA world cup again?
    • Do we have a pitch? Is it close to the conference center?
    • Do we have infrastructure for people to sign up?
    • Will we do KDE vs GNOME?
    • Have we got a good opportunity for a SMASHED meeting? Ice Cream Death Match? Do we need to do anything for these?
• Money
  • Sponsors
    • Do we have a list of potential sponsors?
    • Do we have high quality contacts for each sponsor?
    • Have we contacted them?
    • Is the sponsor a definitive yes or no?
    • Have the maybes been recontacted?
    • Are there special package sponsorship deals missing quotes?
  • Budget
    • Do we have an up-to-date budget document?

    • Have we got a final list of what is being covered by the Cabildo, and what is being covered by the KDE & GNOME organisers?

    • Do we have quotes for:
      • t-shirts and merchandising?
      • joint parties?
      • conference site water/catering/coffee?
      • tours?
      • printing?
      • Design work on electronic brochure, website, t-shirts?
    • Have we budgeted keynote flights and accommodation?

    • Have we updated budget with exact information from keynotes & hotel?

    • Do we have a taxi or car hire budget?
    • Do we have a complete list of equipment we need for event co-ordination and registration desk?
    • Do we have quotes for equipment purchase/rental?
    • Do we need to buy equipment for conference audio or video?
    • Do we have a list of expenses that we need to budget from the local organiser?
    • Do we have a list of equipment needs for the chill-out space in the exhibition space? Do we have quotes for rental/purchase?

  • Invoicing & accounts

    • Have we invoiced agreed sponsors?
    • Do we have someone doing monthly account reconciliation with receipts and invoices?
  • Legal agreements

    • Do we have an agreement on handling money & accounting in place?

    • Do we have an agreement stating the financial responsibilities of each party?
  • Exhibitors
    • Is there an exhibition village?
    • Are we "selling" space?
    • Do we have a list of potential exhibitors (and a relevant contact for each)?
    • Do we have a list of confirmed exhibitors?
    • Have we contacted them for exhibition space floor plans?
    • Do we have a final number of stands?
    • Do we need any equipment for stand space?
    • Do we have a floor plan for the chill-out space?

CategoryGuadec