Organization on Day One
Developer Camp is a three-day hackathon and community event, held regularly in cities all around the world. It relies on a certain pattern and schedule to create trust and foster cooperation—right up until the presentations begin. Here is how the first day rolls out, usually on a Friday.
Schedule
1500–1700 — Organizer’s Meetup with Volunteers
1700 — Doors Open
1700–1800 — Mixer
1800–1900 — Welcome and Introductions
1900–2100 — Pitches
2200–0900 Saturday — Overnight
Summary
Organizers arrive two hours early to set up shop, arrange tables, smooth over details with our host, and prepare volunteers to work the doors. Someone is sent out to buy food at the local bulk food shop at this time, the main stage is tested, and signage is installed on site. Sponsors are also allowed in early, to set up their tables and display their developer offerings.
By the time doors open, all volunteers are briefed and in place, all organizers and hosts are on site, and the space is prepared with comfortable seating, food, beverages, WiFi, and power outlets. Everyone gets a badge, gets checked in by a volunteer, and has the chance to mingle amongst the sponsor tables.
The purpose of this first evening is to provide people with a chance to get to know each other, and to become comfortable with one another. To this end, we do provide snacks, caffeine, and alcohol to those that are interested. We call this “chemical bonding,” and we’ve learned only to allow alcohol on the first night. After the first night, depressants become counter-productive, lead to slow productivity and boasting.
The Welcome Presentation is usually short, with a brief history of the event and a show of hands for those that have attended before. Rules of the space are laid out, as well as a summary of rules for the Contest. The concept of Contribution Tickets is introduced, and some time is allotted to thank our sponsors.
Following this presentation, attendees are invited to queue and speak for 30 seconds at a time on stage. The purpose of this is to allow anyone to:
- Showcase an idea
- Offer a talent
- Request help
- Introduce themselves or their team
- Describe their ambition
After the Pitch Session, which is good practice for the traditional “elevator pitch” that happens in real life, attendees are welcome to populate the space at large. Organizers and volunteers do our best to pair participants together with complimentary skills, and a “Needed / Offered” board begins to fill up.
Although people usually want to stay and work all that night, we close the doors by 10pm in order to give people a chance to rest and connect with each other over late night food. The affiliated hotel nearby offers a lounge with WiFi, and we’ve had sponsors donate a Hacker Suite to those interested in staying up all night that first night.
We like to encourage people to save their energy for the following two days, which includes an overnight the next night on site. Day one is about organizing the space, the volunteers, organizing everyone into teams, and making sure all participants understand the values of the community: cooperation, contribution, and commitment.
Organizer Tips
As an organizer, don’t expect to actually produce anything of value during the event. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. I’ve tried, at great personal cost, to do this. For example, I finished the last two chapters of “140 Characters” over the course of iPhoneDevCamp 3 in 2009. Let’s just say I won’t be trying that again.
Also, it’s critical that you divide the workload responsibly, and allow each of your founding organizers to do what they do best. There should be one point of contact for the following essential tasks:
- Concierge, who pairs participants up with each other. This person knows who is good at what and all they care about is who’s working on what, and how.
- Wrangler, who handles continuing needs of the sponsors. This person is skilled at escalating and demoting requests, solves problems quickly, and generally has a smile no matter what’s going on.
- Master of Ceremonies, who is ultimately responsible for what happens on stage and when. This person is a natural-born presenter, who keeps the event running on time.
Each organizer should be responsive to the needs of the participants, and should act as a judge in the Contest. Each one should carry and distribute Contribution Tickets to people who help others. All organizers and volunteers should consult each other whenever there is a question, and keep an open messaging thread throughout the weekend.
Participant Tips
In my experience, participants fall into several categories:
- Newbies, who’ve never been to an event like this, and don’t know what to expect.
- Contestants, who are definitely there to win, and have fun doing it.
- Contributors, who may not feel competitive, but love to help others and may or may not humbly accept credit.
- Promotors, who have an agenda like sponsorship, or those trying to gain support for an idea that they may not have the skill to pursue.
Of course, everyone is there to learn and grow, to discover something or someone, and to see what is possible to achieve within 48 hours. A newbie may end up as another type by the end of the weekend, and not everyone has to enter the contest but most do try to make something worth showing off.
Our idea contest is really more like a showcase of projects in various states of completion — but you would be surprised by what can be accomplished in two all-nighters.
I’d advise any contestant to pick an underpopulated or uncontested category to pursue greatness. Oftentimes there are sponsors giving recognition to anyone using their developer offering, and in some cases may reward more than one winner. Find balance in your team, amongst designers and developers, and give each person something big to contribute. Let them work independently and then schedule some time for integration later in the weekend.
Additionally, I recommend that everyone consider open sourcing their work for the weekend. First of all, it gives them additional consideration by our judges, but also it adds a freedom of movement to the group when the public is available for comment. Open sourcing one’s work does not mean that the creators cannot profit from it. There are many types of open source licenses, so take a look and see which one is right for your team.
For Contributor types, the most effective strategy I’ve seen is to put up a “Help Offered” sign. Sit in a central location, and make it known what you are great at doing, or what you’d like to help people to do. Make it clear how far you’re willing to go, and create some boundaries so that people don’t rely on you for the entire weekend.
For Promotor types, you have to be completely transparent about how much you can contribute. Don’t assume that anyone is going to help you or support you out of goodwill alone. If you have any skill in an area, mention it, and if you are just there to share an idea go ahead and share it but don’t expect anything in return.
How to Fail at This
- Treat your sponsors like Gods, and focus only on getting the winners funded. This will have the effect of ruining your principles, and making the participants into contestants only concerned with winning instead of helping each other and making things work.
- Make it all about education and networking. This will guarantee that you’ll have high overhead for lecturers, making participants pay you a lot, which jacks up expectations. Also, no one but the lecturers will share ideas, and attendees will get zero built during the event.
- Forget all about diversity, and focus on big ideas that “move the needle.” This will ensure that women and minorities get offended, and new minds with delicate needs or requirements are shuffled out or intimidated. Also, make it really huge and film everything so that everyone feels on the spot. Then participants will keep to themselves while trying to create a spectacle for the “audience.”
