Tips for Advertising, Planning, and Managing your Topics

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Are you planning a topic for an upcoming Developer or Virtual Event?  Here are some tips from our community members to help your session be successful.

Keep in mind any/all of the recommendations below are simply guidelines.

Advertising the session: Creating the Blurb

Developing a effective marketing blurb about the session will help attendees know what to expect from the session. Below are some recommendations to develop a blurb about your session:

• Create a brief description of the content: "RM/RA/RI/RC deep dive" or "Field trial Results" or "OPNFV/CNTT relationship"

• Specify the nature of the session: “Technical proposal for review”/”Lessons learned”/”Technical report”/”Brainstorming”/”Governance"/other”

• Specify your goals for the session (E.g. ”Make a decision on xyz.”, “Recruit volunteers for a work-group”, “Reach consensus on abc”, ”Solicit feedback on xyz topic”, etc.)

• Describe the primary target audience and/or prerequisites:
  
  

  • Is it for the community at large? Subject matter Experts? End Users? etc.

  • Are there specific knowledge requirements/other sessions that the attend should know/attend?

Anything you do to improve the understanding of the session will improve the experience for all.

Planning the session: Logistics and Planning

Laying out a plan for the delivery of the session improves the chances of accomplishing the goals of the session. Please consider the following recommendations: 

• Determine how much time will be required, and how the time will it be divided between presentation and discussion.

• Determine the appropriate time frame for posting the presentation materials (Before the session vs after the session)
  
  

• Determine the medium will be used for driving the session:

  • A slide deck?

  • GitHub issue backlog?

  • Wiki page?

• Staffing the session:

  • Assign a Host, scribe and a moderator

    • Scribe - Takes important and action items, and should be a separate person from Presenter and or Moderator

    • Moderator monitors time and questions, keep the dialog on track, and the session on schedule.

    • Host is responsible for opening the Session Bridge, and managing the record functions. Host and Moderator can be the same person.

• Establish note taking method:

  • Etherpad? Wiki? (Community Choice)

  • If possible, include a link to your minutes page in advance of the meeting as a part of your Topic Proposal.

• Presenters are responsible for ensuring they deliver the appropriate level of content in the time allotted. Dry runs of the sessions are encouraged.
  
  

During the session: Executing the session effectively. 

The session is the critical last step. If you have advertised and planned well, the following recommendations should simple to execute:

• Sessions should be recorded and transcribed. The Bridge Host is responsible for managing the recording.
  
  

  • As part of the opening, The moderator or presenter should advise the attendees of the recording.

• Moderators and presenters would together to keep the session on track, yet still allow for flexibility to support collaboration.

• Session schedule should allow for attendees to get to the next session they want to attend. please consider building a few minutes at the end to allow for this.

• If more time is required for the session discussion, schedule and use one of the “hallway” Zoom meetings.

  • A schedule page will be available for you to allocate additional time in the hallway bridges.

  • Please be respectful of time already schedule for the hallway bridges