Mozfest/2016/retreat

MozRetreat 2016 took place in Berlin, Germany from May 5-7, 2016.

Background & Purpose

In 2015, we gathered 52 people in Anstruther, Scotland to shake up the festival after successful 5 years. Together, we evaluated the weekend's frame, changed the festival's structure by introducing pathways, and explored new ways to lead, teach and innovate with our community.

This year, we hosted MozRetreat 2016 to build on that work. We've invited an eclectic group of Space Wranglers, community, festival designers and Mozilla staff to solidify the new structure we designed last year and to think creatively about the festival.

We gathered in Berlin, Germany from the 5th -7th of May to collectively create purpose statements for each space, co-design the Call for Proposals, and map pathways as a large group.

Agenda-setting Interviews

As part of the MozRetreat planning process, we conducted 1:1 interviews with nearly all the attendees a few weeks prior to the retreat. We asked the following questions:

1. What will make your time and energy feel well spent at the MozRetreat?
2. What would you like to share during the 3 day workshops?
3. What topics do you think participants are likely to want to debate?

The purpose of the interviews was to identify what particpants hope to achieve during our time together in Berlin. While everyone came to these interviews with their own perspective, the following broad themes emerged:

1. Clarity. How can we leave Berlin with a better understanding of key operational details?
2. Audience. Discuss who MozFest is for, and how we can shape the spaces and overall festival accordingly.
3. Spaces & Pathways. Learn what others are doing. Collaborate and coordinate.
4. Creative space design. How can we build out spaces in interesting and innovative ways?
5. Relationships. Meet other participants and forge relationships and collaborations.

Schedule

Summary of Sessions over the 3 days

Thursday

• Learning who is present and why we are here
• Big Ideas for MozFest
• Farmers Market of new ideas

Friday

• Drawing individual visions of success for spaces and/or experiences
• Meeting in small teams to hack visions of success for spaces and/or experiences
• Hack Jam

Saturday

• Collaborating with others on spaces and/or experiences
• Identifying key accomplishments and next steps
• Final Hack jam

Emerging Spaces

Documentation

Participant Goals for MozRetreat

What we want to achieve at MozRetreat

Post-it wall of goals

MozFest Timeline

MozFest Timeline in etherpad form

MozRetreat Zine

As an experiment in documentation, we asked MozRetreat participants to communicate their thoughts, ideas, inspirations and frustrations through the visual medium of a handmade zine. While exploring Berlin, we collected pamphlets and flyers which we cut and pasted into personal pages. We'll compile these into a single zine that we can share at future Mozilla events, including MozFest itself. View the zine in our Flickr gallery.

Inviting People to Participate

Should we remix the Call for Proposals

Make the Invitation More Inviting #mimi (in honor of Misty)

Hacking the Mainstage

Hacking the Main Stage

Mozilla's Issues Platform

Mozilla's Issues Platform

Key Accomplishments & Next Steps for Spaces

Take Back the Net (working title for Policy & Advocacy space)

Demystify Web Literacy

The IOT Anti-Space

Language Inclusion

Science

Arts & Culture

Meta Moz

Youth (and young at heart) Zone

Mozoffice Hours

Passports

Journalism

Next Steps

Space Wrangler calls begin Thursday May 19. These calls will be twice monthly until August when they will become once a week. These calls are designed as an opportunity for wranglers and program designers to share next steps, highlight any program requirements, offer peer assistance and share logistics and ideas.

Key dates for MozFest Program delivery:https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/festival-calendar2016