Mozfest/2015

Mozilla’s annual festival celebrating the open web.
Arrive with an idea, leave with a community.

This page documents the developing progress of the MozFest program and should not be used as a primary source for information on the festival - please refer to the Mozilla Festival website as the primary and main resource for information on the festival.

Mozilla Festival 2015

Save the Date : 6th, 7th and 8th of November 2015

Location: Ravensbourne College, Greenwich, London

2015 Festival Narrative

This year, we're focusing on leadership, advocacy and impact. We'll train tomorrow's leaders, empower participants to make a positive difference on the Web, and work toward universal web literacy. To help participants get the most out of MozFest, we’ve introduced two new concepts to the program: Spaces and Pathways.

Spaces are physical hubs, typically located on a single floor, with sessions exploring a shared theme. Pathways are a series of three or more complimentary sessions and experiences that may cross multiple Spaces.

We have 8 Spaces at this years festival

• Journalism
• Science
• Participation
• The Global Village
• Youth Zone
• Localisation
• Mozilla Learning Network
• Digital Citizenship

These spaces are run by a dedicated team of 53 people, from with Mozilla but also from the community, our partner networks and friends of the festival.

We have 12 Pathways interwoven between these Spaces that bring our participants through the festival narrative. These pathway are a selection of sessions but also experiences with a clear learning objective.

All these pathways and Spaces are clearly mapped out on Mozilla Festival's website

How we built this years festival-

Below are some key markers of work we examined throughout the year towards the festival, how we evolved the narrative for 2015 by looking back as well as to the next 5 years. As outlined in the Scottish retreat paragraph below, we didnt make this jounrney alone but with the help of many dedicated and inspiring staff, community and festival friends.

Architecture of Participation

In Mark Surman's latest blog post called Participation, permission and momentum he talks about a “more radical approach to participate” and the “Architecture of participation”. He wants us to change the way we connect with people to “get shit done”.

MozFest will be 6 years old this year and with Marks words in mind, we wanted to re-examine what the festival means to us as a team and how the festival can continue to still be our Agent for Change.

Looking at the festival as space agnostic we thought about our building blocks, Lead, Teach and Make. We discussed using these three elements as our themes for the festival. These three blocks representing our work are interlinked and aligned with each other.

Lead - Our leaders are our fellows, our professional networks and community. The leaders are facilitating the mission and ideals of Mozilla. We campaign for change through our MoFo teams such as Policy, Journalism and Science.

Teach - We teach through our learning networks, where we skill share and facilitate. Our clubs in our cities are teaching and organising, innovating youth and creating change agents.

Make - Our product team are building and making new tools for the next generation to lead, connect, collaboration and are “getting shit done”.

How do we build with these blocks for MozFest 2015?
This the question we are currently working on. If you would like to join in the conversation send us your ideas to festival@mozilla.org

First blocks

Laying the foundations for this years festival we have three strategic goals in mind

   1. Rally around a common cause: "Help people wield the web."
   2. Experience the Mozilla Learning vision.
   3. Be systematic about bringing, celebrating and up-leveling leaders.

With these goals in mind we will be working towards building a new narrative around the festival with some partners in June. During these couple of days at a retreat MozFest MozRetreat wikipage we will examine how we can evolve the festival structure to be the starting block of our goals while holding onto the great energy that brings such imagination and inventiveness over the festival weekend.

Road Map

March

• Save the Date email
• Update design of festival website
• Confirm the venue
• Initial draft of MozFest Budget

April

• MozFest Roles identified
• Messaging around festival decided
• Sign Contract with Hotel
• Research new registration platforms
• Track ideas developed

May

• Website remixed for 2015
• Start Volunteer leaders meeting
• Start engaging suppliers

June

• Open Call for Proposals
• Narrative retreat

July

• Speakers invited
• Review proposal submissions
• Reach out for sponsorship
• Start volunteer recruitment
• Mozpub opens

August

• Determine post festival arc
• Close Call for Proposals
• Schedule App build begins
• MozFest Insurance applied for
• Successful sessions informed

September

• Accepted sessions appear on the website
• All suppliers engaged
• Inital draft of space within venue
• Detailed agenda 90% complete

October

• Festival website Live
• All risk assessments recieved and signed
• Festival production team start

November

• Program team in London
• Facilitators supplies order deadline
• Final space layout confirmed
• Hotel rooms allocated

December

• Feedback Meetings with program team, Space Wranglers and suppliers
• Focus on budget wrap up
• Sleep :)

Contact the festival team

If you have any questions around the development of the program for this years festival or have some themes or ideas you would like to put forward, please email us at festival@mozilla.org. We love chatting about the festival

Volunteers

MozFest would not exist without our Volunteer Heroes. If you volunteered last year at MozFest 2014 and or would like to get involved this year please head to our MozFest Volunteer wikipage