Balkans/Events:2011/Sofia/Aftermath

Meeting notes

The link to the etherpad is here: http://etherpad.mozilla.com:9000/balkans-sofia

You can also find them here.

Individual feedback

Please share your thoughts on what worked, what didn't work at the Balkan Meetup Sofia and your suggestions for improvement as we plan the next Balkan Meetup later this year.

Format

First and Last name

- WHAT WORKED:

• Good thing

- WHAT DIDN'T WORK:

• Not so good thing

- SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT:

• We should do this next time

William Quiviger

- WHAT WORKED:

• everyone made it safely to the meetup and safely back home
• the hotel rooms were clean and comfortable + great view of the forest nearby
• the "closed laptop" policy was respected by almost everyone, most of the time. We're getting there...
• there was good participation from everyone, by and large everyone was engaged
• lots of new faces, proof that the community is growing
• very good progress in addressing challenges Balkan communities are facing and solutions to them
• a lot of interest in ReMo, everyone has applied and currently being mentored

- WHAT DIDN'T WORK:

• no wifi (Kostas fortunately helped us get a somewhat functional connection by tethering an ethernet connection)
• room was too small, no tables, very little room to move around
• no projector on Sunday
• coffee was not drinkable :(
• first time in my life I am in a hotel that does not serve fruit juice for breakfast nor milk/cream for coffee
• lunch at hotel was way too expensive for what was served
• food during Firefox party was barely edible
• attendance at party was low
• poor participation of meetup attendeed in the weeks before the meetup so schedule was more or less hashed last minute by William when it should have been a collective effort
• Bogo was absent most of the time, running all over the place and could not join in on the critical discussions on Saturday and Sunday

- SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT:

• we need to plan much better as a team and work harder to get some kind of "meetup" task force to get involved in the planning process very early on
• we can no longer have one person try to lead all the planning of the meetup, there needs to be much more delegation
• there needs to be spcific owners for the following aspects of the meetup:
  • logistics (hotel, food, transportation, meeting room) - 2 owners
  • programme/schedule - 1 owner
  • communication and documentation (prep-meeting planning, ensuring everyone participates, shares ideas beforehand, updates wiki) - 1 owner
• we need to have 2 full days of work so we have enough time to have presentations, discussions and hacking
  • if there is a public event, it needs to be on a third day
• a "Balkans Meetup template documnt should be prepared as a base to work from
• a thorough checklist should be used to make sure nothing is missed and all our bases are covered