Yes, it is possible to do it all by yourself but it is a lot easier if you don't. 4 - 6 is a good number :)
Please keep in mind that the more people you are the larger the communication issues might get.
Communication is everything!
Choose your tools of communication wisely. If they don't work change them. Talk about it.
This is our toolchain:
- We use slack for daily communication issues.
- We meet or use google hangout every 4-6 weeks to keep each other updated.
- We use google drive for all documentation.
- We use trello for progress overview.
We extracted the following more or less independent topics / responsibilities:
- Sponsoring
- Location
- Tickets
- Party
- Catering
- Website
- Social Media + PR
- Design
- Insurance
- Swag: T-Shirts, Badges, Stickers, etc
- Finance
- Diversity
- CoC
At the Kick-off Meeting every topic is assigned to one or two team members who have the full responsibility.
Some topics overlap. So there must be some communication between the teams.
Each year after the conference we meet for a Retrospective / PMA regarding the process and the actual conference. We invite an external moderator to oversee the meeting. The goal of this meeting is to check what went good and what can be improved for the next time.
Simply put: we want to learn from our mistakes to improve each year in a nicely Kaizen matter.