This document was requested by the 2017-2018 committee and written by Kevin Lewis in November 2017. It’s purpose is to outline the barebones of our event processes in order to provide a baseline for future committees.
We run various types of project:
- Code & Craft
- Runs weekly for two hours
- Co-working space for people to work on any projects/skills they want to
- Truly suitable for all skill levels
- Talks & Workshops
- Runs monthly for two hours
- Aim to get people not just learning, but building
- We deliver these lightly partnered with the Careers Service
- Aimed at beginners
- Lovelace
- Runs every two months on a week day evening for 2-4 hours
- Aims to build a community for women and non-binary people interested in tech at Goldsmiths
- Also aims to be an entry point to the Hacksmiths society for people who may feel intimidated by a mixed audience, or outcomes-driven, event
- Only for Goldsmiths staff/students
- Talks_panels_discussions
- Skill agnostic
- Hackathons
- Ad-hoc, between 6 and 36 hours
- Each has it’s own theme and aims
- Most resource-intensive of our event formats
- Suitable for beginners, but slightly more confident people will be more comfortable at these
Term 1:
- DoC.Hack - Welcome week induction activity
- Hebocon - robot wars for the technically ungifted
- Monthly workshop Oct
- Lovelace #1 - Oct
- Code & Craft started on Nov 1 to run weekly
- Monthly workshop Nov
- Sex Tech Hack II (24 hours)
- MLH Local Hack Day (12 hours)
- Lovelace #2 - Dec
- Monthly workshop Dec Term 2:
- Monthly workshop Jan
- Global Game Jam (36 hours)
- Monthly workshop Feb
- Lovelace #3 - Feb
- Anvil Hack IV (24 hours)
- Monthly workshop March
- Music Hack Day (24 hours)
- Lovelace #4 - April Term 3:
- Continuing to run Code & Craft this term
- Lovelace #5 - June
When deciding whether Hacksmiths should run a project, or while making decisions when running them, refer back to our mission and values and ensure that you are doing this in the best interests.
Our mission is to provide everyone, regardless of their background, department, skill level, gender, socio-economic circumstance, gender, sexuality, or indeed anything else, the chance to play with, explore and learn about technology.
Our values are:
- Learn by doing
- Make information and knowledge freely available
- Mistrust authority
- Don’t judge people based on ‘bogus criteria’
- You can make truth and beauty on a computer
- We can change the world for the better
More about our mission and values on our about page.
- Scheduling
- Ticketing
- Space (room, tables, chairs, power)
- Providing food
- Marketing
- Sponsorship
- Swag (free giveaway items)
- Inclusion
- Accessibility
The scheduling for every kind of event is different. Let’s run through each of our projects:
- Set up on the spot
- Two hours each week without much structure.
- Open it up at the start and leave it going until the end.
- At the end, make sure you know what people worked on.
- Set up about 15 minutes before
- Again, two hours once a month.
- Wait until 15 minutes in before starting.
- TBC based on how Lovelace #2 goes
- Set up the night before
- Welcoming talks - set the scene of the challenge
- Some form of icebreaker/team formation activity
- Let people hack
- 60-90 minutes before the end start the show & tell
- Thank people for coming, announcing winners if there are any
- Exactly the same as above, but bare in mind that there is food required
- 4-5 meals for 24 hours (Sat lunch, Sat dinner, optional midnight meal, Sun breakfast, Sun lunch)
- 6-7 meals for 36 hours (same as above, with Friday dinner and optional midnight meal)
- Make sure people are rota-ed with suitable breaks (recommended no less than 6 hours)
- Leave 2-3 hours for show & tell
- Generally we offer prizes at these longer events
We use Eventbrite for ticketing.
The Students’ Union suggest that we use their ticketing system. We don’t do this so we can have much finer-grain control over analytics, and allows us to use Eventbrite’s check in app for smoother registration.
If people turn up without tickets and we still have space, we allow them to get tickets on the door by filling in the Eventbrite form. You can use hidden ticket types to stop these being shown publicly.
We do not pre-ticket Code & Craft. Instead we use Airtable to take a register subtly during the session.
At the end of the event, standardise the data and upload to the Event Attendees Airtable base.
You should ticket events no less than a month before, and expect between a 20-50% drop off rate.
All event rooms should have:
- A table space and chair per person (you may need to book porters)
- 1.5 power sockets per person within reach of their seat (you may need to ask facilities@gold to borrow theirs)
- Suitable internet (not an issue if on campus)
- A space for registering people (in Code & Craft we go around and do it during the event)
- A/V (if we’re in the church, ask facilities for a projector, mic, speakers and a mixing desk)
- An alternate quiet room with low lights, or variable light control. People should remain quiet in this space
Some additional considerations:
- If the event is overnight ask computing@gold to book security at a cost of approx £130 per night
- Will you be providing a sleeping space? If so make sure you have airbeds and pumps, and people rota-ed to blow them up
- If you’re providing food - decide where it is being stored and served from
- As a society, we should only buy food from Chartwells or the Goldsmiths SU Cafe. Neither of these options are suitable for everything we do either because of cost (Chartwells) or what’s on offer (GoldSU). We often buy meals from local vendors or supermarkets - here are meals which work well:
- General cold buffet spread
- Bagels from Beigel Bake and fillings from Aldi
- Curry
- Yao Kee
- Baguettes from Panda Panda
- Pastries from a supermarket (call ahead)
- Hot breakfast baps from GoldSu Cafe
- Make sure to ask for dietary requirements on registration and cater for them.
- If you’re uncertain, feel free to contact people and ask them questions, or wait until the day and buy meals for them from local vendors.
- My guidance is to never spend more than £5/meal for big meals, and £2.50/meal for breakfast
- Let people with specific dietary requirements go first, and keep their food very visibly separate from those without requirements
- List full ingredient list where possible - people can identify anything which may be problematic for them
- If someone has a nut allergy, EVERYTHING must be nut-free
There are several channels that we use when marketing our events:
- Our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages
- GOLDSMITHS COMPUTING Facebook group
- Hacksmiths - Tech Forum Facebook group
- Our Facebook bot powered by It’s Alive
- Once-monthly emails to members via the SU Platform
- Facebook events (add GoldSU as a co-host to increase reach)
- Let the Department of Computing know about each event to push it out
- Careers Service
- Where appropriate, engage with other societies and departments
Rather than give a complete guideline to sponsorship, I’ll defer to the sponsorship training I gave to societies in October 2017. The slides are here. Here are some additional key points:
- Don’t compromise our values for sponsors
- We turn down offers from banks, defence companies and organisations which we feel are unethical (Uber, for example), as well as those which don’t treat all of their staff fairly
- Weigh up whether some smaller events need sponsorship, and if our general funds can make them happen (such as Hebocon).
- Hebocon cost us less than £300 and was well attended. It was also quite a taxing event for us to run in terms of time - I’d rather time was spent organising a great event than trying to secure small amounts of money.
- We have stickers by default as standard at all of our events. We have a sticker template in our Google Drive folder, and order from Camaloon following the Hex Constructor Spec to the nearest mm.
- We like to be slightly more out of the box with our giveaway items at events - whether that’s constructing electronics ‘survival kits’, or 3D printing anvil-shaped casing for a WiFi chip.
- We shouldn’t spend more than £5/unit on swag. Use this as a baseline when weighing up costs.
- Do not feel the pressure to provide anything other than stickers - it’s a ‘nice to have’ and is not important when relating back to our values.
Hacksmiths have a goal and responsibility to include as diverse an audience as possible in our community.
- As a society, we have a Diversity & Inclusion Officer, appointed by the President, Treasurer and Secretary. Their role is to work with the rest of the committee to ensure our messaging and delivery is suitable for a wider audience.
- The D&I Officer works with the women and enbies of the committee to deliver a Lovelace event every two months.
- We have a Hardware Lab to provide our community with the equipment and tools which they may not otherwise be able to access. We’re always working to extend this to include more resources, hopefully extending into PiTops/laptops and desktops.
- We don’t lend these out as it would be difficult to manage a booking system, and maintain equipment when damaged.
- We also practice inclusive and non-gendered language when delivering as members of our committee. As leaders, it’s our job to act as role models for others:
- Avoid ‘guys’ or ‘dudes’ -> replace with ‘folks’, ‘peeps’, or leave the word out entirely
- Avoid ‘ladies & gentlemen’, or similar, -> replace with ‘folks’ or ‘everyone’
- There is no reason to gender sleeping spaces, just have several neutral spaces
- If ever we ask for gender identity, presentation or sexuality (mainly for monitoring), leave these options as open text fields
- Use our name stickers which ask for pronouns, and honour them
It’s important to recognise that people have different needs both pre-event and while it’s running. Where we know them ahead of time, we should factor them into event planning. If we only find out on-the-day, we should d everything we can to be flexible and reactive to make everyone’s time comfortable.
We have an appointed Accessibility Officer who you can always turn to for support and advice as part of running your projects. Additionally, Project Owners should do the following:
- Post the entire event schedule up ahead of time to reduce uncertainty - some people like knowing the full plan
- Ask for any access requirements on registration
- Let people opt-out of photography and videography. We do this by letting them opt-in at check-in with bright lanyards which can be spotted easily
- Provide a quiet room, with low light and sound stimulation - make it clear what this room is for
At every Hacksmiths event, we require every attendee to abide by our Code of Conduct. You may become aware that someone has broken it first-hand or from an attendee. Here’s how to handle it:
If someone is an immediate danger to themselves or others, call the emergency services, then alert security, then the Students’ Union (in that order).
Be careful:
- Do not offer withdrawal (“are you sure you want to make a complaint?”). Once you’ve become aware that there is an issue, you must work through this guide.
- Do not ask for suggestions to a resolution (“what would you like me to do?”). It’s not the job of attendees to decide what should happen - depending on the violation, it’s the job of the committee, the SU, security or the police.
- Do not judge and initially accept everything you hear as true. Someone has come to you because they are not happy/comfortable - that is enough to action it.
Our procedure:
- If they’re not around, call your Executive Committee as soon as possible.
- Be comforting - invite the person into an unused space with another member of the committee and ask if you can get that person a glass of water.
- Ask the person to record what has happened - this may be written by them, by you (if they’d prefer), or audio recording. It must be dated/signed by the individual.
- Ask the other party into another room accompanied by another committee member and do the same with them.
This is where a judgement call must be made by the Executive Committee only. The following actions may be taken:
- Warning
- Separation of attendees
- Ejection from event
- Barring from future Hacksmiths events
- Formal complaint to the college
- Formal complaint with the police
Whatever happens, the committee members who are handling the situation must also detail what has happened in a short report, bringing all three documents together as the incident report. This is accessible to all members of the committee, and will be given to the Students’ Union for record as well.