WCTO 2019 Project Roles and Structure v2b 2019-03-05

Background

As one of its initial jobs, the ad hoc organizing committee of WordCamp Toronto 2019 is defining the roles and responsibilities of its members. In addition, in planning a larger and more complex event in 2019 compared to 2018, a larger organizing group is necessary and this documentation of roles is to facilitate that process.

We started our structure and roles using the roles and organization structure documented by WCUS and WCEU for their 2019 event as a template and developed ours from there.

Our critical needs are co-organizers for hospitality and logistics and marketing communications.

Our plan is to submit our application to WordCamp Central by the end of March and, assuming that we are approved to proceed to organize WordCamp 2019, this page will be copied to the new site and a note added to this page redirecting you to its replacement.

Terminology

To address one of the issues in WCTO 2018, we have defined a roles model:

  • co-organizer means a person responsible for an defined set of responsibilities and has a degree of autonomy in carrying them out with the authority to act in the project’s name
  • lead organizer means the person or people who formally sign the WCC application and act as the liaison between WCC and the project. Typically, they submits oversee the project as its project manager(s)
  • media partner means a person or organization who collaborates with WCTO 2019 in the promotion of the event typically in exchange for some form of recognition in the event
  • organizer means a person in one of the defined roles who carries out some of the responsibilities under the leadership of a co-organizer
  • project means the organization and production of the annual WordCamp event and the people who volunteer their time in the various roles
  • sponsor means a person or organization that contributes money to WCC either globally for all WordCamp events or locally for WCTO 2019
  • supporter means a person who donates money or money’s worth to WCTO 2019
  • volunteer means a person who works in one or more of the defined areas of responsibility and performs tasks assigned by a co-organizer or an organizer
  • WCTO 2019 means the WordCamp event tentatively scheduled for 2019-09-21 and 22 in Toronto and organized and produced by the Project

In general terms, we operate on a consensus decision-making model. The decisions which are made by fiat (i.e., an authoritative decree, sanction, or order) are:

  • (none so far)

“Organizer” is the spelling in U.S. English; “organiser” is considered is the British. S: organizer | Oxford Dictionaries.

WordCamp Central (WCC) means WordCamp Organizer Handbook | Make WordPress Communities (the Handbook).

Attendee Services

Description

1 Organizers: Open

This team focuses on ensuring attendees have the information and support they need throughout the event. This includes accessibility needs, allergies and visa letter creation.

Responsibilities

  • monitor registrations
  • make accommodations for accessibility and allergies
  • wrangle volunteers from volunteer team as necessary

Design and Sites

1 Co-Organizer and several Organizers: Dan Stramer and Kiera Howe

This team has 2 distinct roles. First, this team is responsible for the WCTO 2019 design brief which sets out the site’s design requirements (i.e., the look & feel, color scheme, typography and so on) for the event including:

  • WCTO 2019 site
  • print materials (posters, signage, handouts (e.g., schedule)
  • photography
  • videography
  • venue decoration
  • stage decoration
  • attendee badges
  • swag (e.g., t-shirts, pins, stickers)

Second, this team is responsible for the implementation of the site design and maintenance of the site including services associated with the site and controlled by WCC.

This team is also responsible for other sites including the WPTO site and the speak submission application should we chose to use the one developed by WCUS and WCEU.

The team provides support to other teams for their visual communication needs all with the goal of making WCTO 2019 an attractive, friendly, engaging and memorable event.

Responsibilities

  • create visual spec
  • edit necessary technical systems to support design
  • coordinate print materials
  • coordinate swag
  • run print production of all printed materials

Event Programming

Description

One Co-Organizer: Robin Macrae

1 to 3 Organizers: Open

The goal is to have an Organizer for each of 3 or 4 tracks and/or session type (e.g., workshops.) Prior to that, each can work on one or more surveys of other WordCamp sessions, attendee surveys and trending topics. A pre-event survey to identify topics is a good idea but we didn’t have the statistical skills needed to realize its value.

This team is responsible for the product insofar as it develops the content strategy and event theme(s). It curates the event content and decides on the formats (presentation, tutorial, panel, workshop, etc.). It selects the sessions and is the primary contact point for speakers. This team has the responsibility for curating an awesome WordCamp that is the engine of the WordCamp production process.

Responsibilities

  • conduct such research as necessary to determine the popular and trending topics, developments and target attendees interests
  • evaluate attendee feedback from previous years
  • develop and propose a theme or themes for the event
  • write the speakers package (the call for speakers, speaker information and topic ideas)
  • create a speaker application, timeline and process
  • create a speaker submission evaluation process, conduct the evaluations and recommend the speakers to be invited
  • decide on the speaker slides strategy (pre-event submission, event template)
  • create a schedule with the tracks, speakers and sessions
  • coordinates speaker on-site and resolves issues and schedule changes
  • hosts the speaker dinner together with the sponsor Organizer

Marketing Communications

Marketing communications refers to a set of activities including advertising, personal Selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations and sponsorships (but not the sponsorships referred to below).

One Co-Organiser plus an Organizer: Open

This team writes and publishes content, manages social media and communicates the value of WordCamp. Public relations will wrangle media partnerships, write and distribute press releases, and coordinate interviews with media. This team ensures the event is effectively marketed using a variety of means of communication.

Responsibilities

One of the primary responsibilities is to develop the strategies for publishing (including an editorial calendar), social media and public relations under an overall umbrella strategy for the event’s promotion. The following are responsibilities to be included:

  • write or edit and publish event announcements
  • publish information about sponsorship, tickets
  • write and distribute a newsletter
  • post on social media as necessary to support publishing and distribution of information
  • manage the linkage in publishing information between the WCTO 2019 website and wptoronto.com
  • promote the event theme in all channels
  • promote media coverage before and after the event including newsworthy stories and people
  • coordinate media opportunities resulting from such promotions
  • recruit writers for posts in the various channels

Project Team Services

Description

1 Organizer: Open

This team provides software services and technical support for the project team. WCC doesn’t regard tools and services to be important and so refuses to fund the minimal subscriptions required for the full versions of key subscription services. A key responsibility for this Organizer is to find and recommend appropriate tools and services and how they can be funded.

The terms requirements include:

  • project management (e.g., monday.com, JIRA)
  • task management (e.g., Asana, Toodledo)
  • content management (e.g., WordPress, JIRA)

It is important to note the difficulty inherent in supporting a project team such WCTO 2019‘s. It’s one thing to find and set up a new service but quite another thing to configure it appropriately, migrate last year’s content where available and useful and encourage members to adopt it.

If it is practical to use the WPTO site for content management and document storage, then it behooves us to do so for the obvious reasons. Ditto for project management and task management. Amongst other themes and plugins to consider, there is P2, BuddyPress and bbPress.

Project Team Services may become part of the Design and Sites roles/responsibilities if the Organizers on both teams want to do so.

Responsibilities

  • recommend tools and services appropriate to the project’s requirements
  • configure for and document the usage appropriately
  • managing shared services such Slack, the Gdrive document repository

Recruitment

Description

One Organizer: Open

Until an Organizer is found for this role, Alex Sirota and Robin Macrae will be responsible for recruiting.

In ramping up the project membership for 2019 from 2018, we recognize the need for recruitment of people for roles for which we don’t now have candidates.

Responsibilities

All responsibilities are in collaboration with the Co-Organisers and their responsibilities. Determine the roles for which people need to be recruited. Propose a strategy to promote recruitment including a dedicated Meetup session or sessions, blog/FB/Twitter posts on needs and opportunities. Research candidates in order to understand experience, skills and interests. Propose to suitable candidates the role(s) appropriate and negotiate what they may contribute. Hand off qualified candidates to Co-Organisers to on-board and supervise. Where we’re looking for a Co-Organiser, the preferred candidate should be approved by the Co-Organisers as a whole.

Sponsors

Description

One Co-Organizer or Organizer: Open

To produce an event with the tradition low ticket prices while providing a high quality technical and social experience, WordCamps rely on event sponsors both globally and locally. This team is responsible for attracting sponsorship interest and negotiating agreements with companies that are in line with WordPress philosophies as well as relevant to our attendees.

Responsibilities

One of the key priorities of WCTO 2019 is adding governmental, academic, institutional and enterprise sponsors to the customary event sponsors. To a significant extent, this depends on the event’s programming offering sessions of interest to those potential sponsors.

  • creates sponsorship tiers and the value propositions for each
  • searches for new sponsors
  • creates sponsorship opportunities within the framework permitted by WCC
  • invites organizations and people to be sponsors and, where appropriate develops sponsor-specific offers
  • ensures sponsor invoices are sent and follows up in the event of non-payment
  • communicates with Communications team to post sponsors, logos, descriptions
  • ensures sponsors have necessary logistics with venue team
  • resolves sponsorship conflicts

Venue, Hospitality and Logistics

Description

Two Co-Organisers: Kristine Black

This team is responsible for the event and team-specific logistical needs including the venue, the speaker dinner and after party, on-site catering, hotel requirements and shipping. This team sets the tone of hospitality for the event.

This is the only role where 2 Co-Organisers will be needed.

Responsibilities

  • venue selection, booking
  • day of event venue liaison with the building staff
  • book the venue and the catering for the speaker dinner
  • book the venue and the catering for the after party
  • arrange on-site catering (coffee, snacks, lunch)
  • arrange hotel accommodation for attendees if required
  • in-bound shipping including booth materials, printed material and swag

Volunteers

Description

1 Organizer: Open

WCTO 2019 is depends on the hard work of volunteers who lend their time and energy to making everything run smoothly before and during the event. This team is responsible for recruiting volunteers, the volunteer application process as well as training, organising and managing the volunteer staff.

See https://2019.europe.wordcamp.org/volunteers/roles/ for its volunteer roles descriptions

Responsibilities

  • organizes Meetup(s) to promote volunteering
  • assigns volunteer roles based on teams’ requirements
  • coordination the schedule of when volunteers are on and off duty
  • budgets for and arranges thank you gifts for volunteers

WCC relationship and project management

Description

1 or 2 co-organizers: Open

Historically, the person or people who submitted an accepted application to WCC were termed the lead organizer(s). Currently, the Handbook refers to that person or people as “the primary organizer/main point of contact for WordCamp Central.” S: Become an Organizer | Make WordPress Communities. Strictly speaking, the application to WCC specifically states that the person submitting the application have at least 2 co-organizers. In that context, “co-organizers” means lead organizers. We make a distinction between lead- and co-organizer roles but the key point in the Handbook is shared responsibility.

Chosen by consensus to oversee the overall organization of WCTO 2019. Formally makes the application to WCC. Once approved, collaborates with a person assigned by WordCamp Central to communicate progress of the event, set milestones, maintain the budget and serve as project manager(s).

Responsibilities

  • submit the application and budget to WCC for WCTO 2019
  • liaison with WCC regarding the event
  • create and maintain a roadmap with milestones
  • maintain the budget and report as requested by WCC
  • serve as the overall event project manager