Events Guide/Volunteers

From Open Knowledge Foundation

Planning an event

How to ask people to be on the steering committee see: Coordganising & Hosting

Finding volunteers for the day

Based on previous experience, volunteers or hired contractors are required at large events such as OKCon and OGDCamp. Core team are often scheduled for many meetings during the events.

• Set up a Google form (see: sample Google form, How to create a Google Form) to collect details from people on their availability and skills. Often, the focus for volunteers is on students and in exchange for their services, we give them a free ticket to the event and try to accommodate their wishes to attend the sessions they are most interested in.

N.B. It may be a good idea to set up alerts on the Google form so that you can tell when new submissions have come in, try and get back to people asap to let them know whether you need to attend so they don't lose interest!

• • Send form to:
    • Local universities
    • Volunteer mailing list
    • OKFN-Discuss
    • Tweet and generally make lots of noise about the opportunities!

• Make sure they are registered for the event (usually done manually)

List of tasks

• Meet & greet / front desk - handing out name badges, dealing with registration issues (e.g. having a cash box / computer in case people haven't paid), handing out stickers and programmes)
• Facilitating sessions
• Runner / guide - making sure people (especially speakers!) find the correct rooms at the correct time
• Info desk