organise-clojurebridge-london

How to run a ClojureBridge London Event

ClojureBridge aims to increase diversity within the Clojure community by offering free, beginner-friendly Clojure programming workshops for underrepresented groups in tech.

The ClojureBridge London workshops have focused on women. Organizers are free to choose a different underrepresented group when planning a workshop. A workshop’s description should state the group or groups for which the workshop is to be held.

ClojureBridge was started in 2014 and is part of Bridge Foundry. All around the world ClojureBridge workshops have been organised by people just like you.

Here is an overview of the steps required to run a ClojureBridge London event. The flow of the event is represented by an Infographic, followed by details of each task.

Further advice is available in#clojurebridge-london channel in the Clojurians Slack community, ClojureBridge London Twitter account, or email the London ClojureBridge team: “london at clojurebridge dot org”.

Infographic

Infographic - organise a clojurebridge london event

Roles to assign

There should be at a few people involved in organising a ClojureBridge London event, to help spread the work around.

At every ClojureBridge workshop someone needs to take responsibility for each of the following roles. A person can take on more than one role, however each role does require an amount of work.

Organiser

Runs the overall event and makes sure everything happens. They are the public face of the event, so this person should preferably represent the community you are trying to reach.

Tasks are managed via a GitHub project and an organiser should delegate work but be ultimately responsible that the tasks get done.

Host

Ensures access to the venue and provides all the services. The host drives which dates the event can take place on as they should be fully aware of the venue availability.

A sponsor provides some or all of the financial support for the event.

A sponsor can present a short overview of themselves at the Friday evening event. Sponsors also get logos added to the ClojureBridge London website.

Coaches Coach

Coaches the volunteer coaches about the event, code of conduct and how the event will work on the day.

Coach

Supports the learning process during the workshop. Helps install Clojure development tools if the student wishes.

Optionally you can have someone who promotes the event; however, it may be that everyone pitches in. It’s best to co-ordinate promoting the event, so you inform any specific communities you are trying to reach first and avoid spamming any communities.

Venue & Host

Select a suitable venue and a host (person who works at the venue). The host should preferably be one of the organisers.

A suitable venue should include:

Budget

Typically, a ClojureBridge event can be catered for up to 50 people for £1,000, or conservatively with a budget of £750, broken down as follows:

Due to the likelihood of a few last minute dropouts, it’s advisable to order food from a caterer that allows for last minute adjustments without charge, to avoid wastage.

This doesn’t include venue or additional costs, so adjust your budget accordingly and contact previous organisers for more info.

Sponsorship

Sponsors for the event can provide additional funds to cover the budget or provide content or services that support or complement the event.

Previous sponsors & hosts include:

Managing the event

Managing the event is made much easier by using a few simple tools. The current recommendations for managing the event is to do the following:

Contact “london at clojurebridge dot org” for access to these accounts.

Contacts & account access

Contact us at “london at clojurebridge dot org” or via the #clojurebridge-london channel in the Clojurians Slack community, - (create Slack community account)

An existing organiser can give you delegated access to the Twitter account via TweetDeck.

Promoting the event

The ClojureBridge London website has all the information about the event (or links to relevant content), so it can be used to promote the event too (along with the London Clojurians meetup.com site).

Women in Tech communities in London / UK to reach out tool

Transgender & non-binary communities

Other Women focused communities

Other (non women-focused) channels

Internal channels:

Coach Training

A coach training evening should be run approximately two weeks before the event, to ensure the voluteers understand their responsibilities and have enough time to prepare and are fully aware of their obligations.

A volunteer should run the coach training session and go through the ClojureBridge London Volunteer presentation.

This event covers the code of conduct, review of the curriculum and the style of coaching (very hands off). It is important for all volunteers to attend (unless they have previously coached in the last few months).

For volunteers who are remote, there is also videos of the previous Coach training sessions

ClojureBridge Event

The event is comprised of an Install party on the Friday evening and the Workshop all day Saturday. Suggested timings:

Friday Evening: Intro & Install

Saturday: Workshop

Post Event

An email can be sent from the BridgeTroll website to all attendees, thanking them for joining in with the event. Its encouraged to include information for students as a reminder of what to do next to help them learn Clojure.