We are happy to announce the third run of FOSS United CityFOSS conferences. The second cityFOSS tour (2023-24) saw FOSS conferences in the following cities:
CityFOSS tour 2024-2025
Call for proposals
We will be kickstarting the second run of cityFOSS conferences in Feb 2024.
Every city chapter that wishes to host a cityFOSS conference can submit a proposal highlighting their plans, date/schedule of event, and requirements. Proposals will be approved after taking comments from the community.
You may use the Conference Proposal Template for the same. The proposals are to be posted here as a reply to this thread.
Proposals should be submitted at least 3 months before the planned date of the event
Conference Standards
`
Here are some guidelines to be followed whilst organising a CityFOSS conference
-
Onboarding Volunteers: Organizing a conference is hard work and requires a considerable amount of effort and time. It is necessary to have a group of people working together to plan the conference with a fair division of responsibility.
-
Communication: The organizing team can start by creating a Matrix room or any forum of choice, having all the volunteers or key volunteers in the group.
-
CFP Review Team: A few active members from the community are volunteering to review the talk proposals for the conferences. Once the CFP is closed, the volunteers will review the talks within two weeks and share the selected proposals with the organizing team.
-
Design: FOSS United will curate branding guidelines and design templates to ensure consistent visual branding across conference materials
-
Event Grant and Ticket Charges: FOSS United will grant INR 25k to the organising team to host the event. The ticket amount received from the participants will also be transferred post tax deductions. In addition to that, FOSS United can send some swags (stickers,tshirts) as required.
The event grant amount is not set in stone, since every city may have varying requirements. While we can help with any additional expenses that arise, if the organising team feels there is a requirement for more funds, they should be raised through the community, by getting support from local sponsors, the ticket prices can be determined accordingly as well
-
Partnerships and Collaboration: Organizers are encouraged to collaborate with the local FOSS communities to spread the word. Refer to the IndiaFOSS community partnership prospectus for reference.
We also encourage volunteers to look for local sponsors that can support the event. Sponsors are NOT eligible for talk slots at the conference and should go through the standard review process.
-
Eco Friendly events: For the last 2 years, FOSS United has been partnering with NGOs like Let’s Be The Change and Terrum to ensure that our events are low waste. One volunteer from the organizing team should take responsibility for ensuring minimal wastage at the conference.
Please find detailed Low waste event reports here
Making FOSS United Events Low-Waste
[Planning] IndiaFOSS 2024 - #33 by Suslime -
Encourage the local city community: The organisers should encourage folks local to the community to propose talks for the conference.
-
Conference Tasklist: Please refer to the Tasklist for Conference Organisers for a rough idea on how to go about organising a conference.
-
Planning tracker: Organizers are encouraged to mantain a publicly visible planning thread of the conference. This helps future volunteers get access to detailed documentation on how to go about organising such events. Please refer to the HydFOSS planning thread and Planning IndiaFOSS thread
-
Code of Conduct: The FOSS United Code of Conduct should be strictly enforced at events. This is to be mailed to the participants a day or two before the conference (perhaps along with confirmation of their participation) and read in the opening note of the conference. The participants can report any violations of the code of conduct to the on-ground volunteers,who will write down a formal report of the incident immediately and share it with the FOSS United team.
-
Post Conference report: We encourage you to draft a Post Conference Report in the forum. Refer to Post Mortem Report - HydFOSS
Important Links: