FOSS United Chennai Meetups - 2025

[Harsh_Patel]

April 2025, Postmortem Thread here.

@grittypuffy

Post-event report for the FOSS United Chennai April 2025 Meetup

Event details: April FOSS Meetup
Event photos: Ente Photos

The good

• We got 50+ diverse participants despite other community events happening on the same day.
• Participation of attendees in providing feedback and attending talks was impressive, with more demand towards workshops
• The venue was highly ambient and they helped in coordinating throughout the event
• The volunteers were able to engage participants and were able to coordinate efficiently
• The event was completed in a timely manner and stayed on track despite a 30 minute delay since the next speaker was able to cover their talk during network troubleshooting.

The bad

• The talk’s order had to be altered due to technical difficulties which led to confusion in the initial phase of meetup
• Some of the participants left the meetup after the networking break
• The workshops seemed rushed up and clarification in the term “workshop” for “talk with demo” should have been done earlier to avoid it, this caused issues with participation.
• Participants who were seated backwards had difficulties in accessing the screen due to visibility issues and was amplified by dark theme

The ugly

• There were issues with networking which caused delay in starting the first talk by around 35 minutes
• Though there was an organizer in the venue, the event wasn’t started
• The CFPs were finalized the day before the meetup which caused confusion among the speakers, leading to miscommunication of requirements for workshop to participants
• The date of the meetup clashed with 12 other meetups at the same time

Takeaways

• Meetup dates must be planned by discussion with other communities to avoid clashes
• Different types of events with focus on workshops must be done with clear communication of pre-requisites and isntructions for smooth participation must be planned
• Delegation of proper roles for volunteers and framing agenda to avoid last minute works
• Provide more time for Q & A for workshops and hands-on events

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