IndiaFOSS 2025 - Notes from Volunteering

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(I welcome volunteers to add their own notes. Keeping this separate from the feedback thread.)

Retrospective

(We aren’t 100% done with the conference yet. Edited videos are yet to go out. Reimbursements, payments, final balance sheet etc are pending)

IF25 (the event itself) was a blur. My tasks were mostly managing the devrooms and video livestreaming. I had a talk in a devroom and a BoF as well. It was great fun, and somewhat stressful too. Non-working audio in Audi 1 caused peak stress with live-streaming for me (vendor flip flopped on the audio cable derailing the entire thing). Was much relaxed on Day 2, but I still had work to do, things to coordinate. Missed speaking to most people I knew. Didn’t get time to visit booths. Had to sport a big smile, make some excuses and quickly run away in most cases when I actually bumped into known and unknown faces!

In the lead-up to the event, I got unexpected things to do in the last 2 weeks, which I hadn’t anticipated. Some of this impacted live-streaming later, but not entirely.

I’m happy with the talk selection of the main track. We gave a lot of leeway to the devrooms - which was good. The one that gave us the most grief was extending deadlines.

I’m also happy that the “leap of faith” we made with giving an invited talk slot to Yatindra Singh paid off very well. Credit for backing this in the first place must go to @ansh . Side note: We’ve adequately piloted “invited talks” at this time.

Review process happened in batches. This did cause exactly one unfortunate yet glaring mistake. I think we need a “global view” selection from talks next time. People are only going to submit just at or before the deadline. Not much we can do to change that.

Most of the conference main track getting decided a month in advance was a huge relief - and I understood it much later in hindsight why. Credit for pushing this through must go-to @James_Reilly (Ansh recommended we make him a co-chair for this - and it’s heartening for me to see folks recognizing good work).

This time, I spent a lot of time observing how things work. I didn’t push through everything that was in my head, and that was wise. Moving timelines ahead has been an unfinished agenda for this time. We’ve made progress. But the best conference will be the one where the co-chair can sit and attend talks on day 1 morning ! (gold standard)

Improving the tech stack is a key focus area for next year. It was painful to see people clicking around for data that should be moved around in other ways.

Hits:

  1. Devrooms. My #1 pick. We were able to involve more communities, and that’s the biggest positive. Open Data (@Nemo ) and FOSS in Science (@rahulporuri ) devrooms were standout in terms of the number of talks they packed in. That’s right - more people know about IndiaFOSS and FOSS United communities and we’ll be better for this. The FOSS world is too big. FOSS world “United by Devrooms” at IndiaFOSS is the template we should be moving forward with. This will hopefully help us diversify the review panel as well for future events.
  2. While the overall livestream was a hit/miss affair (will write about this next week), there are positives. We got the video recording and camera handling done for devrooms done at a fraction of the cost of the main track. We chose the equipment, managed the specs, and outsourced at the right level. We spent 42k on rentals including videographers, plus 15k on video capture cards. The capture cards will be used for other events. We also wrote some software that’s generically usable (but which we didn’t use at the conference itself !). Two more steps in the automation and we’re probably done integrating the schedule with the livestream.

Misses:

  1. The event start got delayed due to the livestream setup holdup. This was a misunderstanding. We really should have started on time. Luckily at 9:38 we figured this out and started.
  2. Livestream - we didn’t livestream devroom 2 at all. In hindsight, we missed our best livestream possibility. That’s the room where we owned everything, but also the room we got to last on both days.
  3. For a perfectionist like me, there can be no worse embarrassment than the quality of the live-stream, We had bad audio, noise, some network disconnects. Heady stuff. We were also 1 volunteer short - my mistake. On the bright side, we do have video recordings which are very good for devrooms. On the audi 1 and audi 2 the pro vendor will get us videos. So for now I’ve survived this ordeal. Battle scarred veteran of yet another area, I’ve become :smiley:
  4. I missed a crucial detail in drinking water supply, leading to volunteers ending up carrying 20 or so water cans (exact number unknown?). My apologies for everyone who had to physically transport cans.
  5. I actually snapped at a devroom volunteer (Science devroom). Probably recovered well enough or apologized. Hopefully that was enough. Should check this with Rahul.
  6. I didn’t notice that the projector was setup with a bad aspect ratio (4:3) in devroom 1. I didn’t notice that the recording cameras were running at 24 FPS. Should’ve run at 60. It’s probably OK - but such details shouldn’t have been missed.
  7. We missed providing a cooler in devroom 2. Also it was a bit dimly lit. A bit of attention to detail would have made things much better. (It was a great location though. Compilers was running full and had to do things to keep people out - which is what happens with devrooms at FOSDEM )

Notes for Next Time:

Firstly, I believe everybody did things to the best of their ability and experience. This was a lot of volunteering. There was a lot of teamwork and understanding. The overall feedback for the event has been highly positive (there’s enough details in the feedback thread). Let us all enjoy that. And let’s not rest on those. In that spirit:

  1. Time : Time is a wonderful thing. Except when it is ticking down, which is what happens during a physical conference. People waiting for you, waiting on you, crowds waiting for action. Everything must run on time. Any volunteer who says “I will be at the venue at 7 AM” should take 7 AM very seriously. We must be the first to reach the venue, earlier than sponsors :slight_smile:
  2. Downstream Dependencies : We operated with a “pull” model in many cases, which caused a reasonable amount of back and forth. So right now we say “you need X - goto Y”. I think we need to transition to a “push” model. The new model will be “I am X, and I am going to deliver A,B to E,F,G,H people in fully working condition”. If somebody volunteered to setup booths, they need to own the transition all the way till handing it over to the actual occupants of the booth. Check everything and transfer. Make checklists. Do a thorough quality job. (this example is a generic illustrative thing not something I noticed specifically) Push model also ensures that volunteers will get more people involved as they better understand their responsibilities as a “service provider”
  3. When handing over equipment, any QA required for the equipment must be done by whoever is providing the equipment. So, say we’re providing TVs, or power socket, or anything else, they all need to be checked. If found wanting, get it fixed with the vendor or resolve the problem. Then count it as “done”. We probably need to do something to lock things like HDMI cables to the TV.
  4. Avoid operator volunteer overloading : Volunteers should do specific well defined tasks - which was largely the case except when it wasn’t. Critical tasks like sponsor booths, community booths, internet, food, and overall logistics must have separate owners - no multiplexing.
  5. Networking - we’re a technical conference. We need to get this right next time. People mostly need reliable connectivity, not higher bandwidth. A small dedicated team for networking is required. Maybe even a help desk, prominent signage, pre-planned access codes sent to recipients, etc. This is an area where we need to get more technical. Also, any wired connectivity committed must be checked and delivered upfront.
  6. Have volunteers operate in batches rather than full time. This model worked well for video livestreaming.
  7. We need way more volunteers. That’s my constant refrain in everything FOSS United. Don’t be selective. Make lists in advance. Get people to volunteer early. Try roping in people for specific, well defined small things.
  8. Have way more local volunteers - and even over-provision them. It costs much less. Student volunteers can really do well when given specific well defined tasks for 1 day (learning from video live-streaming). Consider roping in working pros as well, with outreach. Running a meetup every month ? Try roping in volunteers at all times. This probably needs a more active local chapter.
  9. Make it truly a local community event. Ask for volunteers to sign-up for volunteering for any setup activities - in advance. e.g. Vasundhar had come the previous days - we can definitely get more folks provided we get the word out.
  10. Better Interfacing with Sponsors. Best to have experienced people at the venue at the beginning of the day. I know this year we got a bit derailed due to the late handover. I am mentioning this as we should expect sponsors to show up late as well. And sponsors may have last minute requests.
  11. Venue cleanliness : Needs a separate volunteer who owns venue cleanliness. Consider paying a few thousand extra to incentivise cleaning people to show up on time. Bang for buck is high on this one.
  12. Have local vendors. And ideally don’t expect them to deliver something that isn’t their “primary” deliverable. Two cases in point - low waste and venue audio for livestreaming. These need creative solutions.
  13. Publish venue maps
  14. Things which have no dependencies must be done early. Speaker guide, attendee guide, design of website, independent/pre-events. all shouldn’t be happening in the last month. Event branding, etc should be decided before we start seeking out sponsors - that will make our life much better.
    13 No “code changes” to “platform” in the last month. “Content” could change and must be modifiable by many, with appropriate rights.
  15. Adopt the right software for the job. Don’t reinvent the wheel. We use discourse for the forum, and we should use pretalx for the conference. Reviews, collating etc is best done with dedicated software, not something we roll up on our own. FOSSU can write glue code.
  16. Don’t use “telegram” or a single email ID as a kitchen sink. It just overloads everyone, and isn’t scalable.
  17. For FOSS United employees, clearly define what part of the conference activities is a “job” and what part is “volunteering”. We show everything on the website as “volunteering” which isn’t the case. Not knowing when something is a job makes it harder to set expectations, which shouldn’t be the case. Not knowing what is volunteering means we’ll push people on weekends, which also shouldn’t be the case.
  18. Of course we should fix video livestreaming by repeatedly doing it and mastering it. No matter what the circumstances, things should work :slight_smile:
  19. We have to pay a bit more attention to branding. The podiums looks like such an eyesore when I go through the videos. I was trying to send photos for a speaker and the lack of any background branding put me in a tough spot.
  20. Document document document. Every major volunteer (coordinator)… If you aren’t doing this, then we aren’t done.
  21. We probably have to do more devrooms, and more outreach for this. Rallying around communities is a lot of work.
  22. Own more of the conference and have vendors do specific things rather than contracts. Video editing, photo shoots shouldn’t need a vendor in 2026. We should be able to source talent from the community. Rent equipment and place it in the right hands.
  23. Food - this is something that needs a serious discussion. I’m all for putting a local flavour and spin on this.
  24. I think the conference has outgrown NIMHANS in many ways. While the Audi 1 is large, it’s mostly empty. Audi 3 is quite sweet actually. Scaling devrooms needs a different venue. Maybe a university… we have a few ideas in mind already.
  25. Some sort of standardization on devrooms will be required. This year we’ve seen the entire gamut between voting, selections and thorough reviews. We can’t call this “one conference” without some consistency. We are likely to say “that’s the main track”, “those are devrooms”, but it’s unlikely to sink in easily.
  26. Do much more planning upfront next year. Freeze in advance. Don’t try last minute things that generate limited upside.
  27. Need better ways of getting in student volunteers.
  28. Must freeze diversity scholars (including their acceptance) 2 months prior to IF 26. Train tickets is the most we do, and those are hard to get later for people far off.
  29. Search for women speakers should include some past speakers. Also look at other forms of diversity in the same pool for outreach.

Summary : Two things for IndiaFOSS 2026

  1. The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war
  2. Let’s make it big and beautiful. Say Hello, 6E (6th edition)… On time is a wonderful thing !

Special Mentions

In-person event

Need to acknowledge specific standout performances. These are based on limited observations, given how caught up I was with the livestreaming and any devroom coordination. If I didn’t notice your excellent work (which you feel I should have) then feel free to send me a DM.

  1. @Tablaster saved me from acute embarassment on Day 1. Simply by being there with his smiling face, and a cool head, bag of cables and his laptop. He’s somebody I’d go to war with :slight_smile:
  2. @Mohd_Yasir_K_N from the video livestream took a lot upon himself for setting up things and in general showing a high level of ownership. (This is not to downplay the contributions of Muneer - some of his work we were regrettably unable to use)
  3. @Justin_Benito impressed me with his cool head and quiet efficiency in Audi 2. I interacted very little with him though.
  4. @ashlesh looked like another cool customer in control !
  5. AOSP devroom - Amit, Sumit, Sahaj showed what the real spirit of volunteering is, and what technical volunteering can do. AOSP devroom ran their own livestream, and then did the same for Open Hardware too ! (who shows up with a CamLink 4K in their bag!)
  6. @Ashutosh_Pandey and Point Blank Club - ended up being my reliable source for video live-stream volunteers ! (I also got volunteers from 2 other colleges - RVCE and MSRIT, but for sheer coordination, these guys were gold.)

Overall Conference

The AOSP devroom managers - @amit_pundir and @sumit_semwal set a high standards in terms of responsiveness, adherence to and helping setup/improve processes, and follow-up with their own community - all the while following all our instructions diligently.

@ansh played a major role in so many areas - sponsors, reviews, coordination, follow-up, trying to ensure everyone who submitted a proposal got every last chance. Most don’t understand how much work that was - beyond a point I got bored - but he was at it !

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