[Planning] IndiaFOSS 2024

IndiaFOSS 2024 Diversity Volunteers Sync [July 3,2024]
Agenda - Diversity Scholarships
Attendees @wisharya @Siddharth_Shivkumar @Suslime @Ruchika Priyanshi

Plans for this year

  • Continue outreach towards organisations that work with people from underrepresented communities.
  • Open applications will also have the option to recommmend organisations/individuals who should be part of the program.
  • Do not restrict the scholarship amount to a certain number (1500rs last year), it restricts people who are far away from Bangalore to be able to attend.
  • We can have a field for them to mention the amount they may require to be able to comfortably attend the confernece, and the approvals can be done depending on amount raised.
  • Efforts that go into accommodating diversity scholars should be considered under the costs for diversity scholarships. ( for example @rahulporuri suggested if we can have people from institutions for people with hearing problems at the conference, that may require hiring an interpreter)
  • Volunteers can catch up with the scholars a day before, and walk them through the various activities happening at IndiaFOSS. (we should however be vary of not invading their personal space - Consent could be taken as part of the application, if they would like to be part of this “experience” we create for them)
  • Focus on reaching out to people from northern and eastern parts of India, since we have less participants from those regions at the conference.

CTA

  • Vishal to open the donation page for Diversity Scholarships.
  • Volunteers will start looking for and reaching out to potential organisations/individuals that can be part of the program.
2 Likes

IndiaFOSS Volunteers’ sync #6

Pre-meeting Updates

Tickets

  • 1065 tickets sold
  • 44 general tickets remaining
  • late bird tickets to open soon

Talks

  • 232 submissions
  • CFPs are now closed.
  • Reviews have started.
  • First phase of reviews ongoing.

Sponsorships

  • Onboarded OpenSSF, Requestly as Gold sponsors
  • Project Tech4Dev has joined us a platinum sponsor
  • Entri has joined us a silver sponsor
  • Mecha systems and Neo4j are interested to sponsor.
  • Grafana labs said no

IndiaFOSS Volunteers’ sync #7

Pre-meeting Updates

Tickets

  • 1123 tickets sold
  • General tickets are sold out
  • Late bird tickets open - 13 sold

Talks

  • First phase of reviews ongoing.
  • Second round to start next week.
  • Call for workshops is open - 24 submissions
  • Call for Panel Discussions is open
  • BoF discussions are open for proposals

Sponsorships

  • Mecha systems has joined us as a gold sponsor
  • neo4j has joined us as a gold sponsor

Diversity

  • Donation page for Diversity Scholarships is open
  • Applications to be opened next week.
2 Likes

IndiaFoss Volunteers’ sync #8

Updates from respective workgroups -

Community partnerships

  • Evaluating community partners.
  • We’ll let them know expectations from both sides.
  • Confirm if they want display to be added to their booth.

Marketing

  • Justin has already made posts/videos.
  • Hopefully we have an IndiaFoss montage soon.
  • Create a creative for “Foss united runs on donations” and share it. (After India Foss if people are still interested in this.)

Speaker Outreach

  • Not much from speaker perspective. Reaching out to workshop proposal.
  • Speaker outreach should also focus on BOF, panel discussions and workshops.

Sponsorships

  • Mecha systems has joined as a gold sponsor.
  • Neo4J has joined as a gold sponsor.
  • Couple of other conversations being wrapped up with other sponsors.
  • Trying to talk to one sponsor specifically for diversity sponsorship.
  • Github is still not back this year. End of month we will try going back to github at least to sponsor IndiaFoss.
  • We need to be spreading the word more that Foss United is not for profit and we run on donations.

Design

  • Design is going good. We have completed panel discussion design.

Diversity

  • Diversity just released our donation page. We are yet to circulate it. Everyone can share it.
  • Application for diversity scholarships will be open next wek.
  • Per person budget has not been defined yet.

Logistics

  • Working towards making venue friendly towards visually impaired.
  • Talked to food vendor and photographer.
  • Banners are done, standees can be used from last time. Will confirm with Riya.
  • We should print other things like directions, booth, etc.
  • Accomodations for voluenteers. Ruchika was having a conversation with the venue partner. Check with Ruchika and have it documented.
  • Look into Zostels/Hostels because guest house might not be able to accomodate everyone.
4 Likes

Are community tables open for nominations now?

Updates on IndiaFOSS 2024

We are now 5 weeks away from IndiaFOSS. This year, we are expecting 1500+ participants at the conference. You can check for more live stats of the conference here - IndiaFOSS 2024 Live Stats

The talk proposal reviews are currently ongoing and we expect the schedule to be live in 1-2 weeks. If you have submitted a talk/workshop proposal, please expect to hear back soon.

This year, we have onboarded 5 sponsors (with 2 sponsorships yet to close) in addition to the Industry Partners who support us year round.

Here are a few activities that you can still participate in -

You can currently propose Panel Discussions, Birds of a Feather sessions, Workshops at the event. These sessions run parallely at the conference with the talks happening on day 1, and as part of an un-conference on day 2.

If you are a FOSS organisation, or maintain an OSS project that you would like to showcase to the community, please also consider applying for a project showcase/community table. This is a good way to get a lot of eyeballs at the event!

Please feel free to reach out to us at indiafoss@fossunited.org for any questions.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the conference.

1 Like

IndiaFOSS Volunteers’ sync #8

Pre-meeting Updates

Tickets

  • 1160 tickets sold
  • 50 Late bird tickets

Talks

  • First round of reviews will be wrapped up by this weekend.
  • Schedule release likely to be pushed by a week
  • We have two confirmed talks
  • Call for Panels,BoFs,Workshops to close next weekend.

Sponsorships

  • All 5 sponsors are onboarded.
  • 2 Sponsorships are yet to close.
  • We have started reserving booths for eligible sponsors.
  • We have identified a potential diversity scholarships’ sponsor.
  • Github will not be joining us for now.

Diversity

  • Applications for diversity scholarships are open.
  • We have already raised 60k INR.
  • @Ruchika has applied for the CHAOSS Asia DEI badging for the event.

Logistics

  • Booth/table mapping process to start this week.
  • We will be working on the layout of the venue.
  • Need to take a final decision on the booking for first floor.
  • @Suslime is leading this wg. More updates to be shared in the call.
  • Volunteers’ guest house will be booked in August.

Phase 2 workgroups are open

  • Participant Management
  • Speaker Management
  • Parallel sessions outreach and management
  • Diversity
  • Networking/WiFI
  • Live stream and Post Production

IndiaFoss Volunteers’ sync #8

Updates from respective workgroups -

Sponsorships

  • All 5 sponsors are onboarded.
  • 2 Sponsorships are yet to close.
  • We have started reserving booths for eligible sponsors.
  • We have identified a potential diversity scholarships’ sponsor.
  • Github will not be joining us for now.

Diversity

  • Planing to setup Childcare services and Breastfeeding/Rest Areas.
  • Received anonymous funding of 1.5 Lakhs for Diversity Scholarships.
  • Diversity scholarship application from are open.

Logistics

  • Looping with venue vendors, all props will be confirmed by Sep 3rd.
  • Planning to have 4 sponsor booths and project showcase TBD.
  • [ Video & Livestream ] looking to increase the quality of production and final edits.

Design

  • nothing much from design team, got the deadline of august 25th to complete all the venue and conference props designs.

Community Partnerships

  • 41 communities applied , 20 are selected for now
  • community partners can run a marketing campaign to promote FOSS United/IndiaFOSS
  • List of community partners should be finalised by weekend
  • Reach out to applied community partners to apply for booths
1 Like

IndiaFOSS Volunteers’ sync #9

Pre-meeting Updates

Tickets

  • 1200 tickets sold
  • ~90 Late bird tickets

Talks

  • First round of reviews over.
  • 46 rejections sent
  • 4 confirmations sent
  • 8 screening emails sent.
  • We’re trying to release the schedule by 17th August.
  • Announced the first talk
  • Call for Panels and Workshops is closed.

Sponsorships

  • 2 Sponsorships are yet to close.
  • We have started reserving booths for eligible sponsors.
  • We have identified a potential diversity scholarships’ sponsor.
  • Github will not be joining us for now.

Diversity

  • Applications for diversity scholarships are open. The team has started going through the list of applicants.
  • We have received an anonymous grant of 1.5 lakhs INR for diversity scholarships in addition to the 60k raised.

Logistics

  • Booth/table mapping process has started. The project showcase/community tables will be placed on the first floor this year.
  • Yet to work on the layout.
  • First floor is yet to be booked.
  • Food is yet to be booked.
  • More updates to be shared in the call.
  • Volunteers’ guest house will be booked in August.

Participant Management

Speaker Management

Following Phase 2 workgroups are still open

  • Parallel sessions outreach and management
2 Likes

IndiaFOSS Volunteers Sync #9

Date: 9/08/2024 9:00 PM

Attendees: Sai Rahul Poruri, Ansh, Vishal, Karan, Shivam, Faizan, Isha, Justin, Harsh Tandiya, Harsh Patel, Sejal, Akshit, Dheeraj, Deveesh Shetty

• Community outreach: In conversations with community partners, updates and rejections to be sent out: 13 accepted, 19 maybe, 10 rejected

• Design + Livestream: Streaming resolution and specific discussions underway
• Speaker designs, livestream transitions, and nitty gritties underway, coordination between design team and livestream team is smooth.

• CFP reviews underway, Round 1 rejections complete, round 2 underway for the next week

• FAQs underway: @KaranGandhi will complete before the next sync.

• Speaker management: Volunteers will should email the speakers, get contact details and be able to directly connect to speakers on the day of conference to ensure smooth communication.

IndiaFOSS Volunteers’ sync #10

Pre-meeting Updates

Tickets

  • 1250 tickets
  • ~138 Late bird tickets

Talks

  • Last round of CFP reviews ongoing.
  • 143 rejections sent
  • 24 confirmations sent
  • 27 screening emails sent.
  • Pending reviews -47
  • Schedule is in the works, should be out this week hopefully.

Diversity

  • Applications for diversity scholarships closing tomorrow. Reviews are ongoing.
  • We had a call with navgurukul to discuss scholarships for their students.

IndiaFOSS MoM 19/08/2024 9:00 PM

  • Reached out to NIMHANS for a discount as a Not-profit, no headway this time, will try for next time, and discuss further over the next couple of days.
  • Same food vendor(s) for Conference and volunteers meet: Breakfast vendor is finalised, other vendor will be done soon
  • AV & Videography same vendor, previous vendor is likely to cover both auditoriums, with the previous Audi 2 vendor, better prices than last time.
  • Childcare will be provided, we’ll mention it in Participants Guide, FAQs, and Speakers Guide.
  • Livestreaming test on 6th Sept with the vendor, same environment as the conference day.
  • Talks to be confirmed, and agenda by 25th Aug, weekend.
  • DEI silver badge obtained for IndiaFOSS 2024.
  • Community Partnerships are now closed, will be added to the website soon.
  • ~80 posts over the next 20 days, multiple posts a day needed.
1 Like