Working in progress
The event dates
UbuCon Asia usually happens within late August to mid September. Which is from August 20 to September 15. There are several reason why we choose event dates within this time frame.
We have several events that we should not clash with:
- FOSSASIA Summit - An Annual event that happens between March and April. We usually do some promotion campaign and also reach out some potential sponsors.
- COSCUP - An Annual event in Taiwan that late July. We usually do some promotion campaign and also reach out some potential sponsors.
- Ubuntu Summit - Usually happens late October or early November - We must have at least 20~30 days gap with this event or we will have zero support from the Ubuntu Community and Canonical
- DebConf - Upstream event with potentially similar audience
- UbuCon(s) in Asia at Country level (such as UbuCon Korea, UbuCon Malaysia, UbuCon India and more) - These events could be organized by one of UbuCon Asia organizers, and might also targeting similar audiences but smaller scale. To allow our organizers to attend both, It is usually better to have 1~2 weeks gap with these events.
Timeline
The year before the event year (Year N-1)
May
- Announce Call for bid is open for the event year
- Global team to reach out local communities that could potentially submit bid. If there is any local community interested to bid, they are expected to start building local team and prepare bid
June - July
- Potential local teams are expected to start submitting their bid - or at least have draft working on.
- If enough number of bid is submitted or being drafted, Global team start reviewing bids then provide feedbacks to revise bid if needed.
- A Video call meeting is organized by global team that invites potential local teams to provide detailed guidance on preparing bid, what are process to organize the event once a bid is selected.
August - September
- Bids from potential local teams are expected to finalized by early August
- Call for bids closes by mid August then reviewing bids by global team begins
- Local team candidates are invited to a video call by global team to present detailed ideas on hosting the event on each city and answer on questions from global team.
- Location for the event is chosen and announced by global team before the UbuCon Asia Year N-1 happens. Global team and the local team selected are also expected to announce event location for Year N at UbuCon Asia Year N-1.
September - October
- If location for the event still not decided and announced, It needs to be done no later then mid of October.
- Steering Periodic meeting with both global team and local team involved is now organized with some poll on finding best meeting time.
- Steering Start assigning roles to each organizer from both global team and local team.
- Sponsorship & Finances Sponsorship prospectus is begin drafted with standard sponsorship pricing, data from the previous event and upcoming event’s information.
- Sponsorship & Finances Global team to start reaching out previous sponsors to check if they would be interested to join.
- Sponsorship & Finances Local team to make detailed and more precise budget estimation by getting quotes from vendors (such as accommodation, catering, t-shirts, nametags and etc.)
- Logistics & Facility Local team to start acquiring venue for the event.
November - December
- Steering + Logistics & Facility Confirm event dates and venue by mid of November. In case of delay, it needs to be confirmed no later then late November. It doesn’t need to be a full or main contract, but at least provisional or initial contract is required to confirm venue.
- Steering + Logistics & Facility Once venue is confirmed, Identify purpose of each rooms or spaces within the venue.
- Sponsorship & Finances Finalize Sponsorship prospectus by early November then start reaching out previous sponsors and potential sponsors for event fundraising. Especially large global sponsors - as they finalize budget plan for next year including event sponsorship budget pretty early.
- Web Setup website ([year].ubucon.asia) and Indico entry on events.canonical.com
- Content Content team to start preparing Call for proposals announcement and proposal submission form and review criteria on Indico.
- Sponsorship & Finances Local team to start looking for local fiscal host(or fiscal sponsor) who will fund local team event fund and handle administrative stuff such as issuing quotes, invoices and entering into contracts.
- Sponsorship & Finances Local team to start reaching our local sponsors to raise event fund.
- Sponsorship & Finances If Global team have not reached out Canonical Community team for sponsorship request yet, it needs to be done before the year ends.
The event year (Year N)
January
- Steering + Logistics & Facility If venue still not confirmed, It needs to confirmed no later then late January
- Travel support Start searching for event accommodation options nearby the venue.
- Sponsorship & Finances Local team to make decision on which local fiscal host they will use if not decided yet.
- Steering Start setting up registration using event platform that can accept both local payments and non-local (foreign) payments.
- Steering Open registration as soon as it’s ready
- Sponsorship & Finances Keep gathering sponsors
February
- Steering If registration still not opened yet, it needs to be opened no later then late February
- Travel support + Web Publish accommodation options information on website
- Travel support + Sponsorship & Finance Get group booking quotes for accommodations searched for, then decide which accommodations room to acquire in advance.
- Sponsorship & Finances Keep gathering sponsors
March
- Content Open Call for proposals and start reaching out potential speakers
- Travel support Start receiving Travel grant applications and Visa invitation letter request
- Sponsorship & Finances Keep gathering sponsors
April
- Content Start reviewing session proposals received so far
- Sponsorship & Finances Keep gathering sponsors
May
- Content Close Call for proposals and continue reviewing session proposals
- Sponsorship & Finances Keep gathering sponsors
June
- Content Start sending out session proposal review results as rolling basis
- Sponsorship & Finances Keep gathering sponsors
July
- Content Publish finalized conference timetable by the end of July
- Sponsorship & Finances Keep gathering sponsors
August - September
- Sponsorship & Finances + Logistics & Facility If there are any vendors need to be paid from OSC before the event, Expense must be submitted at least 4 weeks in advance.
Two weeks before the event
- Steering Stop accepting registration cancellation and refund request
- Sponsorship & Finances + Marketing Publish Thank-you posts on official social media for event sponsors
One week before the event
- Logistics & Facility Start setting up the venue (Could be a day or a week before depending on local team circumstance)
- Logistics & Facility Check if all packages delivered to the venue (Such as Swags, Nametags, Banners, Equipments and more)
During event dates
- Enjoy running your event! You will be really busy doing whole bunch of things
- Steering On-site sync meeting with both local team global team will be organized after each day of conference schedule finished - To check if there were any incidents, any urgent topic to discuss, adjust schedule if needed.
After the event
- Steering Check actual attendee check-ins
- Sponsorship & Finances Check if there are any outstanding payments
- Sponsorship & Finances Follow up with sponsors - such as sending thank-you email and checking if they would interested to join again.
- Travel support + Sponsorship & Finances Process travel grant reimbursements
- Video Start editing session video recordings
- Video Start working with conference aftermovie