Fedora Mentor Summit - Discussing Programmes and Event Schedules

Project Discussion
1

Following up on the discussions we had here Fedora Mentor Summit planning meeting summary (17 Jan 2023) on 17th Jan 2023, here are some ideas I was chalking along on the flight from PNQ to CCU. By all means, totally feel free to convey your +1s and -1s to the following ideas and (better yet) add yours to the ones down below.

Nature of the events

Index Identifier N

The following defines the proposed nature of the events we would want to have.

  1. I am a strong proponent of having interactive events over one-sided ones like talks and presentations. I do understand that this might be real trouble for folks joining us online, in case this turns out to be a hybrid event[1] but this still happens to be arguably one of the best ways to ensure everyone (read, most of the people) is actively engaged.

  2. To ensure that we have everyone attending the event occupied with good measure, we need to ensure that we restrict ourselves to the activities that are interesting enough to ensure an average attention span of at least over 15 minutes[2] at a given time and inclusive enough to account for the accessibility of the folks with special needs.

  3. A global community like that ours that spans across all time zones has a dire lack of watercoolers and hence, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for us to have activities that prioritize connecting the participants on the personal level[3]. This is crucial to lay the foundation for the involvement that our participants would continue to form.

  4. It is crucial for folks to feel incentivized to participate in making this event a grand success. This not only includes the organizers but every other person who is there to either give a talk, run a workshop or simply attend the event[4] - and it does not really have to be with swags only as people really appreciate even when they are heard and their questions are answered.

Time allotment for the events

Index Identifier T

The following is the proposed time allotment for the event.

Purpose Duration
Total event duration (or TE) Minimum: 3 days / Maximum: 3 days
Travel compensation duration (or TC) Minimum: 1 day / Maximum: 1 day
Daily actual engagement duration (or DAE) Minimum: 2 hours / Maximum: 3 hours
Daily actual involvement duration (or DAI) Minimum: 3 hours / Maximum: 4 hours

The following is the key to the aforementioned items.

  1. TE - The time for which the event participants would be attending
  2. TC - The time for which the people would be arriving or leaving the event
  3. DAE - The time for which the event participants would be engaged in passive events
  4. DAI - The time for which the event participants would be engaged in active events

Schedule of the events [S]

Index Identifier S

The following is the proposed schedule for the event.

Day [E-1]

The arrival of the guests and attendees

Please refer to the Travel Compensation item in the Time allotment section for more details.

Day 1

Time slots Duration Particulars Identifier
09:00-09:30 30 minute(s) Opening Note ON1
09:30-09:45 15 minute(s) Break B1A
09:45-10:15 30 minute(s) Breakfast Time BT1
10:15-10:30 15 minute(s) Break B1B
10:30-11:15 45 minute(s) Active Event A1A
11:15-11:30 15 minute(s) Break B1C
11:30-12:00 30 minute(s) Passive Event P1A
12:00-12:15 15 minute(s) Break B1D
12:15-13:00 45 minute(s) Active Event A1B
13:00-13:15 15 minute(s) Break B1E
13:15-13:45 30 minute(s) Lunch Time LT1
13:45-14:00 15 minute(s) Break B1F
14:00-14:30 30 minute(s) Passive Event P1B
14:30-14:45 15 minute(s) Break B1G
14:45-15:30 45 minute(s) Active Event A1C
15:30-16:15 15 minute(s) Break B1H
16:15-16:30 15 minute(s) Closing Note CN1

This day will have a greater focus on active events.

Day 2

Time slots Duration Particulars Identifier
09:00-09:30 30 minute(s) Opening Note ON2
09:30-09:45 15 minute(s) Break B2A
09:45-10:15 30 minute(s) Breakfast Time BT2
10:15-10:30 15 minute(s) Break B2B
10:30-11:00 30 minute(s) Passive Event P2A
11:00-11:15 15 minute(s) Break B2C
11:15-12:00 45 minute(s) Active Event A2A
12:00-12:15 15 minute(s) Break B2D
12:15-12:45 30 minute(s) Passive Event P2B
12:45-13:00 15 minute(s) Break B2E
13:00-13:30 30 minute(s) Lunch Time LT2
13:30-13:45 15 minute(s) Break B2F
13:15-13:45 30 minute(s) Lunch Time LT3
13:45-14:00 15 minute(s) Break B2G
14:00-14:30 30 minute(s) Passive Event P2C
14:30-14:45 15 minute(s) Break B2H
14:45-15:30 45 minute(s) Active Event A2B
15:30-15:45 15 minute(s) Break B2I
15:45-16:00 15 minute(s) Closing Note CN2

This day will have a greater focus on passive events.

Day 3

Time slots Duration Particulars Identifier
09:00-09:30 30 minute(s) Opening Note ON3
09:30-09:45 15 minute(s) Break B3A
09:45-10:15 30 minute(s) Breakfast Time BT3
10:15-10:30 15 minute(s) Break B3B
10:30-11:15 45 minute(s) Active Event A3A
11:15-11:30 15 minute(s) Break B3C
11:30-12:00 30 minute(s) Passive Event P3A
12:00-12:15 15 minute(s) Break B3D
12:15-13:00 45 minute(s) Active Event A3B
13:00-13:15 15 minute(s) Break B3E
13:15-13:45 30 minute(s) Lunch Time LT3
13:45-14:00 15 minute(s) Break B3F
14:00-14:30 15 minute(s) Closing Note CN3

This day will have a lesser number of events.

Day [E+1]

The departure of the guests and attendees

Please refer to the Travel Compensation item in the Time allotment section for more details.

Addendum

Index Identifier A

I would go further to detail about the following items, as comments under the topic.

  1. The kind of events we would want to have
  2. What do we expect from the primary participants of a certain event?
  3. What do we expect from the secondary participants of a certain event?
  4. How do we make these events more engaging and inclusive?

  1. ↩︎

  2. Average Human Attention Span By Age: 31 Statistics. ↩︎

  3. ↩︎

  4. ↩︎

2

One thing we discussed intermittently around FOSDEM was combining the Mentor Summit as a day before or day after the Flock conference. This would make budget more feasible, but adds an extra load to organizing for Flock.

For format, I wanted to highlight the “ADIDS” format for organizing sessions. Especially around knowledge transfer or teaching others, this is a great format for adult learning.

ADIDS stands for Activity-Discussion-Input-Deepening-Synthesis:

  • Activity: The session begins with an activity that is connected to the topic of the session. This is meant to introduce the topic to the participants using interactive exercises. Trainers / facilitators design this beforehand to illustrate some of the issues they want the participants to start thinking about.
  • Discussion: In this part of your session, everyone talks about what they thought of the activity they just completed. The trainer / facilitator should prepare questions to guide the activity.
  • Input: This is usually the lecture part of the session. The trainer presents issues, sub-topics, and more advanced concepts related to the focus of the session
  • Deepening: In technical training, this is usually the hands-on segment of a session. This is where the participants will get to put what they are learning to use
  • Synthesis: A good training habit is always to summarize the session. Talk about what happened in the session, some of the results of the discussion, what issues were discussed, what solutions were made, and give some more time for participants to ask more questions before the session is closed.

More reading:

  1. https://www.fabriders.net/tot-adids/

  2. How-To: Preparing Sessions Using ADIDS

I think this is the question we need to answer first and foremost. I might look back at previous Mozilla Festival schedules for some inspiration. They have interactive sessions for topics like mentoring and community-building that I found very effective.

But ultimately, this is a very new space to me and I’d need to brainstorm more on specific topics that our events should cover. I feel like workshops or sessions around emotional intelligence and capacity-building would be helpful.