{"id":1237,"date":"2018-08-06T17:13:16","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T16:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2018-08-06T17:13:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T16:13:16","slug":"how-to-organize-a-science-hack-day-in-your-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/2018\/08\/06\/how-to-organize-a-science-hack-day-in-your-city\/","title":{"rendered":"How to organize a Science Hack Day in your city"},"content":{"rendered":"
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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Dzb_QCYxi3I<\/a><\/h2>\n

1. Lock down a venue and a date<\/h2>\n

This is the most vital step to make\u00a0your event happen. Once you have a venue and a date, it\u2019s easier to find sponsors, co-organizers, volunteers, and make all your plans. You should ideally set the date of your event to be\u00a0at least 3 months in the future<\/em>from the time you confirm the venue (e.g. if you confirm your venue on May 1, make the date of your event for sometime after August 1). Giving yourself\u00a0at least<\/em>\u00a03 months will mean you don\u2019t have to scramble to find sponsors or make plans.<\/p>\n

Find a venue that is willing to\u00a0donate their space to you for free<\/strong>\u00a0(in exchange for a top sponsorship level). The best venues to ask\u00a0first\u00a0are offices since they close down over the weekend anyway. Office\u00a0spaces also make for good venues since they usually will already have chairs, tables and WiFi. You\u2019ll want to find a space that has at least one large open area where you can gather all your attendees\u00a0in one place for presentations at the start and end of the event.<\/p>\n

Not sure where to start? Ask your friends<\/strong>\u00a0who work in fun office spaces about if their company might be open to hosting a Science Hack Day over a weekend.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Announce your event publicly<\/h2>\n

Once you have confirmed your venue and date,\u00a0announce your date publicly<\/strong>! You don\u2019t need to have everything planned out yet. Simply telling people your event date, location and when\u00a0you\u2019ll open up registration is enough.<\/p>\n

You can either create your own event website, or email\u00a0ariel@sciencehackday.org<\/a>\u00a0if you\u2019d like a\u00a0standard Science Hack Day website<\/a>to be created for you with yourcityname.sciencehackday.org. You can use the\u00a0Science Hack Day logo<\/a>\u00a0on your website or anything in whatever way you want. Once you\u2019ve got your website, email\u00a0ariel@sciencehackday.org<\/a>\u00a0with your event details so your event can be listed on the\u00a0Science Hack Day\u00a0homepage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3. Assemble your co-organizing team<\/h2>\n

This could be a couple of friends, or a number of people who represent different communities in your area (e.g. an artist, a science enthusiast, a web developer). When you begin planning, make sure to\u00a0delegate tasks to different people<\/strong>\u00a0so that each person can help make progress along the way.<\/p>\n

4. Find sponsors.<\/h2>\n

Once you\u2019ve secured your venue and date, you\u2019ll need to immediately\u00a0begin\u00a0reaching out to potential sponsors<\/strong>. You should ideally\u00a0put\u00a0together a sponsorship prospectus that tells potential sponsors what Science Hack Day is about and what levels of sponsorship you\u2019re looking for. Here is an\u00a0example sponsorship prospectus<\/a>\u00a0that you\u2019re welcome to copy from.<\/p>\n

Ask companies, non-profits, and startups in your area if they\u2019re interested in helping support your entirely volunteer-run and free-to-attend event. Don\u2019t be nervous and\u00a0don\u2019t worry if you get rejected a few times<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 some companies are setup to regularly give away sponsorship and others are not. Enlist the help of your friends to get the word out about your event needing sponsorship.<\/p>\n

5. Organize your budget and logistics.<\/h2>\n

Science Hack Day is a\u00a0free-to-attend<\/strong>\u00a0event and\u00a0entirely volunteer-organized<\/strong>. The majority of the sponsorship money you bring in will go towards providing food to all attendees for free. Science Hack Day typically provides two breakfasts, two lunches and one Saturday night dinner, as well as snacks and refreshments, to attendees free-of-charge over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Get quotes from local restaurants, pizza shops, and cafes so you can set a budget for how much sponsorship money you\u2019ll need to bring in. You\u2019ll ideally want a small amount of extra\u00a0money in the budget for any additional needs (office supplies, renting tables, silly prizes, etc.). Science Hack Day is a\u00a0bring-your-own-materials<\/strong>\u00a0event, so you\u2019ll want to encourage attendees to bring laptops and any tools\/materials they think they might use to the event. Also tell attendees about any nearby hardware stores they (or your team) can run to during the event itself to get any materials on the fly. Optionally, if you\u2019re able to partner with companies who can bring extra materials and tools (e.g. hand tools, electronics, crafts, etc.) to the event, that is always a bonus.<\/p>\n

Next, begin laying out the\u00a0schedule for the event<\/strong>\u00a0(including your set-up & clean-up time). Here\u2019s an\u00a0example schedule<\/a>. Identify who you\u2019d like to invite as lightning talk speakers. Lightning talks should be very quick (5-10 minutes per talk) and not take up more than 90 minutes of your event time total. If your venue has the space, run\u00a0concurrent\u00a0lightning talks in separate rooms and let your attendees choose which ones they want to see. Lightning talks should mention resources attendees can use for their hacks during the event (science datasets, electronics, hardware, design\/visualization tools, etc.). The main purpose of lightning talks is to provide a diverse range of science topics\u00a0that attendees can realistically consider exploring over a weekend.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also want to\u00a0plan on\u00a0awarding medals\/trophies to winning teams<\/strong>\u00a0in different categories (Best In Show, Best Design, Best Hardware, Best Use of Data, and plan to have your attendees vote on who wins the People\u2019s Choice Award). You can purchase affordable science medals in the United States from\u00a0Trophies Plus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

6. Open up registration.<\/h2>\n

Diversity and inclusion<\/strong>\u00a0are central to any Science Hack Day event\u2019s success.\u00a0Before you open up registration, curate a list of at least 25 super awesome people who are underrepresented minorities (think gender, race, disabilities, LGBTQ, etc.) that you\u2019d love to attend your event and send them personal invitations. Personal invitations are one of the best ways to create a diverse event and you can never send too many of them. Personal invitations are always appreciated and help others know that their unique background is valued at the event.<\/p>\n

Eventbrite<\/a>\u00a0is one of the best services to use for event ticket registration. You should ask attendees to register to attend, but remember:\u00a0don\u2019t charge money for tickets<\/strong>! Because people can register for free,\u00a0you need to make\u00a0double<\/strong>\u00a0the number\u00a0of tickets available as the number of attendees you want<\/em>. Free events, no matter where in the world they take place, receive around 50% turnout. This means if you want 50 people at your event, you need to register 100 tickets.<\/p>\n

As part of the registration process, ask your attendees to identify who they are \u2013 \u201cartists\/designers\u201d, \u201cscientists\/researchers\u201d, \u201cdevelopers\/technologists\u201d, or \u201cjust someone awesome\u201d. This will help you keep track of the industry diversity of your event and tell you if you need to reach out to more people in a certain area (e.g. Low on artists? Reach out to your local art school about your event.).\u00a0Be sure to\u00a0email the registered attendees at least two times before the event<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0giving them all the details they need to know and encouraging them to begin brainstorming.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re excited to add your Science Hack Day to the global family! Any questions about specifics?<\/h3>\n

Email\u00a0ariel@sciencehackday.org<\/a>. Here\u2019s also some further recommended reading for Science Hack Day organizers:\u00a0Six fears that keep event organizers up at night<\/a>\u00a0(and how to overcome them)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source:\u00a0http:\/\/sciencehackday.org\/howto\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Dzb_QCYxi3I 1. Lock down a venue and a date This is the most vital step to make\u00a0your event happen. Once you have a venue and a date, it\u2019s easier to find sponsors, co-organizers, volunteers, and make all your plans. You<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[123,330],"tags":[844],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8jhJx-jX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}