Among the many life skills they don't teach in school, how to plan is one of the largest. "Don't teach" might not be entirely accurate: many of us learned what not to do in college, once teachers stopped assigning draft due dates. Still, with CodeDay, we aim to do a lot better.
CodeDay is a complex machine, and it takes a lot of focus to keep things running smoothly and get a great result. It's a challenge for many experienced organizers, but it's something many new organizers particularly struggle with.
In this section, we'll walk you through the steps and decisions needed to create a comprehensive event plan. We'll also make some suggestions for managing your work throughout the process. Although these ingredients are always the same, our suggestions for how you manage your time are just suggestions: if you work best with Outlook Calendar and a Rolodex... go for it.
What Happens to Organizers Without Event Plans
Finding a venue, getting sponsorship, and building promotional partners are the three areas of focus which are most impacted by the lack of a plan: all three are harder than organizers expect and require upfront work to be complete weeks in advance. (For example, it often takes at least a week to get a meeting with a venue, and then another one-to-two weeks to get a final approval/denial. Starting on the last week before the deadline will set the event back a total of at least two weeks.)
At least half the time, organizers without a plan don't organize anything in the end. Unlike a term paper, you can't pull together a space and 100+ students in the last few days. Like a term paper, the CodeDay date isn't flexible.
Another 35% of organizers without a plan organize a small event which isn't awful, but could be a lot better. These are the organizers who get a lot of questions from attendees as to why, in a major metro area, only 20 students showed up for the event, and did you talk to so-and-so?
A minority actually have a successful event! So, it's a possibility, but it's mostly based on luck:
- The first venue you reach needs to be interested, have the availability, and respond quickly with the final "yes"
- You need to track down a sponsor by random luck, or be extraordinarily well-connected in your community. The typical "yes" rate for sponsorship prospects is 1-5%.
- A teacher who's passionate about hands-on CS education needs to find out about CodeDay, and share it with their network, and then all the teachers in that network have to actually share it with their students.
- You need to get lucky on food prices.
So, you can technically try organizing a CodeDay without an event plan, but are you really feeling that lucky?
What Goes Into an Event Plan?
An event plan is a shared document (we recommend using Google Sheets for simplicity) which details everything that has happened, is happening, and needs to happen in order to make the event a success. It isn't static: you'll be adding sections as you go through the organizing process. This section of the manual will help you create a great initial plan:
- A list of key milestones, and specific tasks which need to be accomplished to achieve them (also added into your calendar).
- Assignments for your volunteer leaders, and a plan for team meetings.
- Links to tools for easy access later.
As we go through the organizing process, we'll add:
- Potential venues and sponsors (including their status -- new, emailed, called, yes, no)
- Lists of clubs, schools, teachers, student leaders, meetup groups, and anyone else in the community, as well as assignments for volunteers to contact them.
- Potential judges and mentors you've met throughout the organizing process.
- A detailed budget for supplies and food.
- The day-of schedule.
Even once something makes it into the plan, it can change. The goal of this plan is to help you quickly understand if you're ahead of/on/behind schedule, so you can make adjustments to how you're spending your time.
Download a Sample Event Plan
We've created a sample event plan which you can copy, fill out, and customize for your event:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D1k1xSeQLkEHRxLPo46oiLZ2l4TgkQ_tGa1mVZ32wn8/edit?usp=sharing
(This event plan is based on one from Kansas City, and includes some sample data from there.)