HOWTO Events and Classes

• Action Item: Que - i3 Blog and eventbrite have weird pic requirments. Find out what they are and add them.

This page is a guide for those awesome members who want to take on the extra responsibility of becoming versed in our event system and sharing their knowledge. It is a work in progress.

Best Practices

The following information is meant to be a general guide covering most types of events. There maybe additional information for specific events such as classes, listed in a separate section.

Getting Started

• If you have question or are otherwise interested in hosting an event, feel free to contact the Classes and Activities Vp.
• Decide on the goal event size. Events with 10 people or less can be hosted by a single member. However more than that will need a second member. For more information please see the Guest Policy.

Scheduling Your event

Look on our google calendar: http://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=i3detroit%40gmail.com and pick an appropriate time and day. There's nothing wrong with two events going simultaneously, but try to avoid conflicts. If there are questions or conflicts, please contact VP of Classes and Activities (classes@i3detroit.org).

Make sure to add your class to the calendar. This will update the calendar on the i3detroit web page and to let people know what space you want to use.

Publicizing Your event

Documenting and publicizing you event can help both you and i3. Adding pictures or video can help the space grow and increase attendance at future events. Options include. ====this needs to be cleaned up ====

• i3tv, the spaces youtube channel.
• i3 blog (link here)
• Post it to the Mailing list
• Ask for us to advertise your event on the google. (We have many mediums-send an email to contact@ to set this up)
• Tweet about it to @i3Detroit. We will give you a retweet and we have a lot of random followers who are happy to share and participate.
• Ask a Facebook admin to post about it on the Facebook page, or make it a facebook event.
• Post it on Yelp (Click "Add event"). This can draw a lot of interest.
• Announce it to specific local groups whose members might not all be specifically following us. Try the Penguicon-general mailing list, and the All Hands Active mailing list, for instance.
• The day before the event (if it's been a while since the initial announcement), repeat these steps.

i3 Blog

Our blog is one of the first things people see when they look i3 up online. It also provides a nice location for us to store all of our classes. For a good example of a blog post see this test post Follow the steps:

• Write the meat of your post. This should include important details such as what, where and when. As an example:

  YOUR TITLE GOES HERE
  When: Date/Time (take a look at the calendar)
  Where: 1481A Wordsworth Street, Ferndale, MI 48220

  Max Class Size: X

  Cost: See note†

  Class Description: Don't be afraid to act a little salesmanly! Write up 50 to 100 words on what this class is about and why people should come to it.

• Add at least one picture!
• Insert an Eventbrite widget. The Eventbrite widget allows people to see how many tickets are left and such right from our site.
• Attach multimedia. Pictures or video can be added to entice people to come! You can post pictures of previous events or just related images.

Google Calandar

1. Create an event in your personal Google Calendar on the appropriate date at the appropriate time.
   • If you don't have one, get one, they're free.
   • Or talk to VPAC, he'll put it in his.
2. Put the Class Name from your writeup as the event title
3. Put i3Detroit in the where field
   • i3Detroit, with the address, should pop up. Choose it.
4. Put the Class Description from your writeup in the Decription field (called Note in the mobile app).
   • Also append the cost and the eventbrite URL.
   • Attach the cool picture you found/took
5. Put calendar@i3detroit.org in the event's guest list.
   • This will invite the i3 calendar and it will get included anywhere people access the i3 calendar.
6. Save your event

EventBrite

Eventbrite.com is a commercial website used to advertise events and classes. Eventbrite helps promote events to the general public and can reach more people than the mailing list and blog. Eventbrite will also handle payments and donations. Have an Eventbrite created for your event, please contact VP of Classes and Activities. Eventbrite gives us a way to make sure that people show up to your class!

Fees charged by Eventbrite

Eventbrite has three ticket types: paid, free, and donation, each with it's own fee structure.

• Free: No fee is charged.
• Donation: The fee is only charged by the credit card processor. (3.0% for US dollars)
• Paid: As a non-profit we pay a reduced fee of $0.99 + 2% (capped at $7.95) to Eventbrite and 3% for credit card processing.

Who pays the fees?

From the authors observations people are much happier if you choose to absorb the fees. For example, the fees on a $35 ticket will be $2.74. Even if you have to bump up the ticket price you will receive less complaints than if you choose to pass them on.

Please keep in mind that it's good form to put a part of the fee toward supporting the space.

Photos

• Eventbrite uses images as a criteria for ranking events in search. Use of an image helps to get the event found and for more people to show up.

For the best possible event image, make sure your image file meets the following requirements:

• Dimensions: Find at least a 1050 x 525px (2:1 ratio) image. A 2:1 ratio image is twice as wide as it is tall (or close to that ratio).

• File Type: Images with file types JPEG, BMP, PNG, or GIF work best.

• File Size: Use an image that's no larger than 10MB.

EB Post Template

Keeping a consistent format for our posts helps people to quickly parse data! It also makes us look professional (ha!). Please stick to this template as much as possible when using the i3 Eventbrite.

Description:

Class Goals:

Students will:

Prerequisites:
Students must be at least 18 years old or be accompanied by a leagal gaurdian who is also registered.
[List any other prerequisites here]

What to Bring:
Hair ties for long hair, closed-toed shoes, short-sleeve shirt. All other materials needed for class will be provided.

Instructor: 
[Tell people how awesome you are here!]

Event Time:
Tuesday, June 11th, 5:30PM until 9:00PM

REFUNDS: We offer full refunds for any class cancellations more than one week in advance of the class start date.

Eventbrite Widget

This is a little piece of code that allows someone viewing our website to see ticket prices, how many tickets are left, and different ticket types (if they are available). A version of the widget that has been optimized for our website has been included below. To use it, copy and paste the code below into the text portion of your blog post remembering to replace [Your-Event-ID-Here] with the event id that Eventbrite generated for your event. As a nicety to the website please also include a <!--more--> tag before the widget. Including the tag will prevent clutter on our front page and improve load times.

<div style="width: 100%; text-align: left;">
<iframe src="//eventbrite.com/tickets-external?eid=[Your-Event-ID-Here]&ref=etckt" width="100%" height="306" frameborder="0" marginwidth="5" marginheight="5" scrolling="no"></iframe>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 10px; padding: 5px 0 5px; margin: 2px; width: 100%; text-align: left;"></div>
</div>

On the day of the event

Be there

Remember, people that attend your event are your guests. You are responsible for having them sign a waiver on the digital waiver station and follow the rules.

Set out the donation jar

If you have not set a ticket price for your event consider asking for donations during it. Donations help to fund everything from the heat to super awesome tools and supplies. Midway through your class is usually a good time to take a break, talk a little bit about i3Detroit, set out the donation jar, mention the fridge, and head for the fridge. By the time you return with your drink, the jar will probably contain evidence of how well the class is going. If you're using a tool with a cost-recovery system in place, explain that at the same time.

Clean Up

Enlist the help of attendees or other members, if possible, but it is your responsibility to leave the shop clean at the end of the night.

Schedule a followup

If this is the first time you've taught a particular class, there may be some empty seats. However, if it's a good class, the attendees may want to take it again and they may tell their friends. The next time you do a class, you'll likely have more guests. You can even announce the followup at the end of class to make sure people know about it.

Classes

Creating Your Class

First, you have to decide on your subject and define exactly what about it you want to teach. Be specific. Follow these guidelines:

• Target Audience. Who are you teaching? A class for complete beginners is different than a class for those with a passing familiarity or familiarity with something related is different than a class for those with intermediate skill in the subject matter or related subjects. This affects class size as well.
• Class Size. Be realistic about how many students you can successfully teach at once. If it is a very hands-on class, or something difficult and confusing, or your students are complete newcomers to the subject matter, consider that your students may need a lot of personal instruction. If it is more lecture-oriented or not as unfamiliar to your students, then you can comfortably teach more students at a time. Remember that your students are your guests if they are not members so you can only sign in 10 at a time by yourself. Talk to VPAC if you really think you can handle more. He can help.
• Time. How long is your class going to be? If it's very long can you break it up into multiple sessions on different days? Be mindful of your students' physical and mental limits. Add breaks (more on this later).
• Scope. Define what is and is not part of the class. Avoid scope creep. Be mindful of the above.
• Curriculum. Define a specific curiculum. Outlines work well. Or try creating a rough PowerPoint presentation that captures the main points you want to teach.
• Resources. What resources is your class going to need? i.e. Do you need to reserve the classroom, space in the commons, or maybe a Zone? What do you need tools? Supplies? Materials?
• Cost. What are the materials costs? Are you providing the materials or do the students need to bring their own? If you're providing the tools and materials then what is a reasonable reimbursement cost? Don't forget about things like the cost of machine time. Try to keep the costs as reasonable as possible.
• Do a dry run for practice, to judge timing and to identify gaps. VPAC is usually available as a test student.

Don't be afraid to talk to VPAC. He is a great person to bounce ideas off of or to offer suggestions to improve the class.

Useful Resources

• HOWTO Use Our Tax-Exempt Status
• Guest Policy