Global Diversity CFP Day Planning

[OpesanyaAdebayo]

@pmbanugo brought Global Diversity CFP Day to our notice through this tweet .Thanks a bunch Peter! 👍

I honestly believe it's a good idea and we should get on it. It helps us achieve our goal of building a well-rounded ecosystem.

To begin planning, here's what I think:

Target Number
Since it's a workshop, I think we should look at having a maximum of 20-40 people in attendance.

Venue
We can use Hotels.ng(Yaba) or Softcom(Ikeja), since there's possibility of getting both venues for free. I'm a bit inclined towards Softcom because they have made commitments to me to support us, and I've been to their workspace and it's nice. Also, Softcom is my employer. Lol.

Speaker(s)
Because it's a diversity workshop, it'll be bad not to have any female present. For now, I only have Moyin Adeyemi in mind since she has written several proposals for foreign conferences and they were accepted. Please help with other suggestions you may have.
Also, @pmbanugo has valuable experience with writing CFPs. I'm sure he'll have useful tips to share if he can.

Time
I'll propose 10am till latest 2:30pm

Refreshments
Yes, refreshments should definitely be provided.

Announcements
We can start announcing this year but we won't put major energy into it till January.

That's all I can think of now. Any other ideas?

[pmbanugo]

Cool! I think we can use Softcom since you work there (easier to get it booked for that day). But, if we can get a booked date March 2nd for Hotels ng, fine also.

I think the target number is ok. I can help out with CFP too and like you said, we need a good representation of female speakers and attendees. This will help towards our conference in 2019 and also international representation. I know Ally comes to Lagos sometimes and will be awesome to have her as a speaker if she'll be around. She's got valuable experience to offer. I'll look within my network and see if I know more speakers.

Another question is, do we need to have remote speakers?

[OpesanyaAdebayo]

Thanks Peter!

This will help towards our conference in 2019 and also international representation.

👍 I agree 💯

I know Ally comes to Lagos sometimes and will be awesome to have her as a speaker if she'll be around. She's got valuable experience to offer.

It would be really great to have Ally around. Can you begin conversation with her on that?
We've mentioned the following female dev communities on Twitter:

• Women Techmakers
• Women Who Code
• ForLoop Women
• Women in Technology
• Women In Tech Africa
  Kindly tag more female communities if you know any. Let's get the word out.

Another question is, do we need to have remote speakers?
Well, it really depends on who shows interest in presenting and who we eventually decide will be a good fit. But if we need to have someone to a remote talk, we can make it happen.

I should add that I'm open to us doing this in more than one location if we are able to get people excited about this.

[JiggyPete]

Hi Folks,

Throwing a few thoughts in here:

"Because it's a diversity workshop, it'll be bad not to have any female present"
This is true, please bare in mind CFP Day is supporting all underrepresented and marginalised groups.

From the Code of Conduct:
Be mindful that this will likely be the most diverse group of people that you have been around and can expect to meet people from a wide range of religions, ethnicities, genders, gender identities, nationalities, sexual orientations, body sizes, physical appearance, mental abilities and physical abilities.

With this in mind I'd suggest also looking for LGBTI groups, and also please bare in mind that even though someone may present as being in the privileged group within your tech community, they may have more invisible disabilities that make them underrepresented. For example people with autism, aspergers, dyslexia or dyspraxia.

"Another question is, do we need to have remote speakers?"
This depends on the format you choose to adopt. At CFP Day we aim to make it as easy as possible for you to host and run a workshop. All materials will be provided on the schedule page. Please bare in mind this is the schedule for the 2018 edition and is subject to change.

Workshops are by no means tied to this format, we actively encourage you to choose your own adventure with the assumption being that there is a focus on assisting people in putting together their talk proposal :-) Feel free to make as much, or as little use of the materials as you feel appropriate.

[JiggyPete]

One last things :-) (I always forget something)

"we won't put major energy into it till January" this is fine, I would suggest getting the logistics arranged prior to January. That being the venue, the team and any catering you'd like to provide.

This allows the local team to focus on promotion between January and the workshop itself.

Potential attendees will be thinking about New Year Resolutions at the beginning of January. This is a great time to encourage them to sign up.

[pmbanugo]

Thanks @JiggyPete for the input.

[segunadeleye]

@JiggyPete Is the workshop targeting only first-time speakers within the underrepresented and marginalised groups?

[JiggyPete]

@segunadeleye Yip, that's the idea.

The aim is to encourage people to take to the stage, and make sure they know their voice and perspective is valued.

[OpesanyaAdebayo]

We are behind schedule on this, but I think we are good to go.

Venue
My employer has agreed to let us use our office for the event.

Speakers
We'll keep trying to reach out for female speakers, but for now, I haven't had success speaking with them. @pmbanugo please keep following up on Ally to see if she'll be able to make it to the event.

Registration
Attendees can register via this link.

Schedule
We already have a proposed schedule here but we still have the liberty to make the event happen without strictly following the schedule there. We'll beed to decide on what exactly the schedule is. Any thoughts on that?

[pmbanugo]

We should discuss the schedule in our next meeting. I won't be available for the meeting this Sunday so whatever is decided we can go with it.