Overview

 

Problem

Running an in-person EPIC conference takes up most of the membership funding and ticket prices that are set at USD 1500++. This means that the cost of the Amsterdam event paid for the venue, the audio/sound system, hotel/dinner, leaving little funds to facilitate the sessions during the conference period itself.
This is where the volunteer team of EPIC comes in.
  • How do we allocate tasks for the volunteers?
  • How do we allocate the time for each event in the conference?

Event Summary

We had a total of 12 volunteers, mostly from anthropology, transitioning into the industry. This is a good opportunity to meet a lot of professionals and build their professional networks. The organisers and I allocated tasks per session, reception or information desk, as well as on-the-fly unplanned needs.
There were several challenges that happened during the event:
  1. live streaming hiccups because we did not anticipate Vimeo password problems and this was not part of the audio team hired
  1. consistent on-the-fly-tasks meant that there were too few volunteers who could help out doubling the tasks of those on the ground
  1. last-minute dinner cancellations and additions from the participants which meant that there was no source of truth document
We successfully piloted a quiet room as part of the newly launched accessibility measure for all participants.

What We Learned

  • Make sure to specify the live streaming activity during the audio-visual team hire and allocate about ten minutes before the actual time to avert delays for the viewers
  • Let the hotel run the dinner reservations and guest entry themselves.
  • Plan for extra volunteers who take care of on-the-fly tasks
  • Do have a printer on the site for all the last-minute changes
  • A quiet room is essential for the participants and volunteers to de-stress

Timeline

  • June-October 2023. Four months at 3 hours a week or less
  • The peak period of planning happened in August and September

Role and Responsibilities

💡
This was a partnership between Erin B. Taylor and myself as a result of our previous collaboration on Ethnoborrel, a Dutch-based meetup group for ethnographers in industry.
Though I supported most of the sessions, I was primarily responsible for four sessions.
  • Manage all the volunteers
  • Pick up the slack when additional work needs to be done on-site

Deliverables and Project Artefacts

💡
The EPIC conference organising playbook has no volunteer organising section.
I wrote a reflection and volunteer recommendation to the EPIC manager and for the next EPIC conference organisers. I remain open to any future consultation to develop this for them.
 
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