Akademy/Structure

The following is a proposal for a structure of the Akademy team that can produce a world-class event. This structure is informed by years of experience in organizing large conferences, including experiences from past Akademy events that we want to learn from.

In general, the goals driving this are:

1. We come off as "professional"; attendees (who often aren't yet full community members) see that we have our shit together and want to make the next step into contributing to KDE
2. Defined areas of responsibility to prevent a situation where volunteers are running around trying to figure out who knows what (who can help with the network? who can announce program changes to attendees? what happens to the cash from t-shirts?)
3. If we promise something (eg, hybrid BoFs, good quality streams, showing slides in the streams, working network, t-shirts) we can actually deliver.

Roles and Groups

• Event Producer - "The Buck Stops Here". The producer of Akademy generally has the final say in decisions about the event.
• Track Captains - Responsible for the day-to-day operation of the talk halls. They have say over the lighting, timekeeping, give direction to the MCs, get feedback from the Grip and Streaming Support etc. One captain per room, who both take direction from the Producer.
  • Track 1 Captain
    • Session Chair - Aka the MC, who introduces speakers, makes announcements, is generally on stage.
    • Streaming Support - In the best case, all they do is sit down in front of OBS and make sure the feed works. This means they monitor the volume meters, start/stop the streaming+recording, and are ultimately responsible for turning the video+audio feeds as set up by the AV Grip into a full program stream.
  • Track 2 Captain
    • Track 2 Session Chair, etc
• Head Grip - This person is ultimately responsible for bringing our streaming hardware to the event, unpacking it, maintaining an inventory, and so on. This includes things like cameras, backup cameras, microphones, cables, power supply, and so on.
  • Assistant Grip - Responsible for turning what is happening on stage into a digital feed for the Streaming Support. They make sure speakers are mic'd up, that cameras are working, they manage the audio mixing hardware, and so on. Each room should have at least one dedicated grip who is present at all times. They will work closely with the Session Captains and Streaming Support to ensure all audio and video feeds are working correctly up until it enters the computer running OBS.
• Program Committee
• Local Team
  • Facilities Support - This is one person who is part of the local team who is the point of contact between the Akademy team and the organization hosting the event in their physical building. They know how to turn on the lights, they know who to call if Connectivity needs ethernet ports, they are responsible for the distribution of keys, opening the building at the start of the day, closing it at the end, trash handling, and so on. They will work closely with the Track Captains to make sure
  • Catering - This role ensures that meals are served, is the point of contact for catering suppliers (eg, the coffee breaks).
  • Connectivity - This person is dedicated to ensuring the wifi and ethernet works for the event streaming and for attendees, in that order. They know the wifi credentials, know all the steps to troubleshoot the local network, work closely with the streaming captains to maintain good bitrate, and so on.
• Head of Registration - This person is responsible for the infodesk and its activities. They ensure that badges are printed, laid out on the table, that event attendees are able to get their badges, handle t-shirt sales, and are generally the first point of contact for people outside of the Akademy team.
• Volunteer Coordinator
• Sponsor Liason