Global Day of Code Retreat – host training session notes

Before the event

Join host training if possible
Find venue
Find sponsors: company, friends, other companies
Ask friends for their previous sponsors for leads
Venue can be sponsored by other sponsors
Breakfast and food can be “home made” at the office
Coffee and breakfast in morning are nice to have, but lunch most important. No invoices for food to GDCR, all to local sponsors directly from any vendors
Announce after party on time, when announcing the event itself

Do it one month before event so people don’t forget.
Send reminders a week and a day before
Announce at gdcr website, but use your own RSVP tool
Add site to global spreadsheet, write how many attendees you will have
Make a local spreadsheet with list of attendees. Maybe add columns for people to fill about their experience with various tools of the trade and gdcr experience
Announce global sponsors
Announce local sponsors, good to get sponsors in the future too
Print name tags
If you have more than 25 attendees, try to split them, and have 2 facilitators in 2 venues

Set up the space before people show up
Display and make accessible any Swag from sponsors
Register people when they show up, show them around
Show where the slides will be accessible at a station
Coder dojo video – show it
Video call with another city, very short, brings excitement to team
Take a look at feed of who is doing what in the world
Update the live feed with your session
At lunch time, show code retreat related videos
Slide deck with sponsors, video call with another city. Update spreadsheet with actual
number of attendees
Take photos, take video, share it with gdcr and with social networks
Help clean and pack up.
Then the after party
There will be a host survey to complete
There will be a participant survey as well