This page details logistical things that need to be taken care of for a Code Jam.
Before the Event
- Choose a date. It should not be during midterms. It should not be during the last week or finals. There should be at least two weekends in between events. Stanford has 10 week quarters, so we hold our events on weeks 2 and 5, 3 and 6, or 4 and 7. We usually hold our events on Saturdays since Sunday is when people remember that they have homework.
- Recruit project. This has two components: first, do local outreach to find organizations in your area that might be interested in getting tech help. A lot of students will be connected to nonprofits, so sending out an email to students or putting up fliers can be effective. You can also contact professors, your school's public service center, local government agencies, or directly contact local nonprofits. You should have any organizations you find sign up for the Code the Change Projects email list. The second component is, if you still need organizations, to send an email out to the Code the Change Projects list to see if any organizations that have worked with other Code the Change chapters would be interested. Once you have your projects, have them sign up. This should be done a few weeks to a month before an event.
- Recruit computer scientists. Sending an email to interested students (and collecting these students on an email list for future recruiting) can be very effective. As you're getting established, you probably will want to use fliers, talk to other related student groups, and talk to professors about making pitches in computer science classes. This can happen as late as two weeks before an event and shouldn't happen more than a month before an event. It might take a few emails. The emails should briefly describe what a Code Jam is and have a link to the registration form. Also, if you are holding more than one event per quarter / year, it's good to give a heads up of the date on the next one and advertise anything else that you need to.
- Get sponsors. If this is your chapter's first event, don't worry about this -- Code the Change's national organization can help out with funding. For your chapter to be self sustaining, you can try to get high tech companies (or other companies) to sponsor your event in exchange for putting their name up at the event or distributing swag. Alternately, your school might fund you as a student group. You can start this at any time.
- Get a space. Most Code Jams will involve groups of 2-6 working on projects together, so tables where people can sit together are good. If you can find a dining hall that isn't serving meals on Saturdays, that should work. Otherwise, any reconfigurable or collaborative space will work. If you are expecting a small turnout, a classroom should be fine. How long in advance this should happen depends on administrivia at the school.
- Make sure that everyone knows where the event is and that the location, time, and stuff-to-bring checklist are on the website. Also, encourage the coders to look at the list of projects so that they get an idea of what they want to work on. This should happen a day or two before the event.
- Make sure that your coders will have food. For an 8 hour event between noon and 8pm that will attract 40 people, we tell them to eat lunch before the event, we buy about $100 of snacks (crackers, chips, cheese, fruit, juice, cookies, salsa, vegetables, nuts) and we order $300 of food to be catered for dinner (we make sure that there is a vegetarian, vegan, and meat option). This can happen a day or two before the event.
- The day before the event, send out a reminder email or text to bring power strips (unless you have enough). Scope out the room and make sure that you'll be able to set it up the day of the event. Make sure that everyone knows how to get to the room (put up signs if necessary). And get some sleep!
During the Event
- Arrive an hour early to make sure that everything is set up, to bring the snacks, and to post up signs.
- For the first half hour, greet people as they enter and tell them to get set up and to start.
- After most people have arrived, have any project representatives pitch their organizations.
- An hour in, most people should have arrived. Start wandering through the groups to make sure that everyone is started and making progress. You can continue doing this throughout the day. Also, take pictures while doing this.
- Two hours before dinner, call the place that's catering to make sure that everything is in the pipeline. Serve dinner when it's all ready.
- Two hours before the end of the event, start wandering through the groups to ask them what we should do better for the next event. Make sure to write their comments down! If you want them to take a post-event survey, you should tell them about it and possibly have them take it now.
- One hour before the end, announce to everyone that they'll need to wrap up soon. Tell them to start working on a two minute presentation. Also, give people a five minute warning before presentations start.
- 20 minutes before the end of the event, have each group present what they did during the event.
After the Event
- Let people stick around to wrap up.
- Try to get people to help clean up.
- Send every hacker, nonprofit, and sponsor a thank you email. This email should briefly mention the impact that the event had, should mention when the next event is, should give a link to any feedback surveys, and should advertise anything else (ie, long term volunteer opportunities, internships, or a request to help plan the next Code Jam).
- Send the people who helped to plan the event a thank you email. Send the space a thank you email. Send the caterers a thank you email.
- Make a write up of the event. Post the write up on the Code the Change website.
- Pat yourself on the back! Then, start at the top!