<div dir="ltr">I'm not sure if this is covered by Delphine's suggestion, but the ability to recognize staffers is helpful - I knew quite some of them so had little trouble, but I saw others looking harder for them. Giving staffers a special symbol/color on their badge or giving them a different color T-shirt might be helpful. I never realized how many there were until they finally were all on stage. <div>
<br></div><div>Lodewijk<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2011/8/9 Roan Kattouw <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:roan.kattouw@gmail.com">roan.kattouw@gmail.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
2011/8/9 Delphine Ménard <<a href="mailto:notafishz@gmail.com">notafishz@gmail.com</a>>:<br>
<div class="im">> * Badges: badges should be recognizable at a glance. Especially for<br>
> press. But also for organizers, speakers etc.. By the time I arrived,<br>
> everyone had a different lanyard, some had written badges, other<br>
> printed... complicated. Make more badges than you will ever need (a<br>
> safe assumption is to print about at least twice the number of badges<br>
> you think you'll need). Choose colors that people can recognize at a<br>
> glance. Especially for the press (I'll never stress that enough).<br>
><br>
</div>+1. Also:<br>
* make the badges double-sided. I asked at least 5 people to flip<br>
their badges so I could read them, and about half the people I know<br>
had come up with some way to clip the badge to their lanyard or<br>
clothes to prevent it from flipping over to the blank back side<br>
* for some reason, the role/occupation/whatever field (e.g.<br>
'developer', 'designer', 'WMF employee', ...) was not printed on any<br>
of the WMF employees' badges, which led to people using magic markers<br>
to write "WMF" on their badges. I think it's a good idea to make WMF<br>
staff clearly visible (badge colors, per Delphine); in Buenos Aires,<br>
WMF staff had "Staff" badges, but they were the same badges worn by<br>
the conference staff (i.e. organization), so that wasn't necessarily<br>
too useful either<br>
<br>
Badge-related praise that I read on a private mailing list and totally<br>
agree with: putting the small schedule booklet inside the badges was<br>
genius and extremely useful. It's one of those little things that I<br>
never missed before I realized how great it was, and that I will now<br>
be expecting at every conference I ever attend :)<br>
<br>
Another, relatively minor, point of criticism: the shuttle schedules<br>
as communicated were incomplete. The most important bits (morning<br>
shuttle times, i.e. what time do I have to wake up to catch the<br>
shuttle) were there, but the schedules for shuttles leaving in the<br>
afternoon and evening (shuttles back to the hotels/dorms from the<br>
venue, and shuttles to/from the parties) were missing from the booklet<br>
and the web site more often than not. Personally, I think that<br>
ideally, shuttles shouldn't be necessary (if you need them, that means<br>
the host city is more spread out than I like it to be (Gdansk was<br>
perfect in terms of everything being close together); a party at a<br>
good location that's a bit far away is a good exception, but<br>
hotels/dorms shouldn't be >1km away), but if you're hosting a future<br>
Wikimania and do need them, please make sure to document their<br>
schedules very well.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Roan Kattouw (Catrope)<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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