Overview

Teaching: 10 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• When do I need to start planning?

Objectives

• Create a workshop website.

There’s not a clear time to perform the steps in this episode of the lesson. Anywhere from 4 - 12 weeks before your workshop could be an appropriate time to do the following things. Earlier is better, especially if you want to do a fair bit of advertising.

Set up registration

You can use any system you want to register people for your workshop, but make sure you have some system! Common solutions include Eventbrite, Google Forms, or a local institutional resource.

The key components you want to get from a registration system are collecting emails, so you can contact participants, and, if charging for the workshop, a way to collect money. Being able to customize the page that shows up after you register is also really helpful; as this is where you can point people at the pre-workshop survey.

Registration tips + tricks:

• set to open 2-3 weeks before workshop
• allow a few more seats than you have

To Pay or Not to Pay?

Important considerations when deciding whether to charge (and how much):

• Local rules and systems
• Room availability
• Accessibility
• Funding sources

Create a workshop website

By now you should have all the information you need to generate a web page that serves as the general hub of information for your workshop: advertisement, registration, schedule, and set up information.

https://github.com/carpentries/workshop-template

Fill out the request form

Even if you are self-organizing a workshop, it’s important to report back to the parent Carpentries organization. If you are partnering with the Carpentries to organize, you will have filled this out already.

https://amy.carpentries.org/forms/workshop/

Arrange for food (optional)

Start advertising

One your website is ready, you can start advertising! Tell people that the workshop is happening and when registration will open (if it isn’t immediately.)

Advertising suggestions:

• Mailing lists - this can run the gamut from informational lists that produce newsletters, to research-centric or grad-student centric networking lists, to the mailing list of a center or department.
• Social media
• Specific groups (lab group, class)

Code of Conduct

Review the Carpentries Code of Conduct and make sure you understand it.

Checklist

Print out the form here (also included below) to help you with this stage of workshop planning.

Key Points