Cynthia Leatherwood
cynthia@edcamp.org
@C_A_Leatherwood
cl218@edublogs.org
15 Tips for Edcamp Organizers
1. Have an organizer near the session board to encourage participants to put sessions on the board. Sometimes they are just unsure of what to call their session. Have someone available to help with that. Make sure they include their name.
2. Have an organizer put the names of each session and the room number outside of each breakout room. This will avoid any confusion and allow your guests to navigate to their session choice without having their laptop open as they walk.
3. Keep it simple when it comes to prizes. I know that teachers love free items, that being said, they do not enjoy sitting around for an hour waiting to have their ticket called. Also, if you have 100 prizes at your first Edcamp, they will expect the same amount at each one of your Edcamps.
4. Have someone designated to take pictures.
5. Have a facilitator in each room. Watch this video for tips on how to facilitate a session. https://youtu.be/cU02WgE0u98
6. Have a scribe in each room. This is especially important if your Edcampers are mostly first timers. You really want to share valuable resources, and contact information on the Google Docs so the conversations and learning can continue long after your Edcamp is complete.
7. Remember Edcamps are vendor free. It is important that Edcampers do not self-promote. This is not the day to spread the word about your side gig. Edcamps are about conversations, connections and collaboration.
8. Use Twitter to promote your Edcamp. Popular hashtags to use are #edcamp #whyiedcamp Also, post in Twitter feeds of Edcamps going on in your area.
9. Apply for an Edcamp in A Box 3 months before your Edcamp. We will help you set up an eventbrite, advertise your Edcamp on our site, send you a check for refreshments, send swag items, and all the materials you need to have a successful day. Go to www.edcamp.org
10. Educate your participants on our Impact Grants. Once you have attended an Edcamp, you are eligible to apply for a $500 grant. We have a scoring rubric and the whole process is done online. You can save your work and come back to it later. You can even check on the status of your application after you submit it.
11. Add in travel time/ networking time. People like to approach the session leader after the session. This is great for teachers who do not like to speak up in the large group.
12. Have 5 minutes at the end of a session for take-aways and how they will use this new knowledge.
13. If you do not want the 60% of the guests to show up, we have seen success when the Edcamp provides professional learning hours. We have also seen administrators allow their staff to attend an Edcamp and then they allow them to skip a pd day at their school.
14. We have an organizer handbook on our website. We also have videos on how to facilitate, how to build a digital session board, how to design an agenda.
15. Session names. I have been working on making topics more inclusive. Do not limit it to one topic.
