This new debrief and documentation from the 2012 Mozilla Festival lays out the key ingredients, reviews and recommendations.
How do you turn dull conferences into festival-style jams packed with more hack / less yak? Michelle Thorne’s full “Aftermath Report” from the 2012 Mozilla Festival is so thorough and open, it basically provides an introductory blueprint for others thinking about hosting their own #MozFest-style event. Recommended reading for anyone interested in creative community-powered event design.
A MozFest Manifesto?
Excerpting from Michelle’s post:
- Make everything hands-on, hackable, and collaborative. Participants hack and learn in small, decentralized groups. Sessions focus on solving real problems and teaching applicable skills. The schedule is always evolving in response to participants’ interests.
- Learn who is building what, and how they can share and help each other. The opening Science Fair and closing demo party help with this.
- Fuel leaders who want to invent, teach and organize. For us, that meant planning sessions with community members to design next year’s Summer Code Party and the growth of the global Hive network.
- Design the things you want to build next. For us this year it was two important new verticals: mobile and games.
- Use an open submission process. Hold a facilitator “boot camp” before the event. Designate community “space wranglers.” (Lots more detail on all the nuts and bolts in Michelle’s post.)
Reviews from participants
- “The most inclusive, constructive geek event ever!” —Tony Parkin, former head of ICT development at the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust
- “Ultimately, I think [Mozfest] is about turning the people who have this year been the observers and learners into next year’s teachers and makers.”—Joe Dytrych, CodeCards inventor
- “[My professor] insisted that I attend the Mozilla Festival in London. This was probably the best advice I have ever received in my time at University & will likely impact my future greatly.”—Finlay Craig, design student from Scotland
- “By the end of my first session, I was sold on MozFest’s participation approach and not nearly as nervous about my ability to contribute.” —Ryan Graff, Knight News Innovation Lab
Get involved
- Host your own Webmaker event. Our handy event kits make it pretty easy.
- Help turn this into HOW TO documentation. Get in touch with Michelle if you’re interested in helping to turn her post into a more robust HOW TO.
- Check out the feedback on recommendations for next year’s MozFest. Rough etherpad notes from our last Webmaker community call.