Summit 2013

It's going to be so fun that we'll definitely want to do it again!

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Why did people decide to attend Awesome Summit in the first place?

• cross-pollination/learning from others
• getting inspired
• curiosity

Meta-Question: What's the purpose of the Awesome Summit? In fact, are we actually even an organisation or just an emergent entity based on some shared interests?

• do we need to have an annual one that incorporates as many people from all chapters as possible vs. regional events, some other models etc.
• based on a completely non-scientific and sub-optimal participatory process, seems like the general consensus of the discussion group feels that there should be another summit next year (roughly around this time of year)

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Boston's process for organizing this year's summit

• $25,000 in donations which certainly helped but should not expect to exist for all future summits
• also ticket sales for the public component of the summit
  • 124 tickets sold for the public event this time round
• need to be aware that fewer people will generally be able to attend than desired or planned for
  • $10,000 was used to subsidize travel for this summit
• the MIT Media lab was made available gratis, which was very helpful, otherwise would cost ~$1000/hour
• could IHAS be expected to play a continuing role to seek sponsorship/funding for future summits?
• agenda was decided by fiat more or less by small group of people, major driving reason was just to get everyone together
• Need to establish a feedback mechanism for this summit to determine what people liked, disliked, would recommend

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Deciding on a process for determining location (brainstorming)

• letter of intent?
  • Boston's process started in Jan, but bulk of work to organize has been in the last 2 months leading up
    • necessity of establishing venues and contracts at least half a year ahead of time however

Decision-making process

• a lot of existing models have competing pitches presenting at the end of the current summit and then a decision is made there
• is it at the level of a vote per(active) chapters, per trustee, what?
• having a committee struck to help lead to a decision on venue
  • would they decide by fiat, would they make a decision after a collaboratively decided short-list, vice versa?
  • have the committee include a rep (or multiple reps) from each short-listed location
    • potential conflicts of interest that result from this
    • potential of the summit planning cannibalizing the vitality of the host chapter's standard activities

Creating a Summit Committee?

• separate from a committee to help decide the summit location
• help to ensure that the summit happens each year
• BUT do we want to duplicate the effort and resources required to have two separate committees?
  • perhaps having a sub-committee that works to decide a location
• NEEDS: a group to determine location, a group to work on logistics, a group to work on programming/content; whether these be separate groups or sub-groups

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Selection Process 1. Pitches made by interested chapters/locations 2. Mandatory submission of info to committee 3. Committee vets submissions and creates short-list of viable possibilities 4. Vote by individuals (or chapters?) on the short-list 5. Committee takes the vote into consideration and then decides 6. Announcement of next year's location at the summit

Tentative Selection Timeline

The pitch should:

• demonstrate solidarity and commitment of chapter (or hosting group if it's a different body)
• demonstrate of strength of chapter and ability to execute
• mandatory submission component to committee to demonstrate that the capacity to implement exists
  • form/questions to be designed by committee
• video or other excitement building pitch would be optional

Potential Criteria (or at least considerations)

• urban vs rural areas? environment that leads to retreat style or otherwise

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Value of hosting a summit

• potential capacity building for the hosting group

What's the impact on the people who will be choosing the location (and, those involved in making it happen)

• an actual pre-defined agenda, or a structure by which participants can create large chunks of the agenda?

ISSUES

• up till now Awesome XX:YY's have all been pretty ad-hoc groups; summits require much greater level of organization and dare-we-say, structure
• no particular failsafe on this right now, but that's okay--worst thing that happens is there's no summit that year
  • is that actually okay? potential damage to brand/chapters/etc.
• this is, of course, a work in progress and subject to a good argument (that can be part of the pitch)
• fundraising. will there be an ongoing group that works towards this