Runbooks

Meetup Runbooks

The behind-the-scenes steps we follow to run a meetup, from finding a date to publishing the recap. The stages overlap and the timeline flexes, but this is the general order. Checklist progress is saved in your browser, so you can close the tab and pick up where you left off.

Before you start

Always CC vancouver@pyladies.com

CC vancouver@pyladies.com on any communication with venues, vendors, and speakers. It keeps the whole organizing team in the loop and means nothing depends on a single person’s inbox: as long as that address is copied, you’re good to go.

For the principles behind these steps, what we ask of hosts, how we support speakers, and how to get involved, see the Handbook.

Where things live

Here’s where everything lives and what we use it for.

What	Where	Used for
Website	github.com/pyladies-vancouver/pyladies-vancouver.github.io	Our site, built with Hugo and the Popular theme, deployed via Netlify
Luma	luma.com/pyladiesvancouver	RSVPs and event pages (our primary platform)
Meetup	meetup.com/pyladies-vancouver	Announcing events; we point people to Luma to RSVP
Sessionize	sessionize.com/pyladies-vancouver-meetup	Call for proposals and managing speaker info
PyLadies Vancouver donations	Donate	Supporting our local chapter
Email	vancouver at pyladies dot com	Getting in touch with the organizers
Slack	#city-vancouver via slackin.pyladies.com	Where organizers and volunteers coordinate

We also share updates on LinkedIn, Instagram, Mastodon, and Bluesky.

Pick a date and venue

We aim to confirm a date and a venue host first, since the venue is usually the longest lead time.

What we need from a venue

The bare minimum we need from a venue host is a space that fits our group and a projector/AV setup for the talks. The PyLadies organizer still handles all the coordination. See Host a venue for what we ask of hosts.

Food (often pizza) is optional: appreciated but not required, and it can be covered by a separate sponsor who isn’t the venue host.

Hosting agreements

Most venues ask us to sign an event hosting agreement covering booking lead time, setup and cleanup responsibilities, access procedures, and a cancellation policy. Read it carefully: agreements often require a host contact or volunteer to be confirmed weeks in advance, and the booking can be cancelled if that isn’t arranged in time.

Venue access details are private

Door codes, alarm procedures, and day-of contacts are sensitive and are kept in a private organizer document, shared only with the team running that specific event, never published on this site.

Speakers and call for proposals

We collect talk submissions through Sessionize. Our call for proposals lives at sessionize.com/pyladies-vancouver-meetup.

Talk formats we accept

Lightning talks: 5 minutes
Standard talks: 15–30 minutes
Workshops: up to 2 hours

No experience is necessary to speak: we welcome first-time and seasoned speakers alike. Point prospective speakers to the Speak at our meetup guide.

Working with Sessionize

Once talks are accepted and speakers confirm, Sessionize holds the session titles, abstracts, and speaker bios. Organizers can pull this data from the Sessionize API to fill in the event page and recap, instead of retyping it: there are read-only API endpoints for sessions and speakers.

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Create the Luma event

We publish each event on Luma, which handles RSVPs, reminders, and a subscribable calendar. Build the description from the confirmed Sessionize talk and speaker details, using the Luma event template below as your starting point.

Tips

Luma’s API requires a paid Luma Plus plan, so on the free tier we create events through the web editor. Luma supports Markdown, so the template pastes in directly.
Luma supports only two heading levels (# and ##), so keep the description to those.
Add the speaker photo(s) from Sessionize as the event/cover image.
Double-check the date, start/end time (leave room for cleanup), location, and capacity.

Once published, the event appears on our Events page and homepage through the embedded Luma calendar. Also add a page for it under content/events/ on the website, see Updating the website.

Luma event template

Paste this into the Luma event description (it’s Markdown) and fill in the talk and speaker details from Sessionize. Adjust the agenda times to match the program. Luma supports only two heading levels (# and ##).

Join PyLadies Vancouver for our meetup at **[VENUE]**!

# [TALK TITLE] by [SPEAKER NAME]

[TALK ABSTRACT]

**About [SPEAKER NAME]**

[SPEAKER BIO]

[Speaker links]

## Agenda

- **6:00 PM**: Doors open, food & mingling
- **6:15 PM**: PyLadies intro & community updates
- **6:20 PM**: [TALK TITLE] ([SPEAKER NAME])
- **7:00 PM**: Fundraiser, swag & wrap-up
- **7:45 PM**: Event ends

## Support PyLadies Vancouver

Help us keep our meetups running: [donate to PyLadies Vancouver](https://psfmember.org/civicrm/contribute/transact/?reset=1&id=60)
to support the costs of organizing community events like this one.

We'll also be selling PyLadies tote bags in support of **PyLadies Vancouver**, and we'll
have conference swag to share!

## Thank you to our venue host: [VENUE]

Thank you to [VENUE] for providing the space for this meetup!

## Getting in

[Arrival and building-access instructions for attendees: which floor, how to be buzzed
in, parking and transit notes.]

## House rules

Please stay within the designated event areas. Photos of our event and attendees (with
their consent) are welcome. All attendees must follow the
[PyLadies Code of Conduct](https://www.pyladies.com/CodeOfConduct/).

Other fields to set on Luma

Title, date/time (leave room for cleanup before the venue’s hard stop)
Location and capacity
Cover image: the speaker photo from Sessionize

Announce the event

Once the Luma event is live, announce it on Meetup and across all of our social media channels, pointing everyone to Luma to RSVP.

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People can also subscribe to our Luma calendar to get upcoming events in their own calendar app automatically.

On the day

On the day, the organizing team runs the show:

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Follow the venue’s access and conduct rules throughout, and make sure everyone is aware of the PyLadies Code of Conduct. Day-of venue access details live in the private organizer document for that event.

Wrap-up and recap

Wrap up the venue

After the event, reset the space to how we found it:

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Following the wrap-up steps carefully is what keeps us welcome to come back. The specific closing steps for each venue are in that event’s private organizer document.

Publish a recap

Write up a recap as a blog post: a thank-you to the speaker and venue, photos from the event, and a note about what’s coming next. This is also a good place to list other Python and open source events worth knowing about. See Updating the website for how to add a post.

Updating the website

The site is a Hugo project using the Popular theme, in our GitHub repo. Changes go through a pull request and deploy automatically via Netlify once merged.

The full guide (setting up locally, writing blog posts, adding events, banner image sizes, shortcodes) lives in Contributing to the Website. The short version for organizers running a meetup:

When the Luma event is published, add a page for it in content/events/. That powers the “Next meetup” section on the homepage and the upcoming/past lists on the Events page, alongside the embedded Luma calendar.
After the event, publish the recap as a blog post in content/blog/.