message-after-iwc

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IndieWebCamp Organizers should send a message after an IndieWebCamp to participants that thanks them, summarizes the awesome things that happened, preferably with some group photos, includes information about upcoming events including the next few IndieWebCamps, and provides ways for folks to stay in touch.

This page is one such template that has been used for at least IndieWebCamp NYC 2019.

Why

Emails sent after IndieWebCamps are particularly useful when they do three things:

1. help reinforce the positive narrative that attendees have in their mind about what they did, recognizing the breadth of contributions, number of sessions (maybe even listing the names of them all), helps remind and reinforce a sense of time well spent (especially on a weekend!)

2. provide actionable things for what participants can do next to stay connected with the community (link HWC West this week, note that it’s weekly, can subscribe to ICS in their calendar here link, be sure to join the chat on IRC and Slack, and have more you thought of or wanted to get done? Add it to an Aspirations section on you user page! (ask in the chat for help, and someone will help like [ORGANIZER] did over the weekend)

3. strong closing statement with implicit reasons to forward the email to other interested friends (i.e. “look at this cool thing I did this weekend!”), with stuff like: number of hours of video of how many sessions to watch (links), group photos like:

  • hours:minutes of video
  • number of sessions
  • number of people who did personal site intros
  • number of people who did create day demos

In General

When writing up a message after a day or more or the entirety of an IndieWebCamp, keep in mind the following that you may want to mention:

  • Link to camp pages/sessions
  • Link to videos: archive.org or schedule page (which should have direct video links)
  • ...


Calls to action / reminder and encouragements to:

  • publish blog posts about camp, sessions, or things you worked on
  • add links to blog posts, session notes, photos to wiki
  • propose additional sessions (that maybe were missed in the camp) as pop-ups in the future e.g.

    Some of the sessions that didn't get scheduled for this weekend have been added to the pop-ups event page for inclusion in either future Camps or smaller pop-up sessions. Feel free to add any additional information, your interest in attending or helping to organize them so we can make them a reality in the future.

Timeliness reminder for subsequent this-week newsletter:

  • If you write them up and submit them before Friday at 1 PM we can try to make sure they make it into the next IndieWeb Newsletter.


T-shirts? If there are any extra t-shirts available from a camp, something like:

  • We have a limited supply from past IndieWebSummit of IndieWebCamp t-shirts that we want to offer to participants and if they can email [CAMPEMAIL@] with their t-shirt size we'll see what we can do!


Future events:

  • upcoming HWC/IWC's and pop-ups available 
  • if you'd like to subscribe to the weekly IndieWeb Newsletter you can input your email at https://indieweb.org/this-week-in-the-indieweb
    • also available in your feed reader or find upcoming events at events.indieweb.org


Closing and encouragement to stay in touch:

  • As we mentioned, the IndieWeb never closes and never sleeps. You can find your new friends and colleagues regularly in chat at chat.indieweb.org or at upcoming events.


Final thanks:

  • We hope you had fun and we'll see you on the indieweb! Thanks again for joining us.

Signed:

  • Sincerely, [names of organizers and code-of-conduct contacts]


Templates and Examples

Friday

[A number of] attendees met up at [pre-party location] for food, beverages, and discussion of the Camp to come! Thanks to [Sponsor] for sponsoring this pre-event social!


Saturday

[insert day 1 group photo]

We kicked things off at the [location] with [food/coffee] thanks to [sponor or Open Collective Donors]!

[Describe any opening talks and link to speaker and/or slides]

We then made a schedule of attendee-facilitated discussions, covering topics like [three or so topics], and many more!

You can find the full list of discussions, including session notes and video streams, at https://indieweb.org/YEAR/CITY/Schedule


Sunday

[insert day 2 group photo]

Sunday was a day of making, with [number] of us convening at [day 2 location] to create and hack on our personal sites and projects. We kicked off by having each participant stick notes for their planned projects on the wall for accountability, then dove in!

After a [describe lunch, thank sponsor if any], we wrapped up our work and demoed what progress we had made.

[Describe notable projects like how many folks launched a new website]. You can find the full details on what was demoed at https://indieweb.org/YEAR/CITY/Demos


Reflections

Did you take photos? Write a blog post about the experience? Want to share? We encourage everyone to help us get the word out about [IndieWebCamp CITY YEAR]. Please hashtag your posts with #indiewebcamp!

We'll be collecting blog posts, short notes, photos, and more on the event page at: https://indieweb.org/YEAR/CITY#Blog_posts

As a bonus, if you publish by Friday [date after the Camp at 2pm Eastern time] you can even make the [weekly IndieWeb newsletter](https://indieweb.org/this-week)! There are 4 ways to make it into the newsletter:

  • Syndicate your blog post to [IndieNews](https://news.indieweb.org/en/submit)
  • Post your link in IRC, Slack, or [chat](https://chat.indieweb.org)
  • Share a link on Twitter with the hashtag #IndieWebCamp. Our friendly bot Loqi will pick up the link, drop it into our chat channels, and a community member can add your post to the newsletter.
  • Ask a community member in chat and we will help you out!


Upcoming IndieWeb Events

Live near [CITY] and hungry for more IndieWeb? We encourage you to attend our semi-regular [IndieWeb Meetups or Homebrew Website Club in CITY].

Our next meetup is scheduled for [DATE. Link to event and/or city planning page].

And of course, [CITY] isn't the only place for the IndieWeb! You can find a list of upcoming IndieWebCamps and local meetups worldwide at https://indieweb.org/Events

We have a few more IndieWebCamps in particular this year, so if you’re nearby one of these cities, check it out:

  • MONTH 01-02: [IndieWebCamp OTHERCITY] — complimentary sign-ups open!
  • MONTH 03-04: [IndieWebCamp ANOTHERCITY] — save the date!


After Camp

Hi [given-name]!

Thank you for making [IndieWebCamp CITY YEAR] a success! From the enlightening talks and in-depth discussions on Saturday, to the successful launch of several new personal websites and other projects on Sunday, we are extremely pleased with how it went.

Here's a quick recap of the weekend, and ways to keep up and keep in touch about future IndieWeb events in [CITY] and beyond. We won't email you at this address again!


Thanks Again

[IndieWebCamp CITY YEAR] would not have been a success without attendees like you! Of course, we'd also like to thank our sponsors ([sponsors], and all our Open Collective donors) for making this event possible!

Thanks again, and see you around the independent web, [ORGANIZER NAMES WITH LINKS]

  • Reminder: this will be your last email from your sign-up for participation in [IndieWebCamp CITY YEAR].*

If you'd like weekly updates and event invitations, sign-up for our This Week In The IndieWeb newsletter!


Thanks after virtual

(Generalized from 2020/West/Planning#Thank_you_after)

[REPLACE ALL BRACKETED TEXT AND UPDATE ALL LINKS BEFORE USING]


Dear IndieWebCampers:

Thank you for participating in [IndieWebCamp CITY YEAR] last weekend! 


You Made [IndieWebCamp CITY] Awesome!

We heard inspiring keynotes from community members [KEYNOTER 1], [KEYNOTER 2], and [KEYNOTER 3].  You can rewatch their talks here: https://indieweb.org/2020/West/Schedule#Keynotes as well as all our breakout sessions.

You gave awesome lightning personal site demos that inspired us as a whole; facilitated and participated in lots of breakout session topics on Saturday; and demonstrated numerous personal site and indieweb community improvements on Sunday.

You should all be very proud of what you wrote, designed, built, coded, tested, and shipped in just two days!

If you have a moment, write a blog post summarizing your IndieWebCamp experience, and we'll add it to our growing list of stories and reflections:


We Did A Lot

We were originally planning our 10th annual IndieWebSummit this past weekend, and after we had to cancel that like all other in-person events, we decided to try organizing an online IndieWebCamp instead to see if we could make something summit-like happen for the community. Together (yes, including all of you!) we had:


What Next?

Excited from the weekend and want to keep the momentum going? Here are five things you can do to stay active and in touch:

1. Chat: https://chat.indieweb.org/ — there's folks active in our chat channels from around the world at all hours, pop in and say hi!

2. Meetups: https://events.indieweb.org/tag/hwc — every Wednesday evening we have a community hosted 90 minute informal meetup to chat, show, and tell all things IndieWeb. It's like a little informal IndieWebCamp session where all levels are welcome. Subscribe to the iCalendar (ICS) feed to get weekly reminders!

3. Newsletter: https://indieweb.org/this-week-in-the-indieweb — want to take a breather and get summaries once a week? Get This Week In The IndieWeb in your email inbox, or of course also in your social reader or feed reader as h-feed or RSS.

4. T-shirts? You might have noticed many participants wearing IndieWebCamp t-shirts throughout the weekend. We have some from last year's summit, and if you participated this weekend and don't have one, email your t-shirt size / fit preference / shipping address to us at west@indieweb.org and we'll see if we have one!

5. Blog! Last but not least, please post about your own IndieWeb hopes, dreams, aspirations, struggles, accomplishments, surprises, and whatever else comes to mind, using the #indieweb hashtag, and #indiewebcamp regarding anything camp-specific.


Thank You

Thanks to everyone who showed up and participated, facilitated, took notes, wikified, volunteered, and demonstrated! We especially want to thank our keynote speakers [KEYNOTE 1 NAME], [KEYNOTE 2 NAME], and [KEYNOTE 3 NAME] for putting together inspiring, informative, and optimistic talks.

If you'd like to share your feelings about how camp, attendance, or experiences could be better, please email the organizers at west@indieweb.org. We're always looking for ways to improve our programs in the future. We can treat your feedback as anonymous if you prefer, just let us know.

The IndieWeb never sleeps. See you on chat, our meetups, stay tuned for an IndieWebCamp East in the fall, and maybe a few Pop-up Sessions until then!

Thank you!

Your camp organizers, volunteers, video archivers, and code of conduct contacts: [ORGANIZERS], [CoC CONTACTS]

P.S. If you'd like to help organize future camps or smaller events in your city or timezone, please let us know and we're happy to help you with resources and support to make that happen.


See Also

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