These are the general outlines of what the Xorg Board is looking for when voting on an XDC RFP. The Xorg Board will not organize the conference itself, the person or team proposing the conference will be the conference organizer. The Board will only vote on the proposals and afterwards collect the bill. Please submit proposals to the BoardOfDirectors.
The venue should be known and included in the proposal, including the estimated costs. If the venue options aren't fixed yet there should be at least one guaranteed fallback.
A recommended choice is a university/college. A Q&A session with Xorg contributors for the students is often enough to pay for the venue and also inviting students to participate in the conference itself is great way to get new people into our community.
For the main track we need a room sitting up to 150 people (attendance is usually 80-120, generally more in Europe than Americas). It's good to have a second room with whiteboards and a few tables/seats for ad-hoc hallway tracks and coding sessions. WiFi network needs to be there&solid.
A lot of students travel to XDC on small budgets, hence there should be affordable accommodations available in close proximity (or well-connected with public transport). Best to list a few recommended places including prices.
The Xorg community likes to visit new places to enjoy all the hall/pub/sightseeing/... tracks too. Sell your city here, but important points are places for lunch/dinner in walking distance or well connected with public transport from both the venue and recommended hotels. It's also great to organize a tour or similar for Saturday after the conference to a local sight.
Currently XDC is alternating between Europe (even years) and North America (odd years). That's where most of the Xorg contributors are, which means lower travel costs and hence higher attendance. Given that constraint the board will consider proposals from other continents, especially if there's a colocation opportunity with a related event.
The Xorg community is all over the world. List all options for planes&trains, especially if there are non-obvious ones (like flying into another city and then taking a train ride) to save a few monies.
A lot of our Gsoc/Evoc students need visa to travel to Europe/Americas and may need an invitation letter for that. Since that usually must be done by someone local the Xorg Board can't provide that. The best way to do that is through the hosting/sponsoring company/university. We need a contact there.
Since a lot of people can't attend every XDC we want to record and livestream all main track sessions. Make sure you have the equipment and people to do that, including publishing the videos (preferably within a day or so) to youtube or similar.
There's also sometimes local laws about required signage when sessions are recorded, please make sure that any such are indicated on the XDC webpage too.
To make sure the Q&A is also recorded and not a chore of someone running all over the room, have a mic stand, mutliple Q&A runners or one of these throwable mics in a soft cube.
We need an estimate of the overall cost. Our budget is generally quite low and mostly spent on travel assistance. We prefer locations where the venue costs are zero or cheap.
Some breakfast/snack buffet is nice to have and often not included in a sponsored venue, please include that too. This should include coffee, tea and water. Universities have catering for that, some may allow for outside food to be brought in but most don't.
AV equipment may need to be rented, please check with the location. Minimum requirements are one camera and two microphones (clip-on for the speaker, one wireless one for questions from the audience) and the associated hardware.
Since we want to invite GSoC students and also allow local students to join, the conference should be at the beginning of the (northern) autumn term, so late September.
The conference is usually 3 days Wed-Fri, with all three days filled.
When sending out the CFP please read PapersCommittee - we're looking both for main track talks and discussion proposals for the 2nd room. Don't just blindly copypaste last year's CFP letter, it's probably outdated.
A few minor things:
Have badges/stickers and markers ready so that people can create name tags (or have them prepared). Bonus if you have pronoun stickers.
Color-coded laynards (or shirts) for stuff like "organizer", "CoC contact", "you can/cannot take pictures" works great.
Make sure there's enough signs for everything so people find the venue (especially if it's on a campus).
For the pre-conference meet-up (usually Tue evening), make sure you have a location a few days ahead, before international travellers leave.
Plenty of power outlets, especially throughout the main track room.
100+ attendees rushing to toilets in breaks can lead to queues and a mess. Make sure there's enough and that cleaning staff is aware.
The board would like to have at least a preliminary proposal 1 year ahead at the preceding XDC. It should have an indication by when a definitive proposal will be handed in and by when the board needs to make a final decision (e.g. to make sure venues can be still be booked). The board can consider late proposals and will decide on its own when is the best time to make the final vote or whether to solicit more proposals.
After the final vote the board will inform all organizers. Announcing the conference, setting up the conference page on the Events Wiki and running the CFP are all the organizers duties. The board will only serve as the papers committee and for granting travel sponsorships.
X.org has a separate policy for sponsors of XDC. Please make sure it's acceptable for the venue and organizers to have other company's branding at XDC.
It's a good idea, and some of our sponsors require this. Have a quote, the board will cover this expense.
X.org has an Anti-Harassment Policy and organizers are expected to upheld and help enforce it.