Find a venue & set a date

 

Venue

Find a venue that will comfortably accommodate all your attendees with seating for everyone. Teachmeets can take place in a school, the local education centre or a conference room but don't be afraid to mix it up and go for somewhere different!

 

Wherever you decide to host your meetup, ensure you have each of the following:

• Good wifi connection
• Projector & screen
• Laptop
• Microphone
• Adapter leads

 

 

Set a Date

Setting a date will give you a clear point to aim for and will allow you to plan more efficiently. Weekday evenings generally work best. Teachmeets generally last for around an hour and a half with half an hour afterwards for networking.

 

Source your speakers & start promoting

There is generally a theme for Teachmeets as this inspires more people to come. Your theme can be quite specific - e.g. 'literacy' or 'technology' or it can be very open and general, it's entirely up to you! Your theme will be important for sourcing speakers so give it some thought.

Anyone attending a Teachmeet can contribute - teachers, librarians, SNAs, technologists - anyone in the education sector who is passionate and has a story to tell. The speakers are chosen beforehand so that things run smoothly on the night.

Once you've chosen a date and selected a theme, you should prepare an email that you can send to all potential speakers and attendees. This should include a link to the presenter form so that people can easily volunteer to speak and share their story. You might need to get a little more targeted with your speaker recruitment and specifically ask people to contribute but generally, passionate educators are delighted to have a platform to share their story. Speakers can give a nano (2 minute) or macro (7 minute) presentation on any aspect of education or as it relates the chosen theme. Remember you can always include digital contributors via Skype or Twitter.

Click here for a presenter form that you might find useful. You can ask people to fill it in if they want to contribute. The information requested here will be used to populate the programme for the event.

 

Promotion

Spreading the word about the event is very important as you'll want to have an enthusiastic, passionate group of educators to make your event a success.

 

There are many options for promoting your event and a good mix of these should ensure you get the word out to the right people.

1. Email - your mailing list will be an important tool for both speakers and attendees. Ensure you have email addresses for all the teachers in local schools and send them an email approximately 3 weeks in advance.
2. Social media - Twitter & Facebook can be useful ways of spreading the word particularly if you're connected with other educators. Teachmeet Ireland Twitter account will help you spread the word (@TeachmeetIRL)
3. Websites - Teachmeet Ireland Website and the Teachmeet profile on changex.org both list all upcoming Teachmeets.
4. Education centres - let your local education centre know about your event so that they can notify all local teachers.
5. Posters - you can put these in your staffroom, drop them into local schools and the education centre. Here's a sample that you can edit and use: Sample Poster
6. Ticketing - you can use a free tool like Eventbrite to sign people up and spread the word.

Prepare for the event

Once your speakers have completed their presenter forms, you can use this information to prepare the event programme. Each speaker is asked to provide a 50 word synopsis on the item they are sharing and this is included on the programme with speaker name, twitter handle and contact details (here's a template: Sample Programme).

Tips

Remember the list of digital equipment from step 1? Make sure you have everything and test it out a couple of times before things kick off!

Timetable your event appropriately - you'll have an idea what everyone is going to talk about so design the schedule around this and try to ensure a good variety of topics. You can also use this free tool to select the order of your speakers:Fruit Machine.

Source your digital equipment – projector, laptop, screen, microphone (where necessary) and leads - test everything a couple of times to make sure everything works.

Request that all speakers email any digital presentation to you 48 hours in advance to ensure there are no issues opening content.

Email all attendees the day before event reminding them of times, parking etc.

Refreshments - this can be tea, coffee and biscuits or something more substantial but some refreshments always make the event a bit more social. You should try to get these sponsored, maybe from your school or from a local business.

Activate heat & outdoor lighting if necessary.

Run the event

On the day, you will need a minimum of 2 hosts - 1 to compere and 1 to offer tech support.

You should have a volunteer at the entrance to take eventbrite tickets or sign people in – entrance desk should include programmes, spare pens & paper

You should have a volunteer at the entrance to take eventbrite tickets or sign people in – entrance desk should include programmes, spare pens & paper

Tips

Networking at the end of the event is a very important piece of the overall event so don't forget to leave enough time for it.

Compere should give a quick introduction and then welcome all participants & speakers, it's helpful to know a little background on each when introducing.

Time each speaker and stick to the timelines – use red/green card system to maintain times – try to be firm or you will frustrate your attendees.

It's a good option to live-tweet throughout event sharing information with digital contributors.

When all speakers have contributed, invite all attendees to refreshments and to meet individually with speakers and develop their professional network.

Follow up

Email all attendees a digital copy of the programme and request any feedback they might have (this can be done more formally though an online survey should you wish).

Share digital presentations with attendees (as long as you have permission).

Give yourself a pat on the back for organising a superb event and then go try out the many ideas you will have just learned!!