My cupcakes served as a poignant footnote for yesterday’s event.
Don’t get me wrong, yesterday’s DevCup was on a different level compared to every local tech event so far. It had a very spacious yet air-conditioned venue with very fast (albeit unstable) internet access. There was an unbelievable amount of sponsors. The participants produced impressive output in such a short time frame, and they’re actually available online. And there’s no fucking irrelevant cosplay.
However, the glaring faults in the logistics left a bad taste in my mouth.
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In my decade of organizing and criticizing events, I’ve come to learn two things that distinguish well-executed events from the rest:
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Organizers that actively look for problems that need solving instead of merely solving problems as they are reported.
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Organizers that focus only on managing the event and nothing else. I can even go as to say that they should not have fun until the event is over.
If you want to have fun or mingle with random attendees, you should either implement a shifting work scheme or just not be part of the organizing team at all – some people hire event planners and coordinators so that they can just spend the event networking with the guests.
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And what of the cupcakes?
We scraped the melted goo into a bowl and put it in the ref for dessert later.
