Tech
The tech team works in the months prior to the fest with each of the other teams to understand what their tech needs will be during the event. The Tech team needs to understand the technical layout of the space that will be used for the event. Some important questions tech might need to ask other teams include:
does your space need lighting?
Does your space need electricity?
does your space need a microphone?
does you space require a screen/ presentation system?
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Additionally, the tech team is responsible for finding the companies that you will work with for lighting, sound, video etc. After a suitable company is agreed on, the tech team should present the project to the company and make sure they can deliver on whatever needs you may have for the event.
Finally, the tech managers are responsible for ensuring that a contract is drafted and signed with the compant before the event outlining what you will need from them.
Tech is responsible for the lighting, sound, electricity, presentation slides and digital broadcast of the event. The Tech team works to ensure that all technical aspects of the event are working, whether it be that microphones are on and in the right place, presentations are being projected correctly, or that wifi is functioning in the space.
Leading up to the fest there were many questions about how to put together and project speaker presenatations during the fest
For OS Fest 16, we had speakers put together their own standard cover slide with their name, the name of their, talk, their organization etc. These slides came before their presentation slides. this was not the best way to do it.
Instead one person should be responsible for putting the individual speaker information into the cover slide template, to ensure that the information is formatted correctly
Additionally, a standardized OuiShare Fest 2016 slide followed each presentation and came before each individual cover slide.
all files, including cover slide, end slide, and presentations should be in .ppt format so that they can be edited if there are issues. It is important to request slides in .ppt from speakers, however, if speakers insist on sending keynote documents it can be worked around (still highly discouraged).
During the fest, it worked best when we used 2 computers in each space, at least one of which should be a mac, this way it has the ability to open both .ppt and keynote files.
One of the computers should be used to put up just the cover and end slides in an order such as this:
slide 1: first speakers cover slide
slide 2: standardized end slide
slide 3: second speakers cover slide
slide 4: standardized end slide
and so on.
In the interim, the other computer (probably the mac) should be used to bring up the individual speaker's presentation slides. It is important that the projector remains frozen on the cover slide as the second computer is being used to bring up presentation slides, after which the source of input should be switched to the second computer with the presentation slides.
This method was chosen after we tried the first day to use one master presentation containing all the cover slides, presentation slides and end slides for the entire morning part of the fest. This proved too difficult, since many speakers sent in their presentations in different formats or wanted to make changes to their slides the day of.
We also decided against having speakers bring in their presentations on a flash drive the day of for the sake of the live steam, which used footage of their talk combined with their slides, requiring we have the slides prior to the event.
The tech team not only helps to set up the technical system and put it in place before the event, but also must ensure that it is properly taken down during strike after the event.