The Monthlies were started in Central London in February 2016. This is an ongoing talks night event featuring speakers from diverse backgrounds and targeted towards beginners and junior developers.
If you are based in London and you'd like to get involved, email [email protected].
If you're outside of London and want to start running Monthlies, read on!
We try to host the Monthlies on the last Monday of each month, but sometimes Bank Holidays force us to move one week forward.
Most of the monthlies are talks so this guide will focus on that.
Components of running a talk-night Monthly:
- Speakers (2 main speakers, 2-4 lightning talk speakers)
- Venue with AV setup, enough space to hold at least 30 seated attendees theater-style
- MC/host
- Food & drinks
- 6-8 weeks before: Line up speakers and venues.
- 2 weeks before: Email speakers to confirm that they're ready to go. Confirm that they can arrive at the venue at 18:30 and provide them your mobile number.
- 1 week before: Set up event on website, send invitations, confirm that venue knows what they need to do.
- 2 days before: Send out reminder email to registered attendees, promote people off the waitlist if needed.
- Morning of: Send list of attendees to the venue if needed, print nametags
- 30 mins before: Organisers should arrive at venue and make sure space is set up, hang up signs with directions if needed
- Starting time: Greet your first arrivals!
- 18:30 - 19:00 : Attendees arrive, socialize, food & drink, MC or organiser should help all speakers to check AV
- 19:00 - 20:30 : Two main talks and block of lightning talks, with 5 mins break in between
In Central London, we draw on our community for potential speakers. We reach out to coaches and students who we believe would be great speakers. We also use this form as an ongoing pipeline.
Many of our organisers and members regularly attend other talks events in London. We reach out to speakers with interesting perspectives or backgrounds to invite them to deliver the talk at a Monthly.
We strive for diversity in our speaking roster. In 2016, we featured at least one main speaker who identified as a woman or non-binary at every Monthly.
Talks do not need to be about code, but they should be broadly related to technology, because that's what we're all here to learn more about.
Speakers should err on the side of explaining more context with technical subjects. A heuristic that has worked well so far is to imagine that all attendees have recently started their first junior web developer role, between zero and six months of professional working experience.
This means that you should feel empowered to use code snippets, but offer line-by-line explanations, no matter how brief. We find that giving a name to new concepts helps attendees to ask more helpful questions and/or do further research afterward.
We discourage live-coding unless absolutely necessary, especially when the internet is required. We don't have control over the stability of guest network access at our venues.
We have a set of guidelines covering language and behaviour you must follow. These are unacceptable at our events.
Beware of language such as "Obviously everybody knows that.." Do not assume that everyone in the audience knows a particular language, concept, person, book, etc.
This includes feigning or exaggerating surprise when someone admits to not knowing something.
The use of sexualized language or imagery and unwelcome sexual attention or advances, including when simulated online is no acceptable.
Examples of this include: The use of “dumb” or “crazy” as adjectives for illogical or nonsensical decision making.
Casual mention of slavery or indentured servitude and/or false comparisons of one’s occupation or situation to slavery. Please consider using or asking about alternate terminology when referring to such metaphors in technology.
This includes 'master' - 'slave'.
Any attempt to present “reverse-ism” versions of the above as violations. Examples of reverse-isms are “reverse racism”, “reverse sexism”, “heterophobia”, and “cisphobia”.
Minimal slides are best - avoid walls of text and long lists of bullets.
Be mindful of the colors you use. Aim for high contrast slides, avoiding colors that may be difficult to see for those with colorblindness - You could use black on a grey background or white on a dark blue background. avoid white backgrounds because of glare – this is why we use a grey background for black text if you are using text over an image, make sure the image is dark enough to ensure contrast and simple enough not to distract from the text
Make text as large as possible, at least 68pt.
Choose fonts with adequate spacing between letters, avoiding narrow-lettered fonts.
Avoid the use of flashing videos or animations, as these may cause seizures and migraines in some. Use slides to support your points, not to make the points themselves. Your talk should lose nothing if the slides aren’t visible. Some attendees might not be able to see your slides, so please make sure that your talk won't lose any of the message without them! Generally describe graphs, images, and other information for the audience.
Ensure that all videos have captions – these should be clear and large enough to see from the back of a large room
Ensure that any visual content in the video is described in the audio – if it isn’t, then you should describe it to the audience yourself
Check video sound levels in the room before the live presentation
If you’re using a hand-held microphone, keep it close to your mouth at all times – imagine you’re eating a rapidly melting ice-cream on a hot day
If you’re using a fixed microphone, try to keep as near to it as possible, even when you’re addressing someone in the audience
If you’re using images or video in your presentation to convey essential information, make sure you also explain that information verbally
If you’re doing a Q&A with the audience, then make sure the venue has a spare microphone for questioners to use – if there is no microphone or if the questioner doesn’t speak clearly into it, then make sure you repeat the question into your microphone
Venue sponsors are asked to supply food and drinks for 40-60 people if the event is in Central London. For newer chapters, the numbers may vary -- if you are not the primary chapter organiser, get in touch with them for a sense of how big the normal workshops are. Monthly attendance numbers will be similar.
Please provide some vegetarian options, as well as options for people who are gluten-intolerant and vegan.
We don't have alcoholic drinks. Please provide soft drinks and/or access to tap water.
For talks the space should be set up theater-style, with chairs facing a screen or projector. Desks and power outlets are not necessary.
The space should be accessible by wheelchair. Please let us know accessibility information.
Toilets should be gender neutral (or temporarily assigned via signage).
Most speakers use devices that can output to HDMI or Thunderport. If the speakers' devices have special requirements,
Make sure this is communicated and sorted in advance of the day. A power outlet near where the speaker will be standing is also useful.
Microphones should be supplied if available.
Many thanks to the WeAllJS code of conduct, AlterConf and Alistair Duggin’s post on accessibility!