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Tips For Barcamp Ethiopia Session Hosts

Below are some tips to help you prepare a great session for Barcamp Ethiopia. As you know, ANYONE is welcome to host or co-host a session, you don't have to register it beforehand and you can prepare it in any way you like best. On Friday morning, when Barcamp Ethiopia begins, there will be a big board where you can reserve a time-slot for your session in one of the rooms. Standard time-slots will be about 45 minutes long.

1. Be prepared !
   - Prepare something: A PPT presentation, a drawing, group-activities, some notes or thoughts about what to say and what you would like to happen in your session.
   - Think of an interesting title for your presentation. A good title is: Not too long, it clearly expresses the core-idea of your topic, while at the same time sounding exciting and attractive for people to attend.
   - Be prepared that not everyone is an expert of your topic, like you. So think about how you can present it in such a way that it is easy to understand and relates to people with different minds and backgrounds.
   - What will happen after your session? How can the discussion and interaction continue? You can for example invite interested participants to join an online forum, a mailing-list or a Facebook group, schedule a monthly meeting in a café, etc. Make sure that people who are interested can contact you later for continued collaboration!
2. 
   Be creative !
   - Barcamp has an open format - take advantage of this opportunity to do something different! A session doesn't have to consist in a person describing his or her powerpoint slides to the audience - try to think of something more exciting, don't be too serious!
   - Activate the participants of your session! It is boring to go from presentation to presentation if you are not included as an active subject. If you do prepare a presentation, try not to make it longer than 10-15 minutes. Discussion and collaboration are more interesting than mere presentation.
   - Rooms of different sizes, equipped with LCD-projector, microphones, flipchart & pin-board will be available. If you need other equipment, bring it or ask someone of the organizers to help you provide it. You are also free to host your session outdoors or to display something somewhere on campus throughout the two days if it better fits your topic.
3. 
   Be flexible !
   - Do prepare your session, but not too much! Be prepared to change your approach in interaction with the other participants. Allow for questions, discussions and other ideas.
   - If the time-slot you choose for your session turns out to be too short, then schedule a follow-up session at a later time!
   - be prepared that technology might fail! If there is a power-cut, internet connection is slow or the projector doesn't work, can you still continue your session?
   - Include other session-hosts into your session! Maybe you meet someone who is preparing to host a similar topic. Would it be more interesting to merge your two sessions into one?
4. 
   Don't worry !
   - Don't worry about how many participants your session will attract! Some topics attract many, others less - it is not personal and it will depend on how specific or general your topic is and which other sessions run in parallel to yours. An active session with a few engaged and interested participants can definitely be more constructive than one with many less engaged attendants!
   - Take it easy - Barcamp Ethiopia will not run perfectly, it is not supposed to. So, be patient and enjoy the chaos! Important is to have fun, meet new people and get new ideas.