Categories: Summit

The act of standing.

Yesterday, as some of you witnessed, I stood up to talk a little bit about the Summit (like out loud, in front of other humans).  To most people, something like that might not seem like a big deal — to me, huge.   I’m terrified to speak in public and prefer to stay behind the scenes (all this despite a career in communications!)

Enough about me.

As a bit of a recap, last week the volunteer “lottery” (whereby 10% of our volunteers were selected by random drawing to attend the Summit at a site different from the one they were originally offered) concluded and the results have been shared back.  Not without it’s hiccups, it feels like we’re getting close to final with this group.

Next up, Mozilla staff.  The process for staff will be a little different from our volunteers and will kick off this week.  The ultimate goal is to have an equal number of Mozillians in each of the three sites (~650 each), with a good functional mix (about ½ volunteers, ½ staff).   To do that, we’ll allocate each functional group an equal number of invitations to each of the Summit venues.  Teams will use a system that works best for them depending on size and geo-location among other factors.  We will do what we can to share these decisions with the volunteer invitees so they can connect with those traveling with them.  This process should wrap close to the end of June.

We have also kicked off the Summit branding work this week with a flurry of activity.  We have some preliminary ideas for a visual identity (sort of like a decorating theme) that our internal creative brain trust is working to refine.  Over the next few weeks, this team will partner to develop the overall Summit experience through a variety of elements, including the event Website and registration system (which we have targeted to go live July 15th).

And finally, the Summit Planning Assembly is less that a week away.  For anyone who doesn’t know, this event will bring together ~70 Mozillian delegates from around the globe for three days of collaborative content building.  Using “unconference” methodologies (loosely structured and participant lead), the outcomes produced by this group at this event, will form the basis for the Summit agenda/content.

While this event will not be streamed, we have dedicated documenters who will capture the process, feedback, and outcomes for the greater community.

Whew.  Enough from me for now.  As always, if you have questions please ping us in IRC #summit2013 or email summit2013@mozilla.com.