THE MAKING OF A
POWERSHELL FORUM EVENT
BY DON JONES AND CHRISTOPHER GANNON, POWERSHELL.ORG
SEPTEMBER 2015
CONTENTS
Contents ........................................................................................................................................................................2
Foreword .......................................................................................................................................................................4
What is a PowerShell Forum? ........................................................................................................................................5
The One Rule .............................................................................................................................................................5
Guidelines ..................................................................................................................................................................5
Naming.......................................................................................................................................................................6
Finances and Legal Liability ...........................................................................................................................................7
Income Taxes .............................................................................................................................................................7
Legal Separation ........................................................................................................................................................7
VAT.............................................................................................................................................................................7
Insurance ...................................................................................................................................................................7
Too Much to Deal With? ............................................................................................................................................8
Attendee Registration....................................................................................................................................................9
The Venue ....................................................................................................................................................................10
Location Considerations ..........................................................................................................................................10
Paying for the Space ................................................................................................................................................10
Room Layout ............................................................................................................................................................11
Food & Beverage Costs ............................................................................................................................................11
Audiovisual ..............................................................................................................................................................11
Don’t Forget the Presenters ....................................................................................................................................12
Evening Events .........................................................................................................................................................12
Getting a Quote .......................................................................................................................................................12
Extra Fees.................................................................................................................................................................12
Is Your Head Spinning? ............................................................................................................................................13
A Sample Budget .........................................................................................................................................................14
Planning the Content ...................................................................................................................................................15
2
Finding Speakers ......................................................................................................................................................15
Call for Topics ..........................................................................................................................................................15
Selecting Sessions ....................................................................................................................................................15
Creating the Agenda ................................................................................................................................................15
Speaker Follow-Up ...................................................................................................................................................16
Paying Speakers .......................................................................................................................................................16
Virtual Speakers .......................................................................................................................................................16
Working with Your Venue............................................................................................................................................17
Special Meals ...........................................................................................................................................................17
Audiovisual ..............................................................................................................................................................17
Power .......................................................................................................................................................................17
Internet ....................................................................................................................................................................17
Read the BEO ...........................................................................................................................................................18
Setting Attendee Expectations ....................................................................................................................................19
Marketing Your Event ..................................................................................................................................................20
Sponsors ......................................................................................................................................................................21
Minimizing Risk ............................................................................................................................................................22
VERIFIED EFFECTIVE™ Exams .......................................................................................................................................23
Stuff We’ve Screwed Up ..............................................................................................................................................24
A Final Word from Don ................................................................................................................................................25
3
FOREWORD
We’re often asked why we don’t hold a PowerShell Summit event in [insert your favorite place here]. The answer is
simple: we don’t have the time to organize multiple events, and we don’t want to take on the personal financial
risk of doing so. For us, PowerShell Summit is a global event. When possible, we hold it in close proximity to the
PowerShell team to maximize their ability to participate. Because the team participation is a huge part of everyone
coming together (the point of a “summit”), it doesn’t work as well when it’s held elsewhere.
However, that doesn’t mean there’s no value in other kinds of PowerShell events. But we at PowerShell.org aren’t
the ones to run them all. Organizing an event takes major time, and often requires some financial commitment.
We simply aren’t willing to take all that on, as volunteers, for the entire globe! But you can, at least for your local
country or region. If you’ve been salivating at the thought of a PowerShell-specific conference in your backyard,
you’re the one to organize it! We’ll be happy to help – and this guide is a starting place.
This is intended to be a concise collection of the experience PowerShell.org has had in running PowerShell Summit
events in three countries for four years. It also includes the organizers’ experience in running technology events
since the late 1990s. We’ve tried to focus on the “stuff you didn’t know or might forget” aspects of running an
event, so that you can enter into this endeavor with eyes wide open.
We must emphasize that our experiences are based on events primarily held in the USA, so some of the advice we
offer may not be correct or relevant in other countries. Hopefully, we can at least draw your attention to potential
areas for consideration, so that you can investigate locally and find out what the deal is.
We welcome questions – just use the “Website Feedback” forum on PowerShell.org, or e-mail
admin@powershell.org.
Good luck!
Don Jones
4
WHAT IS A POWERSHELL FORUM?
PowerShell Forum is a brand name of The DevOps Collective, Inc., the nonprofit corporation that produces
PowerShell Summit events, runs PowerShell.org, and so on. The PowerShell Forum brand is intended to provide a
recognizable brand name that members of the community can use to produce community-based events in their
region of the world.
There is really only one rule, and a couple of guidelines, for producing your own PowerShell Forum event.
THE ONE RULE
Your event must not produce a profit that is taken by any person, any group of people, or by a corporation or
organization. PowerShell Forum events are intended to benefit the community, not to be a commercial success for
a person or company. Any profits – that is, money you collect above and beyond expenses – must be distributed in
one of more of these ways:

To a qualified public charity (including the one that hosts PowerShell.org, if you like, which would be very
appreciated – although making a donation to PowerShell.org is absolutely not a requirement)

Held back and used to produce a future PowerShell Forum event
By using the PowerShell Forum brand name and trademarks, you agree to this rule, and agree to keep financial
records for your event. You also agree to make your event’s financial records available to the public upon request.
In keeping with the above, presenters should not be compensated more than necessary for reasonable travel
expenses and, at most, a small honorarium or speaking fee (rarely more than a couple of hundred US dollars, or
local equivalent).
Please note that the PowerShell Forum logo graphic is a trademarked image, and may
not be used without permission. Provided you follow the rule and agreements above,
you are granted that permission by this document.
GUIDELINES
PowerShell Forum events are intended to be multi-day events of 1 to 3 “tracks” (or rooms). At least two days, and
ideally three days, is suggested. Sessions may run anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours, and a single event
may well have a mix of session lengths. In addition, evening events are usually offered to provide additional
opportunities for networking and personal engagement. Events may be simple pub crawls, or may be organized
hackathons, scripting games, and so on.
You should notify admin@PowerShell.org of your event, so that we can provide you with logos and other graphics
assets, and so that we can help promote your event. Please indicate if your event will be primarily in English, or if it
will primarily target speakers of another language. We will also help you contact and coordinate with speakers
from around the world, including presenters from the PowerShell product team. We maintain a master schedule of
5
PowerShell Forum events, and can help you try to avoid conflicting dates. We can also help coordinate dates with
events in other regions, which can sometimes increase the availability of team members to present.
We urge you to coordinate dates with us prior to settling on a date, contracting a
venue, and promoting the event. That lets us maximize our ability to help you secure
speakers from the product team, in particular, since their time can be very limited. We
do not guarantee that the team will be able to attend your event – but we’ll facilitate
communications between you and them.
Note that you don’t have to coordinate with us – this is a guideline, not the rule. You’re welcome to run your event
entirely on your own, and use the PowerShell Forum brand provided you follow the rule above. You’re also
completely welcome to use this guide to run an event that doesn’t use the PowerShell Forum brand. We’ll still be
happy to try and coordinate dates with you, and to promote your event – just ask us. You can even run events that
run completely contrary to everything in this guide and we’ll still do our best to help promote your event, if you
want us to (although the rest of this guide is merely advice from our experience, which you can follow or not at
your discretion).
NAMING
If you decide to use the PowerShell Forum brand name, then we ask you to append your country name, as in
“PowerShell Forum Finland” or “PowerShell Summit Australia.” If we have “competing” Forum events in a given
country, we’ll try to coordinate the various interested parties so that you can collaborate on a single, awesome
event. In larger countries, we may work with you to suggest a more regional or city name, such as “PowerShell
Forum Sydney” or something. If a group of collaborators from various adjacent countries want to throw a
“regional” event, which changes cities from year to year, we’re happy to work with that, too. For example,
“PowerShell Forum Scandinavia.”
And although these examples are European, we’re completely open to the idea of USA-based PowerShell Forum
events, especially ones serving Central or Eastern US, since our current plan is to focus PowerShell Summit on the
West coast (to be near the PowerShell product team at Microsoft headquarters).
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FINANCES AND LEGAL LIABILITY
Your event is going to accept money from people wishing to attend, and that money may (probably will be) be
taxable in your area. You may potentially owe income taxes for any income above and beyond your expenses
(unless, in some countries, you donate those profits to a qualified charity). For that reason, and to help reduce
personal liability, we recommend establishing a company or other kind of organization to actually run the event.
How you do this, and exactly what you do, obviously varies a great deal from country to country, so we cannot
offer specific legal advice.
INCOME TAXES
Some more detail: if your event makes a profit, then someone will usually have to pay taxes on that profit. Who
pays taxes depends on where you live, and what kind of company or organization you’ve created. For example, in
the USA, a “C-Corporation” would pay its own taxes on its profits, rather than the owners of the C-Corp personally
paying those taxes. This enables the C-Corp to “hold back money” (after paying taxes on it) to be used on the
following year’s event. A nonprofit corporation, in the US, wouldn’t even need to pay the taxes – but qualifying as
a nonprofit is exceedingly difficult.
To be clear: PowerShell.org itself will not handle registration for you, will not collect money for you, and will not
financially back your event. We are not able to do these things, given our corporate legal status. For reference, we
use either PayPal or Authorize.net for registration fees, and the transactions are coordinated for us by EventLoom.
LEGAL SEPARATION
Another reason to have a corporation is legal separation. For example, imagine someone falls down and injures
themselves at your event. They might bring legal action against the venue, but they might also pursue legal action
against you as the event organizer. If you personally organized the event, that might make your personal assets –
even your house! – a part of the legal action. If a corporation organizes the event, then in many cases only the
corporation’s assets would be at risk. There are rules you have to follow, in most countries, to maintain the
“separation” between you and a corporation you’ve created; you need to consult a lawyer, or books on corporate
law, for more information.
VAT
Finally, in many countries, you may be required to collect VAT, and provide VAT invoices, for your registration fees.
That may entail registering to collect the VAT, including VAT in the registration fee, and sending the collected VAT
to the government tax authority. Because rules differ so greatly across the world, these are things you’ll need to
figure out – but often times, having a corporate entity can make it all a bit easier, and a bit more separate from
your personal finances.
INSURANCE
Depending on your event venue and your country, you may need to maintain liability insurance as well. Ask your
venue for any rules or recommendations they may have. There are numerous companies that sell event liability
insurance. It’s often very inexpensive, and is good only for the duration of your event. In some countries or at
some venues, it isn’t required.
7
TOO MUCH TO DEAL WITH?
If all this seems like a pain or a big step, then a PowerShell Forum might not be the right kind of event for you (and
now you understand why we don’t run thirty PowerShell Summit events all over the world). Starting out, it may be
easier to do a small PowerShell Saturday event, where you can just charge a small amount to cover pizza and the
venue. The intent is for a PowerShell Forum to be a regular, annual event, and so the “overhead” of maintaining a
corporation would be justified.
8
ATTENDEE REGISTRATION
We recommend using EventLoom.com for your event registration website. This is the same system used by
PowerShell Summit, and it can handle everything from session proposals through attendee registration and
payment. It combines the functions of sites like MeetUp.com, EventBrite.com, and others, all in one place. It
charges a simple per-person fee based on your attendance, and gives you the option of passing that fee (and credit
card processing fees) along to attendees.
Some thoughts based on our registration experiences:

Make sure you’re collecting full names to print on people’s badges. We suggest collection last names in a
separate field, so that the badges can be more easily sorted on that name.

Many times, someone other than the attendee will be registering and paying. You may want to explicitly
ask for the attendee’s e-mail, rather than the e-mail of the person registering.

You’ll usually have at least one company who wants to send multiple people – allowing for group
registration is important (EventLoom does this).

People will not read pre-registration information, and they often have spam filters dialed up so high that
e-mail is not a reliable means of communication. Establish a single authoritative place where people are
expected to check for updates and announcements, and focus on communicating that location to
everyone.

Collect information such as dietary accommodations, accessibility needs, etc. at the time of registration,
but re-confirm it a month out.

Establish, and stick to, cancellation/refund/transfer policies. It will come up. Keep in mind that, at a
certain point, you will have difficulty refunding someone’s money and re-selling the seat to another
attendee. Figure out when that is, and make that your cutoff date. For reference, PowerShell Summit
events do not offer refunds, although we do often permit name changes or transfers. In those cases, the
person making the transfer is responsible for any financial arrangements from the transferee.

Decide if you will accept forms of payment outside those your registration website accepts. Wire
transfers, mailed checks, and other forms of payment are often asked for – rarely, but enough that you
need to decide if you’ll accept them. A downside is that you have to hold a seat for someone and hope
that the money arrives on time. PowerShell Summit stopped accepting “alternative” payments because of
problems with companies paying in a timely fashion.

Try to keep registration as simple as possible. Don’t offer a variety of early bird discounts, registration
options, etc. We’ve tried this in the past with PowerShell Summit and it adds more complexity and
confusion than you might think, and doesn’t add a great deal of value.
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THE VENUE
Selecting a venue is perhaps the most complex part of an event, and it can help to understand just how they work.
We have found that using Microsoft offices for a multi-day event can be pretty difficult and restrictive, and so this
guide will assume you’re working with a hotel or conference center.
You may have access to other kinds of venue – perhaps a university lecture hall, or a corporate meeting facility. In
that case – great! You’ll potentially save a lot of money and hassle. Still, read through this section just so you have
an idea of how commercial meeting venues often work.
If you’re considering using a Microsoft office, know that – for PowerShell Summit – we’ve found them to be less
than ideal. Their security requirements, need to have a Microsoft sponsor, and other restrictions can create a lessthan-ideal environment for a multi-day event. Still, if you feel you’re able to work through those problems and
have a willing Microsoft space, it’s definitely an option.
LOCATION CONSIDERATIONS
Unlike a one-day PowerShell Saturday, where almost everyone’s local, a PowerShell Forum may draw people from
across a region, or even from nearby countries. Make sure you’re taking that into account, and consider the
following when selecting a general location:

Transportation from the airport and other transit hubs should be readily available and not ruinously
expensive. If attendees will need to rent a car, consider the cost of venue parking.

The venue should be near ample lodging (hotels) of a reasonable, business-class type.

The venue, or nearby hotels, should have a good selection of restaurants and other facilities so that
attendees can find a meal in the evenings.
PAYING FOR THE SPACE
Many venues of this kind will provide you with your meeting space “free of charge.” Some will even provide basic
audiovisual (projectors and microphones) “free of charge.” So what’s in it for them? Rooms and food. Many
venues will ask you to commit to a certain number of hotel room-nights (conference centers may have partner
hotels they work with), and most will ask you to commit to a certain amount of food and beverage fees. The more
meeting space you want, the more you’ll have to commit to. This is what creates the potential for risk: if you want
to make sure you have two presentation rooms that can accommodate up to 200 people total, you’ll often be
committing to feed at least 125 people for however many days. A smaller room requires a smaller commitment,
but provides you less room to expand if you sell out quickly. It can be a tricky business.
Furthermore, most venues will require you to deposit a certain amount of money up front. This can range from 1020% up to 50% or even 100%, depending on the venue and the region’s customs. When we started PowerShell
Summit, we had to commit 100% of our our costs up-front – and that was when the organization was quite new
and had no capital money to work from. The deposit went on the organizers’ personal credit cards, so you can see
what a personal investment you sometimes have to make to create an event like this.
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ROOM LAYOUT
Make sure you pay attention to room layouts. Venues’ listed capacities for each room will vary by layout. The three
most common layouts you’ll use are:

Theater. This is nothing but rows of chairs, often placed exactly side-by-side. This can be a tight fit for
three days of sessions, especially with the… “larger stature” of many IT workers, to say nothing of their
laptops, backpacks, and other belongings.

Classroom. This is a row of shallow tables with chairs placed at them – like a classroom! This offers more
room, and a place for people to put a laptop or note-taking device, but you can fit fewer people in the
room (often slightly less than 50% what Theater would offer).

Mixed Theater/Classroom. This sets the front portion of the room to Classroom, and the back to Theater.
You decide what the split is. This is useful when the Classroom portion will accommodate almost
everyone, leaving the Theater portion for “overflow seating.”
FOOD & BEVERAGE COSTS
Many venues offer full-day food and beverage packages, which can make budgeting simpler. For example, in
Amsterdam we found pricing from about 80 euro to 95 euro per person, per day, inclusive of a light breakfast,
lunch, and coffee/tea service throughout the day. That pricing was inclusive of VAT and service fees. That meant
our “hard cost” per attendee for a three-day event was 240 to 300 euro. At a $900 registration fee (about 675 euro
at the time), that meant about half our fee went to each person’s food and beverage (F&B).
Without all-day packages, you’ll often have to have the venue provide a sample menu, and work out what you’re
going to feed everyone – and what that will cost.
We have always used all-day F&B packages for PowerShell Summit. They may seem
more expensive, but your attendees will expect stuff like coffee to be available all day
– and without a package price, that gets expensive in a lot of places. Do your due
diligence and price it out both ways, if you like, but we’ve always found the all-day
packages to be less expensive and a lot less hassle in the end. We know it seems crazy
to not just have free coffee sitting around, but that’s the way it is in most places.
AUDIOVISUAL
Make sure you understand any audiovisual (A/V) costs; many venues contract with outside firms and renting a
projector and microphone can be costly. Some hotels will include basic A/V in the meeting package price, while
others may charge substantial rental fees. In some areas, it can be cheaper to simply buy your own equipment,
knowing that over a couple of years it’ll be cheaper. Seriously – PowerShell Summit has been quoted as much as
$500 for the use of a single projector for one day. In just one conference, we would have paid more than the
projector was worth!
11
Of course, venue rentals include things like a stand on which to place the projector, a screen (which may also cost
extra), cabling, gaffer tape to hold wires to the floor, and so on. Don’t expect those items for free if you bring your
own projector.
DON’T FORGET THE PRESENTERS
You’ll need to remember to reserve room – and money! – for your presenters. For example, a three-day event
consisting of two rooms, each holding seven 45-minute sessions per day, is 42 sessions. That means you’ll need
around 20-25 speakers. Those speakers will be eating food and taking up room. So if each room holds 50 people,
your total number of attendees can’t exceed around 80 (leaving room for 20 speakers). In addition, assuming an
$85 per person per day food cost, 20 speakers will cost you $5,100, which has to be divided across your attendees.
With 80 attendees, that’s about $65 per attendee in “overhead.” That means each attendee’s registration needs to
cover their own F&B as well as $65 in overhead, or about $320 total.
EVENING EVENTS
If you plan to include an evening event, and you plan to offer snacks and beverages, those costs also need to be
factored into the registration fee. For example, PowerShell Summit often has one evening with a “no-host bar,”
meaning attendees pay for their own drinks. Such arrangements usually come with a minimum fee, such as $150
per hour for a minimum of three hours. Be prepared to pay that if drink sales don’t add up.
GETTING A QUOTE
It’s common to write down your requirements, research some venues that have the physical space you think you
want, and then send them a Request for Proposal (RFP) to get a quote on their fees. We often try to get at least 35 such quotes for a PowerShell Summit event. Sometimes, the venue you really wanted may be a bit more
expensive, but if you can show them cheaper quotes in the area, they may negotiate downward a bit, saving you
some money. One thing to be cautious of when requesting quotes is on our capacity requirements. For example,
we’ll often ask for a quote that offers the use of two 80-person rooms, but that only assumes 100 people for F&B.
That gives us room for up to 60 additional people. You can always order more food than you commit to, but you
can rarely round downward by more than a few percent. Sometimes, the hotel may be happy with that kind of
“margin;” other times, to reserve 160 people worth of space they may want a commitment closer to the capacity –
say, committing to a 120 people of F&B, giving you a “margin” of only 40.
Some venues may not want to work with you more than a few months out, especially if you’re a new group to
them. They may want to reserve their space for a larger, “sure thing” customer. One way to resolve that is to aim
for a smaller venue where you’ll be occupying a good portion of their space. Or, find a time of year when the
venue knows their hotel rooms will usually be booked, but their meeting space will usually be available. In those
cases, they’re often more comfortable doing business with a new group, since they have little to lose.
EXTRA FEES
Make sure you understand any “extra fees” your venue may charge. This may include service charges
(tips/gratuities), taxes (which may or may not include service charges), delivery fees, and more. These definitely
pad the bill, and can add up to a lot. In some areas, they total more than 35% of the bill, so you don’t want to miss
that as a budget item.
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You’ll also have to allocate some funds for “office overhead,” such as purchasing name badges, or at least blank
name badge stock that you print yourself.
IS YOUR HEAD SPINNING?
Seems like a lot of work and planning, right? PowerShell Summit is usually planned a year out, and preliminary
planning – scouting for venues and such – often starts as early as 15-18 months out. It is a lot of work, and it
involves a pretty significant personal commitment. The good news is that once your venue is locked down, most of
the work is done.
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A SAMPLE BUDGET
Obviously, every time we’ve run an event the numbers have been different, so this is just an illustration.
Per-Person Costs
All-day meeting package, 3 days @ $85/day (incl. service and tax)
Blank badge (ordered in bulk)
Badge holder (ordered in bulk)
Evening party, snacks
Registration fee
Total
Overhead Costs
Presenter hotel rooms (20 @ $215.46/not incl taxes; 3 nts each)
Office expenses
Event management*
Evening party, bar minimum (3hrs @ $150/hr; incl. service and tax)
A/V (incl. service and tax)
Meeting space
Internet (incl. tax)
Total
$255.00
$0.07
$1.23
$50.00
$9.00
$315.30
$12,928.00
$500.00
$2500.00
$450.00
$3950.00
included
$4250.00
$24,578.00
* PowerShell.org uses a professional event manager, who works for us at a 50% discounted rate and pays hotel/airfare out of this rate, due to
the complexity and size of the event. We include this here to illustrate the level of detail present even in our high-level budget.
s
Totals
150 attendees and 20 speakers, per-person costs
Overhead
Total
Registration to break even w/100 attendees @ $900/ea
Registration to break even w/150 attendees @ $900/ea
$53,601.00
$24,578.00
$77,179.00
$772.00
$514.53
We tend to budget our break-even fairly conservatively, often at 100 attendees. That’s due in part to the fact that
profits from PowerShell Summit pay the rest of PowerShell.org’s annual operating budget of around $15,000.00.
With a base registration fee of $950, we would lose about $50 to credit card processing, so we would “earn” $900
each. With 100 attendees, we would make $90,000, leaving us with about $13,000 in profits. Of course, PowerShell
Summit North America typically gets more like 150 attendees, which would net about $58,000 in profit. Removing
the organization’s annual operating expenses, we’re left with $43,000. Where does that money go? To the
following year’s event, enabling us to put a deposit on the space for the next year without having to involve one of
the organizers’ personal credit cards (which is what we had to do for the first two years). In fact, those deposits run
around $40,000, which means we’ve established a kind of “rolling deposit” that’s rounded up slightly for safety.
Obviously, your event’s budget will have different numbers, but the budget items should be very similar.
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PLANNING THE CONTENT
You may wonder why we’re just getting to content when it’s already halfway through this guide! The answer is
simple: while planning content can be the fun part of an event, the finances are the most important part. If you
don’t work out the finances, then you don’t have an event. So do that first.
FINDING SPEAKERS
We use a combination of Twitter, an e-mail list of past speakers, industry contacts, and product team contacts to
invite speakers for PowerShell Summit. If you want us to, we’ll be happy to call attention to your Call for Topics.
Just ask – drop an e-mail to admin@.
CALL FOR TOPICS
We use EventLoom to conduct a public call for topics (CFT), enabling interested presenters to sign up and submit
sessions for consideration. Right now, EventLoom only collects session titles and abstracts, and speaker names and
bios. It doesn’t yet let you indicate the length of a proposed session (we originally had only 45-minute slots for
sessions), and it doesn’t let you indicate things like session language (PowerShell Summit is all-English). You can
contact the administrator of EventLoom if you need other features like that – we’ve found him to be extremely
responsive.
SELECTING SESSIONS
We originally used a public voting process to select sessions, but it was massively complicated and timeconsuming, and didn’t result in an appreciably better schedule than we’d have picked ourselves. So now, we use a
small panel to select sessions.
CREATING THE AGENDA
As much as possible, try to “sequence” the agenda. You want “easier” topics first, for example. If you run multiple
rooms at once, you want to try and schedule simultaneous sessions that don’t overlap too much, so people won’t
be torn between two choices.
In many cases, the “perfect agenda” gets compromised a tiny bit by reality and practical concerns. Some speakers
can’t do more than one or two sessions, and so that perfect third session they proposed gets left off. In other
cases, travel plans mean you might not have sessions in exactly the order you’d prefer. You’ll often have a speaker
drop out at the last minute for legitimate reasons, and so you need a backup plan (like doing a fill-in session
yourself) for that situation.
We try to have our content picked out before we publicize the event and start accepting registrations. Doing so
makes sure that we get our selected speakers registered (and therefore, space saved for them) before the public
dives in and starts registering. Having the content agenda online also helps attendees “sell” the event to their boss.
PowerShell Forum events should be seen as a regional PowerShell Summit-style event, meaning “deep dive”
content. That doesn’t mean selecting the most esoteric, niche content you can find! It means selecting “nonbeginner” content across a variety of topics.
15
SPEAKER FOLLOW-UP
Be sure to contact both accepted and declined speakers and let them know about your decision. This allows
declined speakers the opportunity to register along with the rest of the public, if they still want to attend the
event.
PAYING SPEAKERS
If you’re running a PowerShell Forum-branded event, we ask that you not pay speakers more than enough to cover
their travel, plus perhaps a small honorarium. The point is that the PowerShell Forum brand, like PowerShell
Summit, is meant to represent a not-for-profit, community-based event where everyone is more or less a
volunteer.
However, that doesn’t mean your speakers have to attend at a loss. We’re actively evolving PowerShell Summit to
help make it easier for great speakers to attend, and that means budgeting to cover at least some of their travel.
You can certainly do the same. In fact, for some key speakers, you may need to be able to cover all of their travel.
For someone expecting to travel a long way (say, from the US to Asia), even an “Economy Plus” style airfare can be
a lot of money. For a speaker who lives in a country with a relatively lower cost of living, traveling to a high-cost
region can be out of their personal finances. For a presenter who travels under a poor currency exchange rate,
traveling may simply not be possible.
When you’re able to budget to help them out, you’ll often be able to get more of the recognizable “brand name
speakers” that help drive event attendance. Aim for a mix of local speakers and “super stars” when possible, to
help minimize the additional costs.
VIRTUAL SPEAKERS
You may want to consider having some speakers present remotely. After all, technologies like Skype can make
telepresence pretty inexpensive. However, remember that there’s a lot that can go wrong, technically, and “virtual
presentations” are never as compelling as the real thing. Attendees paying to attend an in-person event may feel a
bit “ripped off” when they find that, for one or more sessions, they’ve basically paid to watch a webinar.
If you decide to go this route, set attendee expectations appropriately, and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Don’t
even attempt to do this over the typical hotel Wi-Fi connection, either – make sure you have a wired network
connection, make sure your presenter has reliable Internet connectivity, and make sure you’ve tested everything
the day before and a few hours before the scheduled presentation.
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WORKING WITH YOUR VENUE
Your venue’s contract will specify several pieces of information, the most important of which is how far in advance
they need your final F&B head count. That’s often a week or so in advance – so make a reminder to touch base.
Don’t rely on them to contact you; it’s up to you to contact them.
SPECIAL MEALS
You should also find out from them when you need to turn in information such as special meals. On the subject of
special meals, don’t expect venues to be able to accommodate anything more unusual than “vegetarian” or
“Vegan.” While many can accommodate food allergies or dietary requests like Kosher or Halal, most cannot.
Instead, most will outsource the request by bringing in food, or refuse to accommodate the request. It’s a good
idea to find out in advance what they can and cannot do, and how much notice they need. Allergies in particular
can be challenging for smaller venues, who may simply not have the facilities to prepare food that hasn’t been in
contact with a potential allergen (similar “cross-contamination” concerns can prevent preparation of Halal and
Kosher food).
AUDIOVISUAL
Also touch base at least two weeks out to confirm you’re A/V arrangements. Make no assumptions. Don’t assume
you’ll have HDMI connections to the projector, or an array of provided dongles; many venues have exceedingly
ancient concepts of A/V and if you don’t get it in writing, you’re likely to end up with 4:3 VGA projectors that max
out at 1024x768.
Don’t assume your room automatically comes with wireless lavaliere microphones, either – if you want those, get
it in the quote from the venue. A room holding more than about 30 people will probably need a microphone for
the presenters.
POWER
Do not expect the venue to provide enough power for every attendee to plug in their laptop. Venues make a lot of
money reselling power, and can charge as much as $35 per power strip per day. If power-to-every-seat is a
requirement, get a quote first, and make a financial decision.
Seems crazy, right? You’ll quickly come to realize that most venues make their money by selling every little thing
they can – often at exorbitant rates. It is what it is.
INTERNET
Do not expect free Internet for attendees, either – even in hotels that provide free Internet to their guests. Venues
often outsource Internet connectivity, and selling Internet to meetings is a big business. Getting 50Mbps of
bandwidth can cost upwards of $5,000 per day in some US locations! And, keep in mind that your attendees may
expect to be able to connect their laptop, their Surface, their phone, and their watch to the Internet – but many
venues charged based on the number of IP addresses their DHCP server will issue. Again, assume nothing and ask if
it’s a priority for you.
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READ THE BEO
At least four weeks out (if not six to eight), ask the venue to provide Banquet Event Orders (BEOs) for your event.
These are an industry-standard, although the exact format varies between venues. They detail what you’re getting,
and when. They’ll outline your room setup, food deliveries, A/V requirements, and more. Read these carefully and
if anything seems wrong or missing, question it immediately. Do not assume the venue will figure it out or do the
right thing! Legally, the BEOs represent your final contract with the hotel, and anything not in the BEO isn’t to be
expected.
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SETTING ATTENDEE EXPECTATIONS
In running PowerShell Summit since 2013, and other events since the last 1990s, we have found that attendees’
expectations often vary widely. It’s good to communicate, as best you can, so that attendees have reasonable and
valid expectations for what they’ll find at your event.

Food. We’re often surprised how many grown adults are incredibly picky eaters who, for example, will
only eat pizza, chicken strips, and hot dogs – and who assume everyone else feels the same. We try to
communicate our menus as early as we can set them with our venue. Allergies and special diets can also
be problematic, as attendees often assume venues can handle anything you throw at them, which is
rarely the case.

Internet and power. Depending on where they’re from, attendees often assume power and Internet will
be freely available. Depending on your venue, that may not be the case. But don’t let attendees think they
can simply run their personal power cords all over the place – that’s a good way to get thrown out of the
venue, and your event shut down, due to fire code violations and tripping hazards.

Recordings. Microsoft has set everyone to expect that all sessions will be recorded and posted for free –
although this can cost tens of thousands of dollars in equipment, in some instances.

Space. If you have 150 attendees and two rooms that seat 80 people apiece, it is obvious that not
everyone will be able to fit into a single session. Make sure attendees understand that rooms are fire code
capacity restrictions, and it may not be possible to stuff everyone into a single room when Jeffrey Snover
is speaking.

Costs. People often assume that, because they can get a fancy coffee for $3, that coffee is fairly cheap and
should be available at all times. Venues, on the other hand, can charge $50-$100 per gallon for coffee. If
you don’t have coffee or other beverages included as part of an all-day package, make sure you set
expectations and understand your costs should you decide to get another gallon of coffee. Cans or bottles
of soda present a similar expectation. Venues often sell these “on consumption,” meaning you’ll pay ($3$5 apiece is not unusual) for each one consumed. The venue is therefore happy to sit out lots of them for
your attendees!

Guests. Some (few) attendees (more commonly speakers, actually) may assume it’s okay to bring a friend
or a spouse by for lunch, without paying for their admission. Now that you know how much lunch costs,
you’ll understand why it’s often important to adhere to a strict “no guests” policy. What’s more,
insurance requirements often demand that only your paid attendees be on-site.
At PowerShell Summit, we constantly try to make it clear that everyone running the event is a volunteer, and we
try to be very transparent about our costs – even though many attendees are flabbergasted by what the venues
charge us! Our openness often helps mitigate high expectations, and of course we work with a wonderful,
understanding, and friendly community.
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MARKETING YOUR EVENT
First and foremost, understand that everyone at PowerShell.org is happy to help draw attention to PowerShell
events, whether they’re branded “PowerShell Forum” or otherwise. Get in touch with us via our admin@ e-mail
alias. Here’s what we do to market PowerShell Summit:

Twitter. We use Twitter a lot, including services like HootSuite, which let us schedule out regular
promotional tweets.

Articles. We produce articles for PowerShell.org that promote the event, including discussing session
content and special events. Spreading these out during your registration period helps keep people aware
and excited.

Product team. The team is often able to promote community events via the team blog, and we’ll be
happy to connect you with them. The Scripting Guy is also helpful at drawing attention to community
events. Note that they’re a bit reluctant to promote commercial events, so be prepared to state whether
or not you’re commercial (making a profit to keep) or community (not for profit).
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SPONSORS
Businesses’ financial health can change over time, which means their ability to sponsor community events also
varies over time. For PowerShell Summit, we don’t like uncertainty, and so we historically try to avoid relying on a
sponsoring company for the event. Sponsors who’ve supported PowerShell.org in general have been offered
various promotional opportunities at the event, but we’ve never relied on sponsors to hold the event itself.
That said, if you do decide to rely on sponsors, try to do so for value-added, non-core portions of the event. For
example, having a business sponsor an evening event is relatively low-risk, since if the sponsor falls through you
can still do something lower-key in the evening.
You do need to be a bit careful on the money front, since any money a sponsor gives you will probably be
considered taxable income, whether you’re holding the event as an individual or as a corporation. If you spend all
the sponsor’s money on legitimate expenses (like food and beverage), then it’ll even out and you won’t owe taxes
(usually). Just be sure you don’t forget the financial impact of accepting someone’s advertising or marketing
dollars.
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MINIMIZING RISK
If you’re using a commercial meeting venue – like a hotel or conference center – the financial risk of organizing an
event can be pretty scary. After your first or second event, you’ll have a firmer idea of what to expect, but until
then you may want to mitigate pitfalls. Here are some of the things we’ve done with PowerShell Summit to
minimize those risks:

Minimize hotel room block guarantees – ideally, don’t guarantee hotel rooms at all. If you do, try to only
guarantee enough rooms for your presenters’ use.

Be as conservative as possible when estimating the number of attendees, especially on your first go.
You’d rather sell out and turn people away than plan (and pay) for 200 people and only get 75.

Rather than planning a lavish evening event, consider something where attendees can pay their own way.
A pub crawl offers great networking and socializing opportunities, while minimizing the amount of money
you personally need to have in play.

Avoid booking a venue where you can’t personally deal with the venue’s management. The more
middlemen you have in play, the more room there is for error. Using your wife’s friend’s company’s
conference facilities may seem like a smart financial move, but it can create devastating logistical snafus
that jeopardize the overall success of the event.

Double-check everything, get everything in writing, and then double-check it again. The thing you didn’t
get in writing, or that you forget to quadruple-check, is the thing that will go wrong.
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VERIFIED EFFECTIVE™ EXAMS
One feature of PowerShell Summit is that it’s the only place to sit the VERIFIED EFFECTIVE™ exam series, including
the PowerShell Toolmaker exam and other upcoming credentials.
If you are holding a PowerShell Forum-branded event, PowerShell.org will enable you to offer a live, proctored
VERIFIED EFFECTIVE™ exam delivery at your event. For branding and messaging reasons, we only offer this for
events run as a PowerShell Forum, where the organizers are coordinating with us on dates and locations.
You’ll need a dedicated room for one hour. Attendees will need to bring their own laptops running Windows
PowerShell, and you’ll need to collect their work and submit it to us for grading. You may charge no more than $25
per person, which is intended to help cover overnight delivery fees of candidates’ materials.
Contact admin@ for more information.
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STUFF WE’VE SCREWED UP
Hopefully, this list of some of our mistakes will help you avoid them!

It’s common for venues to set up a small stage and podium for speakers. However, in one instance, we’d
forgotten that one speaker had mobility concerns and wouldn’t be able to climb onto the stage. A lastminute rush to remove the stage solve the problem, and now we remember to ask speakers about any
such concerns.

Fire marshals aren’t stupid. They know when events are scheduled, and often drop by to make sure you’re
not exceeding room capacity. They’ll shut you down if you do.

Just because a venue reserves meeting space and plans your lunches doesn’t mean they’ve thought about
where people will actually eat the food. We’ve had some last-minute experiences scrambling to make sure
space had been set aside for meals.

Just because you’ve agreed to pay for 50 hotel rooms for your attendees doesn’t mean attendees will use
those rooms. Some prefer to stay elsewhere, and some may have corporate requirements to stay
elsewhere. This can be a major concern since you’re on the hook for the hotel room costs anyway (this is
called attrition in the industry). We’ve experimented with conference-and-room packages and all sorts of
other things, before deciding to just avoid guaranteeing hotel rooms. Nowadays, the only rooms we
reserve are ones we’re holding for our speakers.

Bring spare video converters and connectors, and generally spare connectors of every kind you can think
of. Some speaker, at some point, won’t have the one they need. We have ours in a plastic box that goes
with us to every show, now. This includes foreign power adapters.

When you’re organizing an event and are on-site, nothing else matters. Your other work, including e-mail,
needs to go on hold, because you need to be out and about your event, monitoring things to watch for
problems. Not that we ever mess this up – but we did want to point it out!
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CONNECTION AND COMMUNITY
If you’re running a PowerShell event – particularly multi-day, “Forum” style events – you’re welcome to join a
private mailing list for event organizers. We hope that can be a way to share ideas, try out new approaches,
coordinate schedules, and more. E-mail admin@ here at PowerShell.org to be subscribed.
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A FINAL WORD FROM DON
If you’ve read through the preceding, you may be thinking, “wow, I don’t have that kind of time, and I’m not willing
to take on that kind of financial risk!”
Yeah, me either. I’m committed to continuing PowerShell Summit, and over the years I’ve managed to get it to a
place where I’m not personally under as much financial risk in the beginning. But it still takes a lot of time and
careful management, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who works so hard to make the event happen.
But let me be blunt: I’m not able to take on further time obligations or financial risks while also maintaining my
actual job – nor is the rest of the PowerShell.org management team. So if you’re really eager to have a PowerShell
event in your area, don’t expect someone else to take on all that time and risk if you aren’t willing to do so. When
you’re asking, “when will there be a PowerShell Summit in ____,” understand that what you’re really asking is,
“hey, Don, when are you willing to put your credit card on the line again so we can have an event in ____?”
As a US citizen running a US nonprofit, I’ve always felt uncomfortable organizing events in foreign countries. I don’t
know the customs, the pricing, the licensing, the insurance situation, or anything. Working across multiple time
zones adds a whole new layer of complexity to organizing the event. After two PowerShell Summit Europe events, I
realized that nobody knows how to run an event in _____ better than someone who lives there. Thus, this guide.
I believe we’ve come up with a good model for running an event that minimizes the financial risk and time
obligation, and that’s what this guide has tried to describe. So now it’s time for you to make a major commitment
to the PowerShell community in your area and be the one to “step up.” Communities are built by people, not by
one person, and PowerShell only thrives when we’re all pulling together.
So I hope you will consider holding a PowerShell Forum in your area, whether you call it that or not. I hope you’ll
ask us for advice and help, beyond what’s in this guide. I hope you’ll let us help promote your event, and let us do
our best to help make you successful.
Thanks for reading, and good luck!
Don Jones
September 2015
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