open-goverance/Committee/2023-2024/Budget/12._Events.md

Events

Overview

• We are proud that this year we had a lot of big events and a lot more engagement with our members.
• The events discussed here required a lot of planning and organisation to complete.
• The society held 21 events and meetups over the course of the academic year.
• We also held much larger events such as the trip to Pycon, and the collaboration with Games Development Society and Games Society, such as our pub quiz and RetroPi.
• We're proud that we got a new bi-weekly Minecraft event that our members enjoy.

Semester 1

meet_greet.exe

• Introductory event to the society.
• Idea was to give a taste of future events and a social mixer.
• Venue: We booked KBG15 from 18:00-21:00.
• Announced via Discord and emails.

Skynet Introduction

• Introductory event to Skynet.
• Idea was to help members with setting up their accounts.
• Venue: Room 3 to allow enough room for incoming members.
• Members were required to bring their laptops to set up their Skynet accounts.

Capture The Flag

• Interactive Event: Members were asked to bring their laptops to participate in the event.
• Venue: Room 3 was booked to allow appropriate space for our participants
• Email and Discord announcements were written to advertise the event.

Movie Night

• Because it was Halloween, we decided to organise a movie night being projected.
• Venue: Room 3 was booked to allow enough room for our participants.
• We made a post on Discord and wrote an Email to advertise to our members.
• We asked our members to vote for which movie they wanted to watch on Discord.
• The movie that members picked out was Donnie Darko.
• We got permission from the office first before showing the movie.
• After we got permission to show the movie to our members, we acquired popcorn beforehand and used the microwave outside Room 3 to cook it.

Pycon

• A large event that had plenty of organisational overhead, and was a trip to Dublin.
• A number of members joined due to this event.
• Bought event tickets and tote bags.
• We applied for the trip's approval through Wolves.
• Sent emails to Pycon to get group tickets.
• Event costs were subsidized for members as a result.
• Payments were tracked through wolves and processed online.

Game Engines - Presentation

• Presentation about game engines; rehearsed beforehand.
• Venue: Room 3 for participants.
• Email had been written with some humor to enhance member engagement.

Advent of Code

• Long-term running series of events, throughout December and early 2nd semester.
• Useful to giving first years more coding experience.
• 2 posters were made, and sent by emails.
• Our own leaderboard was created for our members to compete, code for it was emailed separately.
• We had an in-person as a primer to prepare members for the event.
• Coding challenges released with Advent of Code and members were given the chance to solve them.
• Separate forum topic was created on Discord for this purpose, members received help with the programming challenges.

Semester 2

Lightning Talks - Co-op

• Lightning talks from students who were returning from Co-op.
• Each talk was set to a maximum of five minutes.
• Goal was to have a relaxing social event to promote networking.
• Venue: Room 3, we had plenty of members and speakers coming in.
• We had pizza at the end to cap it off.
• We announced it via emails and a Discord announcement.

Film Night

• An event proposed by a member.
• The movie in question was an hour-long video about Randy Pausch's last lecture on achieving your dreams.
• Venue: Room 3 to allow enough room and chairs for members.
• We purchased popcorn beforehand and cooked it in the microwave outside Room 3.
• We advertised it via emails and Discord announcements.

Minecraft LAN

• This event occurred right after an EGM so plenty of members had arrived.
• Firstly we had a brief presentation on how to install a mod for voice chat in Minecraft, then helped people to join the server.
• Members were required to have a Minecraft account and a Minecraft Launcher installed.
• Members also required a Discord account in the CompSoc server.
• Members also had to link their Discord account to their ULWolves email to access our Minecraft Server.
• We ordered some pizza as well to cap off the event.
• Venue: Courtyard Room, we swapped with Music Soc for the rest of the semester as it suited us more due to it having more plugs than Room 3.

Quiz with Games Dev

• Another large event that required a large amount of planning overhead as it was part of a collab with Games Dev and us.
• This was a pub quiz that we hosted together with Games Dev.
• Venue: The Pavilion, it was large enough to accommodate our all the members who attended.
• Money for the quiz participants was collected via a mix of Cash and Revolut for those who didn't have cash.
• As a result of choosing The Pavilion, we managed to get free food for our participants.
• As part of collabing with Games Dev, we created the questions for the quiz as a group.
• We also bought prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
• We put out multiple posters from both CompSoc and Games Dev to advertise the event across campus.

Licenses Presentation

• A social event about a presentation on Licences.
• Venue: Courtyard Room, we used the TV in the room to help with presenting.
• Our members came out learning more about software licences after the presentation.
• We advertised this via Discord announcements and Email.

Minecraft Server Event

• Our first event on our Minecraft Server.
• We advertised this event via Discord announcements.
• In this event we determined the winners by who collected the most valuable materials.
• A fun event that a lot of people looked forward to, and the next ones after.
• This event was online since most people were at home, and it was easier for people to join.

Domain + Hosting

• A social event that was a presentation about Domains and Hosting websites.
• Venue: Courtyard Room, TV came in handy for presenting.
• Our members came out learning a lot about domains and hosting their own websites.
• Advertised by our Discord announcements and emails as per usual.

Treasure Hunt

• Our next Recurring Minecraft event.
• This time it was a treasure hunt where people went looking for chests with items in our Minecraft Server.
• The event was chaotic as per the nature of Minecraft, and a lot of members came out enjoying the event.
• This event was online again, due to people being at home.
• We advertised the event using Discord announcements.

Virtual Machines

• A social event that was a presentation about virtual machines, what they are and how do we use them.
• Venue: Courtyard Room, accommodated all of our members, we used the plugs and TV to help with presenting.
• We advertised this event via Discord announcements and emails.
• Our members enjoyed the event and came out learning a lot more about virtual machines.

RetroPi

• Another large event that had a lot of planning overhead, as this was a massive collab between Games Dev and GSoc and us.
• Games Dev was behind the games we were planning to use.
• GSoc gave us the Controllers to play the games with.
• We were behind getting the hardware, the Raspberry PIs and getting them to work.
• Venue: Courtyard Room, we had plenty of plugs and chairs there to use. We also used the TV to display the games we were playing.
• We advertised this event via Discord announcements and Emails.