open-goverance/Committee/2024-2025/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 organization 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 Berlin trip.
• We're proud that we were able to host regular weekly events.

Semester 1

Society Introduction

• Introductory event to the society.
• Idea was to give a taste of future events and a social mixer.
• Venue: We booked Courtyard Room from 18:00-20:30.
• Announced via Discord and emails.

Skynet + Git Introduction

• Introductory event to Skynet & Git.
• Idea was to help members with setting up their accounts and understanding Git.
• Venue: Courtyard Room to give enough free space for committee members to run around offering tech support.
• Members were required to bring their laptops to set up their Skynet accounts.
• Email and Discord announcements were written to advertise the event.

Virtual Machines!

• Introducing members to Virtual Machines and Docker.
• Venue: Courtyard Room was booked since it was easier to do presentations there.
• Included an optional interactive element where members could follow along on their laptops.
• Email and Discord announcements were written to advertise the event.

Unity Workshop: A Collaboration with Games Development Society

• Collab with Game Dev Society.
• Venue: Courtyard Room was picked since it was large enough to accommodate all the members.
• We made a post on Discord and wrote an Email to advertise to our members.
• Members were required to bring their laptops with Unity & Visual Studio Code pre-installed.

Server Building

• Collab with NetApp.
• Recieved 700€ in sponsorship from NetApp.
• Assembled the servers during the event.
• Also had a NetApp representative provide a talk about their company & graduate role opportunities.
• NetApp also sponsored finger food from Scholars for the event.
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• Announcements sent out via discord and email.

Halloween Movie Night!

• Yearly social event to watch a movie on Halloween.
• Movie was selected between the committee this time
• We decided to show Corpse Bride.
• We made sure to get permission from the office first before showing the movie.
• Venue: Room 3 since it was better suited for movies.
• Announcements sent out via discord and email.

Capture The Flag

• Yearly event to teach members about using the terminal and SSH.
• Interactive Event: Members were asked to bring their laptops to participate in the event.
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• Email and Discord announcements were written to advertise the event.

PyCon Refresher

• Refresher on Python, so people don't show up to PyCon without knowing what Python is.
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• We used the TV in the room to help with presenting.
• Announcements sent out via discord + email.

PyCon

• A large event that had plenty of organizational overhead and was a trip to Dublin.
• Yearly event, we had a number of members join due to this event.
• Bought event tickets and tote bags along with arranging transport.
• Got trip approval through Wolves.
• Subsidized event costs for members.
• Payments tracked through Wolves and processed online.
• Venue: Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin.

Advent of Code Primer

• Long-term running series of events every year, throughout December and early 2nd semester.
• Useful to giving first years more coding experience.
• We had an in-person 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.
• Announcements for the primer were done via email and Discord.
• Venue: Courtyard Room

Semester 2

Lightning Talks - Co-op

• Lightning talks from students who were returning from Co-op.
• No time limit was set for this event, people were free to talk as much as they wanted
• Goal was to have a relaxing social event to promote networking.
• Venue: Courtyard Room since it was easier to give talks.
• We had pizza at the end to cap it off.
• We announced it via emails and a Discord announcement.

Intro to Skynet, Discord & Minecraft

• Introductory event to Skynet, Discord and Minecraft.
• Lined up with a project that most first years had regarding creating a blog site.
• To this end, we tailored the event to help users set up their Skynet accounts and access their personal sites.
• We also introduced them to Discord and Minecraft.
• Especially, how to access our Minecraft server.
• Venue: Courtyard Room.
• We advertised it via emails and Discord announcements.

Patch Presentation

• Sponsored event by Patch.
• They came in to provide an info session on their startup accelerator and other programs.
• Brought in other students who had also gone through the program.
• Sponsored Pizza for the event.
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• Announcements sent out via discord and email.

Computer Concepts Through Factory Games

• Social event that involved expressing computer concepts like abstraction and interfaces through factory games.
• Presentation by a committee member.
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• Announcements sent out via discord and email.

Capture The Flag

• Repeat event from semester 1.
• Interactive event: Members were asked to bring their laptops to participate in the event.
• The point of the event was to teach members about using the terminal and SSH.
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• We advertised this via Discord announcements and Email.

Movie Night!

• Collaboration with Out in UL.
• Similar to the Halloween Movie Night, movie was decided between Committees.
• We decided to show The Imitation Game.
• Received permission from the office.
• Also brought cookies.
• Event advertised through Discord announcements and emails.
• Venue: Courtyard Room, we used the TV in the room to show the movie.

Alumni Meet && Greet

• A social event right after a EGM
• We invited graduates to come in and meet with our members.
• They gave presentations on what they have done during their time at work, and how life outside UL is like.
• Venue: Courtyard Room, TV came in handy for presenting.
• Advertised by our Discord announcements and emails as per usual.

Fistful of Frags LAN Party

• Lightweight event to prepare for SISTEM on Saturday.
• Chose a free source-based game, Fistful of Frags, to play.
• Members were required to bring laptops.
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• We advertised the event using Discord announcements.

SISTEM

• Student Inter-Society Technology and Enterprise Meetup.
• Yearly event that happens all across Ireland
• This year, we at UL CompSoc were chosen to host it.
• Organized by students for students, largest of its kind.
• It Involved collaboration from multiple universities, all the way from DCU to UCC.
• Included speakers from LERO & Industry, like Google
• Ticket costs 12€ for normal attendees, but only cost 5€ for UL CompSoc members when applying through us.
• Hit the record for most pizzas for any event in UL, 50 pizzas ordered.
• Announcements sent out via email, discord, and through other societies + instagram.
• Venue: KBG15, to accommodate the large number of people attending.
• Refreshments and snacks were also provided.

LAN Party

• Polled members for a game to play, TF2 was chosen.
• Setup a custom TF2 server on Skynet for the event.
• Members were required to bring their laptops with TF2 pre-installed.
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• We advertised the event using Discord announcements and emails.
• We also bought spar chips for the events

Show & Tell

• Members were to show off any project they were proud of to win prizes
• Prizes included:
  • 1st place: Monitor
  • 2nd place: Keyboard
  • 3rd,4th,5th places: Minecraft Accounts
• Venue: Courtyard Room
• We advertised the event using Discord announcements and emails.
• We bought cookies for the event.