Choosing attendees

Attendees can apply to your event through the application form. You can see all applications submitted to your event by going to an URL like that: http://djangogirls.org/yourcity/applications/ (remember to replace yourcity with your website address).

There you will see a list of all applications. You can filter them by state or RSVP status, you can see the details of each application and assign them to groups (accepted, rejected, waitlisted) as well as set their RSVP statuses (yes, no, waiting).

Check the application form section to learn how to create a form and use the applications manager on your website.

How to choose attendees?

If you receive a lot of applications you will face a very hard problem: who should you choose? It was very hard for us to decide, but we came up with a way to score applications.

Once you click on one of the applications, you can see that there is also a way to score applications there. All of the organizers can add scores for each application.

Scoring

To ensure that the first score is not influenced by others, each person scores applications without knowing the other people’s scores. After making a first scoring, one can see the other marks.

The order of applications is also not determined - we score in random order, so the probability that one person is scored higher/lower only because she was always on top/bottom of the list is lower.

You can score each application from 1 to 5.

Here is a list of things we took into account when scoring (suggested by Daniele Procida):

• what is the realistic benefit to the applicant?

• what is the realistic benefit to others?

• does the applicant have clear, specific, concrete, realistic ideas about what to do with the knowledge?

• does the applicant have clear, specific, concrete, realistic ideas about how she will share it?

• do I feel the applicant really, really wants this opportunity, or is it just an interesting offer to her?

• what is the overall value for money, if the applicant is asking for funds?

• what is my overall feeling about the application?

As you can see, there were a lot of points we took into account when scoring. It was very, very hard to get in. If the application was not very detailed, the chance of it being accepted was very low. But writing a lot was not a recipe for success. We looked for concrete ideas and commitments in applications.

Look for a diverse group: the more different people are, the more crazy/fun/creative ideas will happen during the event.

The final tip: follow you heart! Choose those who convince you the most, those who need it, those who may want to change their lives and follow this path as a career. The choice is yours, but it’s never easy.

Waiting list

It’s a good idea to create a waiting list. We informed people that they didn’t get in, but they were very close and asked them if they will be interested to join at a short waiting list if a spot will be available. There is always a couple of people who will say that they can’t attend, so this way you can still fill the empty slots.

People resigning

We had a number of people who said they won’t manage to come even though they confirmed their attendance before. The waiting list worked very well in this scenario.

Be prepared to have some last minute (as in, one day before the workshops) cancellations. It’s normal. As long as you have people who can fill in, don’t worry.

To help you keep an up to date list of attendees, you can add declined status to those applicants in your application page (https://djangogirls.org/yourcity/applications/ (replace yourcity with your website address)).