OTRS workshop/Wrap-up

Overall

Overall, the event was a success.

• Attendance was good—13 attendees provided a feedback form, and several more than that were present at the event.
• Those attending the event thought it was a good event, and provided useful feedback.
• It provided a vital learning experience—this was the first time that an event had been run in the spaces available at the WMUK office.
• The event came well under the £2k budget.
• It kick-started a number of discussions amongst existing OTRS users, and also provided a useful introduction for new and inexperienced users.
• The event was communally documented, with the documentation being published on the OTRS wiki.

Feedback forms

Quantitative assessment

Program	Poor (1)	Not useful (2)	Neither (3)	Useful (4)	Very useful (5)	Average	Comments
Welcome			2	8	2	4.00	Unclear who was lead/structuring session Was focussed Entry to building less than ideal Sorry missed Everything was covered
Saturday AM				5	6	4.55	Interesting Informative
Saturday PM			2	5	5	4.25	Slightly too much "governance" and not quite enough practical discussion Great Night Learnt a lot about OTRS Derailed by discussion of governance/recruitment
Sunday AM			1	7	3	4.18	A little unstructured Didn't go according to plan Interesting A little hard start
Sunday PM			1	4	6	4.45	A bit random, not as useful as earlier entertaining, bit tired Outreach & Discussion of BLPs was interesting Surprisingly useful breakout
Facilities	Terrible (1)	Poor (2)	Neutral (3)	Good (4)	Excellent (5)	Average	Comments
Location				5	8	4.62	sufficientaly spacious (table was maxed out) nice facilities sofa and talking places :-)
Meeting rooms			1	4	8	4.54	sufficientaly spacious (table was maxed out) should have had flipchats & pens available projectors in secondary rooms?
Lunch Saturday			2	4	6	4.33	Loved the samosas No complaints ok Esp. the veggie samosas Excellent taste, not too heavy
Lunch Sunday				8	5	4.38	No complaints ok
Wifi	1		1	3	8	4.31	Better than Gdansk, at least ;) Slightly patchy Cables in main room didn’t work on house computer occasionally flaky?

General comments

• Great event. Thank you!
• Dinner on Saturday was fab
• Need to be sure there are practical outcomes. Maybe working & party/IRC session on templates as an example.
• I came with very little knowledge of OTRS. I feel I have learned a great deal from attending the sessions. Thank you for setting it up. :-)
• Some air conditioning perhaps?
• Generally a good weekend and it was good to visit wikimedia uk hq
• Still trying to get on OTRS
• Too small a group for the range of skills involved an otrs experts workshop and an otrs newbies training can be an awkward hybrid
• Requiring a mobile to enter the buuilding is slightly problematic for luddites. Telepathy and I'm are effective subsititues but I suggest on future events tell people to bring a mobile so you can get into the building
• Thoroughly enjoyable workshop with lots of fascinating discussions. Rapid reimbursement of expenses was a welcome change! I would say that if sandwiches are going to be provided, it might be cheaper to nip to a supermarket instead of ordering in!
• I am missing question on the contents which could help to prepare a second OTRS meeting like "what were your expectations", "what was missing"?

Conclusions

• Neither lunch was particularly preferred (but variety was good?). Should test using a local supermarket instead in the future (Sainsbury's, just down the road, sells a variety of sandwiches - but has been tested, and found to be lacking variety and freshness of food.)
• Access to the meeting rooms at the WMUK office needs to be improved. We're now aware that an intercom system is available, but have yet to test this.
• Rapid reimbursement is good. We should keep this up.
• Need to scope out/schedule discussions at events more in advance of them taking place, in order to better plan the order of the day.

Hotel

We used the Tavistock Hotel for this event. This was reasonably priced for a London hotel (£69/night), but was 3 tube stops away from the venue. We booked 6 rooms in total, at relative short notice (booked on Monday for Saturday eve).

Feedback

• Location
  • Well located for travel from Euston station. Could have done with being closer to the venue though.
  • Easy walking distance from Euston station and in the same fare zone as the venue, but ideally something closer (within walking distance of the venue) would have been nice.
  • very good
  • ++ easy to find, easy to go to the office, not too far away
• Environment
  • Good.
  • fine. bar was reasonably priced! Though they didn't have any good single malts.
  • very good
  • ++ nice. short way to the tube and stores. starbucks just across the road.
• Courtesy/communication
  • Good.
  • very good
  • little interaction so can't say
  • ++ nothing to complain
• Room
  • Better than cheaper accommodation; on par with more expensive accommodation (such as Travelodge). Shower was surprisingly good.
  • Meh. Twin room wasn't great, a proper shower instead of one attached to a bath would have been better. Would have been nice to have had more than just a bar of soap (like the complimentary toiletries most places provide). Bed wasn't particularly comfortable, but it was a bed for the night. I wouldn't be surprised if something of the same quality could be found for less money or something of better quality for a comparable rate, but probably not in zone 1.
  • really great shower (loads of pressure, got hot instantly), beds fine, facilities good for price. But no air conditioning and very noisy - I'd advise against using it if it's hot
  • 0 could have been cleaner (hairs in the bath tube), furniture (especially the doors) show signs of usage, no wifi in the room, no hair dryer, but all in all it was ok
• Breakfast
  • Great.
  • Excellent.
  • so-so (cold toast and only white bread was my main gripe)
  • + ok (nothing to complain, nothing to cheer)

Conclusions

• The hotel we used was good, and was good value.
• A closer hotel would have been better.
• Some problems were encountered as a result of traveling between the hotel and the venue. This was solved by impromptu purchases of an Oyster card and a day travel card. Would have been better if we'd had a standard way of dealing with underground travel (such as WMUK-paid oyster cards, or pre-purchased day travel tickets).

Budget

Description	Budgeted	Amount spent
Travel	£287.50	£314.90
Accommodation	£414	£414
Catering	£155	£206.77
Evening meal	£300	£262.25
Sum	£1156.50	£1197.92

We came ever so slightly over the amount budgeted for individual items, but well below the amount allocated for the event overall (which was £2k).

Event facilities

These were generally good (as per the quantitative results), but a number of improvements to the event facilities were identified during the event:

• Longer VGA cables
• Pepsi Max in addition to fruit juice + tea/coffee + water!
• Tissues to hand for spillages (tea-towel now provided for excessive leakages)
• Have more biscuits/snacks in stock (original batch was all eaten on the first day)
• Have whiteboard markers and eraser available, paper for pads
• Need projectors in breakout rooms
• Laptops for loaning out to volunteers as needed