loading . . . IndieWebClub Bangalore: Special Edition Meetup, Behind the Scenes It all started with a question about cake. IndieWebClub Bangalore had its one-year anniversary on 24 May 2026. After the meetup on 2nd May, I asked Ankur and Tanvi if we could get some cake to celebrate the anniversary. We agreed to it, but a bigger idea took roots in my mind.
## Conception#
On 5th May, I posted in the IWCB admins group chat:
> I was wondering if we could do a special meetup on 30th with no agenda and a little anniversary celebration.
>
> Or we could do a small unconference in underline, inviting 10 min talks from the attendees for first few hours and then go somewhere for a cake.
After some back-and-forth, Tanvi and Ankur liked the idea, and thus started the planning for the Special Edition meetup, where we would invite the folks from the IWCB community to present their talks, demos and ideas on the stage in front of the community.
## Brainstorming#
Within a day, we discussed and decided the important aspects of the event:
* Event date: 30th May 2006
* Event venue: Underline Center, Bengaluru
* Attendees count: 40
* Ticket price: ₹399
* Talk format: 8 minute lightening talks
* Talk count: 15
* Talk topic guidelines
I started drafting a call for proposal (CFP).
## Call for Proposal#
On 7th May, we went over the CFP draft, finalized it and posted it in the IWCB group chat. We created a form for people to submit talk abstracts, and linked it from the CFP.
> To celebrate the one-year anniversary of IndieWebClub Bangalore, we’re doing something special this month. We’re organizing a Special Edition meetup where we invite you, the community, to present, demo, and showcase lightning talks!
>
> Timing: Saturday, May 30th 2026, 2–5 PM
> Address: Underline Center, 1st Main Rd, Indiranagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
>
> Talks will be limited to 8 minutes, 15 talks in total. Feel free to submit as many talks as you have ideas, and we’ll work together to pick something exciting.
>
> We would especially love to hear from you if you’re a non-technical user of the IndieWeb. We would also love to hear from you if you’re part of a marginalized community, a student, or if you haven’t spoken at a conference or meetup before.
>
> This CFP will be open until midnight, 16 May 2026. If your talk is selected, we will get in touch with you and ask you to do a pre-meetup rehearsal with us over a video call. We do this to make sure talks meet our community standards and our speakers are ready to present on the day of the meetup.
>
> We’ll announce selected talks on a rolling basis, with a final schedule released by 22 May.
>
> Please submit your talk ideas at [redacted form link].
Special Edition Meetup CFP posted in the IWCB group chat
We decided to do rolling reviews, reviewing proposals as they came in, instead of waiting for the CFP deadline to pass. We created a list of people in the community to reach out to, asking them to submit CFPs.
## Publicization#
On 8th May, Azan created a web page for the event, which we put on our website. The event was now public, and it was time to publicize. We posted about it in the community group chat, and asked people to share it with their friends. A couple of folks wrote about it in their blogs too. We posted about it in various other communities we organizers are part of, as well as on Mastodon. Since there were limited number of seats, we decided to rely on word of mouth publicity.
## Invites#
By 12th May, we had five proposals. We decided to reach out to folks directly, requesting and encouraging them to submit talks. We extended the CFP by one day, and by the end of 17th May we had 22 proposals.
## Shortlisting#
Ankur, Tanvi and I went over the proposals over video calls over the next few days. After 5 hours of deliberation, we shortlisted 11 talks. We decided to cut the number of talks from earlier decided 15 to 12 (one by Ankur) to have some slack between, and some extra time at the end for socialization.
We notified all submitters about the result of their proposals, and let the speakers know the guidelines for the next step, the rehearsals.
## Video Call Rehearsals#
After finalizing the list of speakers, we reached out to all of them, and scheduled rehearsals with them over video call. At least two of us organizers attended each rehearsal that took place between 21st–27th May. The speakers presented as they would on the stage, and we provided them feedback along these five axes:
* Slides/Demo
* Presentation
* Style
* Content
* Timing
This took around 10 hours of our time over the week. We asked the speakers to incorporate our feedback and send us a recording of their updated talks.
## Scheduling#
Meanwhile, we created the schedule for the event day, and published it on our website on 24th May. We took care to mix technical and non-technical talks such that it doesn’t get too boring for any kind of audience, while making sure that there is kind of a smooth flow in the topics.
## Video Rehearsals#
After all video call rehearsals were completed, the speakers sent their recorded rehearsals over email. We went through the videos asynchronously, and provided another round of feedback to speakers if required. This went on till the day before the event.
## Logistics#
Alongside this whole CFP review and rehearsal process, we had to arrange for many logistics:
* Stickers and poster to be designed and printed.
* Finding volunteers for the day of event.
* Ordering the cake.
* Arranging the setup and equipment for the video recording of the talks.
* Finding a photographer for taking photos on the day of event.
* Arranging food and beverages for the event day.
Poster and stickers for the event
Sagrika designed the stickers and Santrupti designed the poster. Karthik helped print the stickers and posters, ordered the cake, and arranged the AV equipment. Sneha took the photos, and Mohit managed the video camera. Saachi worked the reception. I’m very thankful to all our volunteers.
## Tech Run#
On the day of the event, all speakers and volunteers arrived early at the venue couple of hours before the real thing started. We did a technical dry run to make sure everyone knew how to do their presentations, handle the microphone, and pose for the recording.
This is where we go from behind the scenes to on-scene, and Tanvi will write a post about it soon.
Photos from the meetup. By Santrupti (left), and Rasagy (right).
I had a lot of fun and a lot of anxiety running this mini-conference. It was chaotic at times, but somehow we figured it all out, and it went really well. Above all, I thank the community for coming together and making this event a wonderful success.
Cake was had at the end. Photo by Suhas.
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