Erico Andrei: Create Your Next Conference Site With Plone

The website for PyCon Brasil in 2006-2010. This used a package called Products.PyConBrasil, developed by Dorneles Tremea, Jean Ferri, Erico Andrei. Archetypes based. We had registration forms (you don't need Google Forms for that, come on), call for papers, certificates. 7 content types, workflows. We would improve this year after year for the next conference. Simples Consultoria would come up with a new theme.

PythonBrasil 2011 plus Plone Symposium South America. I had separate packages for each part. Dexterity based. Support for multiple conference editions.

PloneConf 2013. Problem: multilingual, Plone people from all over the world do not all speak Portuguese. Dexterity based, and with Grok.

Plone Conf 2020-2023. Copy-paste-rinse-repeat. Covid happened, so we needed an online conference. Every conference: a repo on github.com/plone. Classic then, later upgraded to Volto. Features: Speaker, Talk, Training, Keynote, Sponsor. In 2022: a schedule block (created by Affinitic). Talk submission: via Google Forms. Registration with TiTo (2022, 2023).

PloneConf 2024: copy-paste plus crazy ideas. Registrations with Eventbrite. Call for Proposals: with Pretalx. So some new blocks needed. Change some colors in the theme. But we wanted Volto Light Theme. Last minute "requirements": online experience, "My schedule", training registrations and certificates, attendee check-in.

I got personally involved with 3 distinct conferences this year. Easy, right, because I got all this experience just a few months before. Copy the Plone Conference code, change some colors, put it live, in uder two hours. It worked! March: copy-paste for Plone conference here. Also fine. But then Python Cerrado conference: this had some more challenges. More frontend and backend add-ons needed. How can I find time and energy to do anything on my own? But: okay, just do it. In 4 days from cookieplone to collective.techevent reality.

So: no longer copy-paste, but use this add-on as base. Not from scratch.

• Code: https://github.com/collective/tech-event, which is a mono repo.
• Backend: collective.techevent (Plone add-on) provides content types, behaviors, and REST endpoints (e.g., /@schedule, /@sponsors).
• Frontend: @plone-collective/volto-techevent (Volto add-on) provides the UI: views, blocks, schedule, sponsors, listings, etc.

Asko Soukka is the main driving force behind tech-event: working-copy support, performance fixes, revamped schedule block to be able to handle even six parallel talks.

Wish list:

• Registration:
  • I want an Attendee content type with Membrane.
  • Check-in
  • Integration with Presenter profile
• CfP (workflow and permissions)
• "My schedule" / bookmark / calender export
• "Smart" talk materials listing, embedding
• Training life cycle: registration, certificates

How to do: create new project with cookieplone, add kitconcept.voltolighttheme and collective.techevent to backend, some to frontend.

Other events would benefit: World Plone Day, Plone Tagung.

I am releasing collective-techevent 1.0.0b1 right now in this presentation.