BikeBike 2013 Organizing

In 2013 I was a part of the core organizing team for BikeBike, an international conference for community bike projects. Every year, a different North American city steps up to host this international conference of hundreds of transit activists from around the world. As a member of the board of directors for the New Orleans Community Bike Project, I was honored to participate in the organizing effort for such a huge event.

Images by Brian O'Doherty and Michael Providenti

My responsibilities during the conference organizing included:

• Find ~100 local residents who were willing to host conference attendees in their homes for up to four days
• Assess surveys filled out by hosts and guests and identify good matches as well as potential conflicts to ensure safe spaces for all guests
• Connect guests with hosts and moderate race, gender and interpersonal issues as they occur in real-time
• Building and managing a fleet of >100 loaner bikes for conference guests

Tools Used:

• Google Forms
• Microsoft Excel
• Email Listserve
• Blameless Post-Mortems

Skills Developed:

• Interpersonal Management
• Clear Communication
• Social Issue Awareness
• Bicycle Mechanics
• Conflict Resolution

Bike!Bike! is an international, annual gathering organized by and for community bicycle projects. The conference is a space for participants from shops and related advocacy groups to converge in a different city each year over a 4 day period to have workshops and strengthen our social network.

- bikebike.org

One afternoon worth of workshops that were held at BikeBike 2013