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Hosting Events

Event Organisers​

HackerspaceSG welcomes a wide range of events, particularly in the areas of:

  • Hacking1 and Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Interesting/unusual/offbeat thinkers
  • After-parties for events in the above areas held elsewhere

The standard price for events is $256 SGD for a 4-hour block, any time between 9 AM to 12 midnight. Events outside these hours may incur a surcharge. Members may get up to 100% discount off the standard price.

Our main event room can fit around 30 people comfortably in theatre seating format, and up to 50 people maximum.

All events must comply with Singapore law.2

Booking The Space​

To book the space, email [email protected].

Membership Discount​

To enjoy a membership discount, the event must fall within the following guidelines:

  • Be mostly open to the public
  • Be of interest to any of the tech, design, hacker, or maker communities
  • Be not-for-profit
  • For more than 5 people: be outside office hours (After 6PM on weekdays, all day on Saturday/Sunday)
  • Ticket sales at token prices (<$10) to ensure attendance are generally allowed

We aim to apply the full 100% membership discount to most events that fall within our interests and the above guidelines.

If your event is part of, or is sponsored by a large organisation that has an event or marketing budget, we may ask to invoice the organisation to cover our operational costs.

Hosting Member​

Whether you're hosting your own event or someone else's, you're taking on several specific responsibilities:

  • to prepare the space immediately prior to the event
  • to be present throughout the event as host and to take responsibility for the event's non-member attendees as your guests
  • to clean up the space immediately after the event

Please don't shirk these responsibilities. Putting other members in the situation of having to take over as host without notice because you failed to turn up is bad karma. It's probably a very good idea to only ever agree to be host for an event that you actually want to attend.

To host an event:

  • Locate a free spot on the calendar that is at least a week - preferably somewhat more than a week - from now
  • Email the events officers requesting the slot:
    1. Provide a title for the event
    2. Provide a preferred date and time (if any) and intended duration of the event
    3. Provide a description of the event; include links to Facebook/Meetup/etc. event pages if they exist
    4. Confirm your willingness to act as host for the event3 (i.e. take care of the things described below)
    5. Provide your mobile contact number for use during the event4
  • Once the spot is reserved invite your attendees (or where you aren't the organiser, advise the organisers to go ahead)
  • On the day of the event:

    • Preparation:

      • Turn up at least 30 minutes in advance
      • Chock the door ajar
      • Turn on all of the air-conditioners, set to 24°C[^6] with automatic fan, oscillation, etc. 30 minutes should be enough to get the space comfortable without using more extreme settings
      • Arrange furniture as required. Please do this quietly if it's still office hours, in consideration of our neighbours downstairs.

    • Holding the event:

      • Welcome guests as they arrive

      • When you're ready to start, welcome everyone to Hackerspace, explain a little about what we do. If HackerspaceSG is sponsoring the venue, please do invite guests to make use of our drinks supply and make contributions. If you are unclear on what to say, perhaps say something like:

      Welcome to HackerspaceSG!

      We are a not-for-profit, member-funded, community centre and co-working space for the technology and entrepreneurship community in Singapore. We do two major things:

      1. Provide a space for events like this one.

      2. Provide a co-working space.

      HackerspaceSG is the venue sponsor for this event. If you like what we're doing - and particularly if you would like to host events here yourself - we encourage you to consider becoming a member, or making a regular contribution. Details may be found on our website at hackerspace.sg.

      We aren't licensed to sell food and beverages, however we do make our stock of drinks available to visitors and encourage donations; suggested contributions are listed on the tipjars near the fridge.

      • Hold the event!
      • As the event winds up:
        • Return all furniture to its usual location
          • Feed and start the dishwasher per instructions on the pantry cupboard
          • Remain in the space until all non-member attendees have left
          • Empty all of the garbage bins
          • Unchock the door
      • If no members remain:
        • Turn off air-conditioning and lights as you leave

Event Officers​

  • Before adding an event to the calendar, ensure that a specific member has undertaken to host the event:
    • Don't accept event requests from someone other than the hosting member, even if they say "member X said he would host". Not only is it possible that X didn't undertake to host the event, it's also possible that X isn't clear on what's involved.
    • Ensure that the host has understood the responsibilities described above and is willing to carry them out. At the very least, ensure that they're planning to be present throughout the event, plus about a half hour at the beginning and end of the events.
    • Unless you personally are willing to host, advise non-member organisers to find a host and to have the host make the request. You are free to decide to host of course, but please don't accept bookings for events with no host and then asking the mailing list for a volunteer to host.
  • For not-for-profit community events, err on the side of inclusiveness. A large part of HackerspaceSG's approach from the outset has been to be an inclusive as reasonably possible. If an event is even remotely related to the areas listed above, then the request should probably be accepted at the full membership discount, subject to calendar availability.
    • If there are concerns about events that appear to be of questionable legality, discuss it with HackerspaceSG's directors.
    • If there are concerns about an event falling outside the above guidelines, or being potentially objectionable, discuss it on any of our channels (preferably our Telegram group chat) before committing a calendar slot.
    • (Note to event organisers/hosts who are reading along: this does not mean that event officers are obliged to accept your request unless they can convince you that they shouldn't. HackerspaceSG reserves the right to decline event requests without explanation.)
  • If the organisers have not already created a Facebook or Meetup event page for the event, offer to create an event on both the Facebook page, and the Meetup.com group. If they accept, create the event and include the link in the calendar entry.

Footnotes​

  1. "Hacking" meaning ingenuity or playful cleverness, not criminal activity. ↩

  2. "Within the law" should go without saying, but occasionally people are confused about the term "hacker". ↩

  3. This is particularly about what happens if you're late arriving and attendees start turning up. If you're not willing to make this information public then please reconsider being an event host. TODO: Some members may not be comfortable with this; further discussion on making it possible for members in the space to immediately contact an absent/delayed host may be warranted. ↩

  4. You don't want kittens to die, do you? ↩