Once you have established a steering committee, meet with them to decide when and where the web fair will be. You also need to confirm the date with the location that will host your web fair. Here are some things to consider:

Spring is a busy time for everybody and for organizations in general In addition, good weather during these months usually lures people outdoors and away from indoor activities. In order to maximize participation, you may want to avoid May/June scheduling. February or March may be an optimal time to grab people's attention.

In terms of the organizational calendar of neighborhood organizations, you may want to consider a fall date. Neighborhoods who may have "taken the summer off" are ready with new officers to begin a year of programming. Staff at not-for-profit agencies will be back from their summer vacations. Something like a web fair might be just the kind of activity these people are looking for to get themselves started.

The location you choose should have enough Internet-connected computers for everyone. This means you will have to estimate how many people will attend. You will also need to decide who will be available to teach the classes (if you plan to hold them), and determine where you will need volunteers.

Consider the computer labs in your community. Ideally your steering committee will be able to help you with this process. Public access sites and community colleges are great places to start. Brainstorm with staff members all of the possible locations and the pros and cons of each. Some things to look for include:

• Availability
• Geographic location
• Parking
• Number of computers
• Number of labs
• Ability to scan and print photographs
• Arrangement of the computers (avoid labs with computers facing outwards)

With the list of possible sites in hand, consider the number of people/organizations that you wish to attend. Keep in mind the number of staff and/or volunteers your organization has. If you have access to three labs with ten computers each, but only one person member qualified to teach HTML, you will need to recruit two additional instructors or limit the number of participants to ten.

Determining the number of participants is a compromise between lab space and staffing. Once you have determined your event capacity, plan to invite a minimum of five times the number that you can serve. If a web fair is a new concept in your community, you should consider holding informational meetings with your target groups to build an understanding of the web fair process, and to engage your community in the process. This can involve meetings at local institutions such as schools or libraries, or it can involve attending neighborhood meetings or meeting with staff of not-for-profit agencies. At these meetings, you can provide a basic introduction to the internet, demonstrate the process of building a web page, and explain what resources are available to assist neighborhoods and agencies in putting content on-line.

Use your steering committee to look for sponsors of the event. These can be businesses that donate money, door prizes, or whose employees volunteer at the event. If they donate money, that will reduce or eliminate the amount you have to charge. Also, people always love getting free stuff--this is a good opportunity for local businesses to advertise and build good will in the community.

Schedule and Flow Chart:

Note: these documents are in Microsoft Word format.

• Schedule of meetings from 1997 St. Louis CIN neighborhood web fair (in Microsoft Word format)
• Flow chart of what a web fair could look like (in Microsoft Word format)