dev-event-kickoff — Claude Code skill: event kickoff router

---
name: dev-event-kickoff
description: Before answering any event-organizing request that opens a new project or a new session, run this router first - it maps the task onto the 72-skill samber/dev-event-organizer-skills collection, or says plainly that none fits, and bootstraps or resumes the project's shared context so the next session starts warm. This fires on a conversational state, not on a subject - invoke it at every event project start even when the collection's skills are already in daily use on another event, at every recurring check-in on the same project, and whenever routing between siblings is unclear. Covers conference, meetup and hackathon kickoffs, "which event skill do I need", "where do I start organizing this event", event organizer skill routing, and recurring event check-ins. Use this whenever someone describes an event-organizing problem without naming a skill, even if they never say "kickoff", "routing" or "start".
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Samuel Berthe
  version: "1.0.7"
---

# Dev Event Kickoff

You are the entry point and router for the 72-skill dev-event-organizer-skills collection. Route the current task to exactly one sibling skill, or say plainly that none fits, and make the next session start warm instead of cold. Routing is the reason this skill exists; everything else serves it.

The collection is too large for its own members to see each other. An organizer inside `event-sponsor-pricing` cannot know the number it needs came from `event-budget`, or discover `event-b2b-matchmaking` at all. Solving that discovery problem is the whole job.

Run this skill at every project start, even when the collection is already in daily use on another event: a new event is a new context. On later sessions of the same project, re-run to resummarize and re-route, never to re-interview.

## 1. Detect before asking

Every fact you derive from the environment is a question the user never has to answer. Run detection first; the interview cap only survives if it does.

**Memory: Use the harness's built-in memory mechanism; separate task info in different sections, remove finished tasks, add dates to tasks, and note that interview responses may differ between tasks.**

1. Decide cold versus warm start from one signal only: does the context artifact `event-context.md` exist in the project? Present → warm start. Absent → cold start. Never ask the user which one it is.
2. If you can read the project's git history, read the recent log to infer stage and pace: what changed last, whether event work stalled, how close the last commit sits to a dated milestone.
3. Inventory existing files - README, agent-instruction files, a budget spreadsheet, a submissions export, a rate card, a schedule grid, a venue contract, a risk register. A committed rate card fixes the sponsorship state; a published grid fixes the format and the date at once.
4. If your harness exposes connectors - a git host, a calendar, a mailing or ticketing source, an analytics source, a document store - detect which exist and let them shape routing and routines. Describe the capability; never assume a specific product.
5. If the collection ships readable version metadata, note what changed since the last session; otherwise degrade silently. Never block or ask about versions.

## 2. Interview - capped, tappable

On a cold start, ask at most 5-7 questions, one question per message, and offer multiple-choice options whenever possible. Spend questions only where detection came up empty; skip whatever the file inventory or git log already answered. **Use an interactive question mechanism (e.g. AskUserQuestion, askuser, Jev, or whatever decision/question tool the harness provides) rather than printing questions as plain text — a text-only prompt forces the user to reply in free form and loses the structured choice. Do not tie this recommendation to any model or harness; name the mechanism generically.**

1. **Which block is this session in?** - (a) the event does not exist yet, or you are deciding whether to run it, (b) decided and being planned, (c) doors open within weeks, or you are on site, (d) it has finished, (e) planning edition N of something that already ran. This is the fork: it selects which routing blocks in § 3 are live, and every later question narrows inside it.
2. **Is the format fixed - shape, track count, delivery mode - and where is that written?** - (a) nothing fixed, (b) shape fixed, the rest open, (c) fully fixed: name the shape, the track count and in-person / virtual / hybrid. Answers (a) and (b) mean the format gate cannot be applied yet.
3. **One-off or edition N, and how many properties does the team run?** - (a) first edition of something new, (b) one-off, not meant to recur, (c) edition 2 or later, (d) more than one property, or weighing whether to add one. Sets the lifecycle gate; (d) also opens the portfolio gate, whatever edition the flagship is on.
4. **Who funds it and who organizes it?** - (a) volunteer community organizers, (b) a company funding and owning its own event, (c) a foundation or non-profit, (d) mixed. Sets the company gate and shapes how much of the budget sponsorship carries.
5. **What is the goal of this session - and is it the same as the project's goal?** Ask on both cold and warm starts; a project goal never substitutes for today's goal.
6. **Is there a date the result has to land by?** - (a) doors open on a fixed date, (b) a CFP, on-sale or announcement deadline, (c) a sponsor budget window that closes, (d) no date. Give the date in cases (a) to (c).
7. **One-off outcome or a standing system - and what is your effort ceiling?** - (a) one-off, hours only, (b) one-off, a week of work is fine, (c) standing, a few hours weekly, (d) standing, with paid staff or a funded budget.

Questions 6 and 7 exist to order the output, not to describe the project: the landing date, the one-off-versus-standing answer, and the effort ceiling re-rank the short-list (§ 4) and the routines (§ 7). Ask them here, never beside a ranking - by then the user has already committed to a path. Record all three in the artifact so the warm start re-ranks without re-asking.

On a warm start, ask only question 5. Everything else - including the gates and the two ranking inputs - comes from the artifact.

## 3. Route the task

Match the stated session goal against the declared scope of each skill below. Route to exactly one skill for the immediate task. Never force a match: when nothing fits, say so and name the gap.

These tables are deliberately unranked, and must stay that way. Scope is a match test, not a ratio: a task either falls inside a skill's declared scope or it does not, so ordering the rows would invent a preference between skills that never compete. Ranking belongs one step later, in the short-list (§ 4).

Rows follow the decision sequence an organizer moves through, because that is the order questions arrive in. Question 1's answer selects which blocks are live: (a) opens A-B, (b) opens B-I, (c) opens J-K, (d) opens L, (e) opens M plus whichever of A-K the next edition reopens.

**Gate column.** A gate names the condition under which a row is reachable at all:

- `hackathon`, `virtual`, `hybrid`, `in-room`, `conference`, `workshop` - from the format decision (Q2).
- `first`, `recurring`, `properties` - from the lifecycle answer (Q3); `company` - from the funding answer (Q4).

A blank gate means the row is always reachable. One exception crosses a gate: when a `startup-pitch-contest` award is equity-free cash, route its payout eligibility, tax and payment routing to `hackathon-cash-prize` whatever the format. Full matrices, including what to do when Q2 came back unfixed, are in [`references/format-and-lifecycle-gates.md`](./references/format-and-lifecycle-gates.md).

### A. Does this event exist, and what is it?

| Skill                                                        | Route here when the task is…                             | Gate       |
| ------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-market-fit`         | Whether concept, audience and price meet real demand     |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-positioning`        | What it stands for, for whom, against which alternatives |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-cultural-identity`  | The register, and its expression at every touchpoint     |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-first-edition`      | Scoping and launching edition one from zero              | first      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@corporate-event-strategy` | What the company is funding this event to accomplish     | company    |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-portfolio-strategy` | Several properties shaped into a set that feeds itself   | properties |

### B. What shape does it take?

| Skill                                                                | Route here when the task is…                             | Gate     |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-format-selection`           | Shape, track count, session mix, delivery mode           |          |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@business-event-formats`           | Which company-run shape: dinner, summit, roadshow, floor | company  |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@workshop-program-design`          | How a hands-on session or lab actually runs              | workshop |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-learning-expedition-design` | Taking the audience into a host's own premises           |          |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@hybrid-event-design`              | Serving a room and a remote audience at once             | hybrid   |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@virtual-event-production`         | Delivering an event that has no room at all              | virtual  |

### C. When and where

| Skill                                                         | Route here when the task is…                                        | Gate    |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-date-selection`      | Picking the date every other plan hangs off                         |         |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-planning-timeline`   | The work-back plan from doors-open, track by track                  |         |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-venue-sourcing`      | Finding, visiting and negotiating the room                          | in-room |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-vendor-sourcing`     | Suppliers the venue does not include                                |         |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-sustainability-plan` | Footprint estimate, reduction levers, an honest sustainability page |         |

### D. Who runs it, under what rules

| Skill                                                          | Route here when the task is…                          | Gate      |
| -------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | --------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-code-of-conduct`      | The policy and the enforcement pipeline behind it     |           |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-risk-management`      | Risk register, insurance stack, go/no-go dates        |           |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-volunteers`           | Recruiting, rostering and briefing day-of volunteers  |           |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-volunteer-experience` | Volunteer care off-shift, thanks, the alumni list     |           |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-team-structure`       | The standing team and its governance between editions | recurring |

### E. Money in - budget and tickets

| Skill                                                    | Route here when the task is…                                | Gate |
| -------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ---- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-budget`         | Cost lines, revenue mix, break-even, contingency, cash flow |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-ticket-pricing` | The ticket ladder, access rungs, refund and transfer policy |      |

### F. Money in - sponsorship

| Skill                                                               | Route here when the task is…                           | Gate |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ---- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-sponsor-value-proposition` | What each sponsor segment genuinely buys, and why      |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-sponsor-pricing`           | The rate card, its tier ladder and its discount policy |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-sponsor-prospectus`        | The published packages document sponsors read          |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-sponsor-outreach`          | Net-new target list through to a signed yes            |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-sponsor-agreement`         | The term sheet counsel reviews before signature        |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-sponsor-fulfillment`       | Delivering what was signed, then the post-event report |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-sponsor-renewal`           | Renewal ask, offers, price changes, at-risk sponsors   |      |

### G. Programme - the talks lane

| Skill                                                           | Route here when the task is…                                               | Gate |
| --------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-cfp-design`            | Writing and timing the published call for papers                           |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-talk-selection`        | Reviewing and choosing what the call brought in                            |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-speaker-sourcing`      | Finding and qualifying speakers outside the call                           |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-speaker-cold-outreach` | The invitation to a speaker already shortlisted                            |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-speaker-experience`    | From acceptance through to the post-talk thank-you                         |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-speaker-coaching`      | Coaching accepted speakers: dry runs, talk and slide feedback, nerves, Q&A |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-schedule-design`       | Laying selected sessions into a published grid                             |      |

### H. Programme - the competition lane

| Skill                                                        | Route here when the task is…                                   | Gate      |
| ------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- | --------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@hackathon-brief-design`   | The challenge document and rules teams build against           | hackathon |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@hackathon-team-formation` | How participants end up on teams, and when it freezes          | hackathon |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@hackathon-mentoring`      | Mentor coverage and how a stuck team reaches help              | hackathon |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@hackathon-judging`        | The rubric, judge allocation and the scoring process           | hackathon |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@hackathon-cash-prize`     | What is awarded, and who may lawfully receive it               | hackathon |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@startup-pitch-contest`    | A pitch contest or demo day for companies that already existed |           |

### I. Fill the room

| Skill                                                              | Route here when the task is…                        | Gate       |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------- | ---------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-marketing-plan`           | Segments, channels, campaign calendar, budget split |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-landing-page`             | The public front door and its date-gated CTA states |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-social-media`             | The event's own channels, inside the plan's weight  |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-attendee-email-sequences` | The dated email arc, its cadence and its copy       |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-media-partnerships`       | Barter visibility deals with media and communities  |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@cross-event-promotion`          | Reciprocal swaps with other organizers' events      |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-press-relations`          | Earned coverage, accreditation, the press room      | conference |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-no-show-management`       | Overbooking, waitlist, walk-ins, the real headcount |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-registration-forecast`    | Projected registrations, lock-date headcounts       |            |

### J. Care on site, by population

| Skill                                                             | Route here when the task is…                                          | Gate       |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-attendee-experience`     | Check-in, badges, wayfinding, help, first-timers                      | in-room    |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-accessibility-inclusion` | Which access provisions the event commits to, and how requests arrive |            |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-hospitality`             | Catering, breaks, alcohol posture, whether an evening exists          | in-room    |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-booth-experience`        | Expo floor layout, tier specs, load-in schedule                       | conference |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-b2b-matchmaking`         | Structured 1:1 business meetings inside the grid                      | conference |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-vip-management`          | Named guests creating escort or protocol obligations                  | conference |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-official-social-program` | How many official social slots, and their inclusion floor             | conference |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-vip-social-program`      | The private gathering beside the public programme                     | conference |

### K. The day itself

| Skill                                                             | Route here when the task is…                          | Gate    |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-run-of-show`             | The minute-by-minute playbook staff execute from      |         |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-production`              | Capture tier, signal path, AV crew, redundancy        | in-room |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-comms-channels`          | Which attendee channel carries which class of message |         |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-side-event-coordination` | Approving third-party satellites around your dates    |         |

### L. After the doors close

| Skill                                                            | Route here when the task is…                        | Gate      |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | --------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-feedback`               | What participants are asked, through what, and when |           |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-debrief`                | The organizing team's own blameless retrospective   |           |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-content-repurposing`    | Turning captured material into published artifacts  |           |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-continuous-improvement` | Trends across several editions' debrief logs        | recurring |

### M. Between editions

| Skill                                                            | Route here when the task is…                           | Gate      |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | --------- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-community-building`     | The event's own audience in the gaps between editions  | recurring |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@event-growth-strategy`        | Grow edition over edition, or deliberately not         | recurring |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@tech-podcast-youtube-channel` | A standing show or channel as a cross-edition property | recurring |

### Meta

| Skill                                                 | Route here when the task is…                                                      | Gate |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---- |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@dev-event-career`  | Candidate side - breaking into event organizing, interview prep, offer evaluation |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@dev-event-hiring`  | Employer side - job posting and scorecard, interview loop, sourcing, compensation |      |
| `samber/dev-event-organizer-skills@dev-event-kickoff` | This skill: project start, check-in, "which skill do I need", re-routing          |      |

**Three rows are deliberately narrow and are leaf routes, never starting points.** `event-learning-expedition-design` defers catering to `event-hospitality` and multi-venue logistics to `event-production`; `event-official-social-program` defers a single occasion's food, drink and format to `event-hospitality`; `event-vip-social-program` defers whether a guest qualifies at all to `event-vip-management`. Route to them only when the task is exactly the sliver they keep; presenting one as load-bearing misleads worse than leaving it out.

**Read the format decision; never re-decide it.** `event-format-selection` owns the shape, the track count and the delivery mode. When Q2 came back (a) or (b), route there and stop: every gated row stays unreachable until it returns. When it came back (c), carry the answer as the gate column and never revisit it. `hybrid-event-design` and `virtual-event-production` sit downstream of that decision and never make it.

Disambiguate strictly from each skill's declared scope - never from a guess about what a skill "probably" covers. Read [`references/skill-routing.md`](./references/skill-routing.md) for the boundary pairs and the ordered chains before routing any task that could plausibly match two skills.

Before naming a gap, check whether the task belongs to a sibling `samber` collection:

- Developer content, docs, open-source strategy or an always-online community → `samber/developer-relations-skills`.
- A recurring webinar series, office hours or a developer survey run as a DevRel program, not as one event → `samber/developer-relations-skills@devrel-webinar-program`, `samber/developer-relations-skills@developer-office-hours-program` or `samber/developer-relations-skills@developer-survey-design`.
- Moving attendees, registrants or badge scans into a standing developer newsletter, or growing that newsletter's list from talks and booths → `samber/developer-relations-skills@devrel-newsletter-growth`.
- Event email that lands in spam, bounces or gets rejected → `samber/developer-relations-skills@devrel-newsletter-deliverability`.
- A public API, SDK, webhook or app-marketplace question → `samber/developer-platform-skills`.

Frame any of these as a recommendation, never a dependency - this collection stays usable standalone.

## 4. Output shape

Deliver the routing result in this shape, every time:

1. **State summary** (warm start only) - exactly 5 lines from the artifact: event identity and format, the date and where it sits, in-flight work, top open decision, active constraint.
2. **Route** - the one skill for the immediate task (or "no skill fits", plus the named gap).
3. **Short-list** - 5 to 8 skills relevant right now, ordered by value returned per unit of effort, highest ratio first. Give each entry one line naming both sides: the bottleneck it attacks, and what the session costs. Never order by cheapness, never by the routing table's row order.
4. **Chain** - when the task genuinely decomposes, list the sequence in execution order, one line per link on what it hands the next. Chain order is dependency order, not efficiency order. Omit the chain when there is not one; never fabricate a sequence.
5. **Not now** - skills that will matter later, each with its explicit unblocking condition (for example, "`event-schedule-design` - after `event-talk-selection` returns an accepted list").
6. **Gap** - anything today's task needs that no skill covers. When the gap is DevRel practice or platform surfaces, recommend the matching sibling repo instead of a bare gap statement.

### Ordering the short-list

The user's question is never "which of these exists" but "which one do I run first, and is it worth the session", and only a ratio answers that. The nine classes below, and the four axis orderings under them, are this skill's own construction, not a published taxonomy. Default class order, highest value per unit of effort first:

1. **Existence check** - `event-market-fit`, `event-positioning`, `corporate-event-strategy`, `event-cultural-identity`, `event-first-edition`. Buys the verdict on whether this event should run and what it is, which can delete every class below it. Costs sessions spent reading signals that already exist; nothing booked, published or signed.
2. **The spine** - `event-format-selection`, `event-date-selection`, `event-planning-timeline`, plus the shape skills downstream of them (`business-event-formats`, `workshop-program-design`, `event-learning-expedition-design`, `hybrid-event-design`, `virtual-event-production`). Buys the three decisions every other class then works inside. Costs a session each plus a calendar scan; an announced date is reversible only at a public cost.
3. **Fill the room** - `event-marketing-plan`, `event-landing-page`, `event-social-media`, `event-attendee-email-sequences`, `event-no-show-management`, `event-registration-forecast`, `event-press-relations`, `event-media-partnerships`, `cross-event-promotion`. Buys registrations, the input every other class assumes. Costs a campaign from announcement to doors, plus the list consent you then owe.
4. **Money model** - `event-budget`, `event-ticket-pricing`. Buys break-even as a number with a date instead of a hope. Costs a modelling session; a published refund policy binds once tickets sell.
5. **Programme intake** - the talks lane (`event-cfp-design`, `event-talk-selection`, `event-speaker-sourcing`, `event-speaker-cold-outreach`, `event-speaker-experience`, `event-speaker-coaching`, `event-schedule-design`) and the competition lane (`hackathon-brief-design`, `hackathon-team-formation`, `hackathon-mentoring`, `hackathon-judging`, `hackathon-cash-prize`, `startup-pitch-contest`). Buys the content people came for. Costs an incompressible call window, a review committee, per-speaker logistics, and per-person consent.
6. **Place and duty of care** - `event-venue-sourcing`, `event-vendor-sourcing`, `event-sustainability-plan`, `event-code-of-conduct`, `event-risk-management`, `event-accessibility-inclusion`, `event-volunteers`, `event-volunteer-experience`, `event-team-structure`. Buys a room that holds the format, and commitments that survive an incident. Costs site visits, negotiation and a rehearsed response team, each reversible only on someone else's terms.
7. **On-the-day operations** - `event-run-of-show`, `event-production`, `event-comms-channels`, `event-attendee-experience`, `event-hospitality`, `event-side-event-coordination`, `event-booth-experience`, `event-b2b-matchmaking`, `event-vip-management`, `event-vip-social-program`, `event-official-social-program`. Buys the day the promise already sold gets redeemed. Costs crew, rosters and a physical build, compressed into days that cannot slip.
8. **Sponsorship sale** - `event-sponsor-value-proposition`, `event-sponsor-pricing`, `event-sponsor-prospectus`, `event-sponsor-outreach`, `event-sponsor-agreement`, `event-sponsor-fulfillment`, `event-sponsor-renewal`. Buys the revenue line tickets rarely cover. Costs the most of any class: a months-long motion on a counterparty's calendar, counsel on the term sheet, and obligations owed until the event is ove...