What are some good tips for people who wants to start a workshop from scratch? I, and a group of my colleagues want to start a workshop which covers a topic which generally draws interest but usually categorized as &quot;other topics&quot; in well-known workshops.
We want to start a workshop for such a topic. We are well aware that initial impression of an organization is very important. Thus, we want to avoid some blatant blunders.
What are the best practices for a group of 4-5 people who intend to start a workshop? What kind of advice &quot;save lives&quot; in this context?
In Computer Science, many successful workshops are attached to major conferences, taking place on the days around the main conference. So (1) attend those workshops and see how they run, what you like or dislike, etc. (2) Submit a workshop proposal to the most relevant conference and trying to get included in the workshop schedule. This makes recruiting participants and the audience much easier --- they are already at the conference anyway.
To host a new workshop not attached to a conference, never having done it before, I'd really recommend adding some organizers with lots of experience -- and it doesn't hurt if their well-known names will entice people to come. (Sorry, that's how it works.)
Other than that, I would frankly say there's nothing tricky about it. I don't think I've ever been to a bad workshop -- not surprising, since I generally sign up because I like the topic! Some tentative suggestions:

Get at least 1-2 good, well-known invited speakers to give talks (45min plus questions is my suggestion).
Solicit submissions broadly and select some to give short talks (20-30min including questions is my suggestion). Focus on talks you think will be interesting to the audience, not necessarily the best/strongest work.
Make one of your goals diversity of your set of speakers.
A poster session and/or social time can be good. You can accept anything you rejected above as a poster.
Build in enough breaks and discussion/Q&amp;A, be careful not to overstuff the schedule.
Speaking of schedule, it's probably good to have a webpage with the schedule and overview. Most of the schedule, like identities of the talks, can stay TBA for a while, it's ok.

There's probably an additional list of tips for a virtual modality....