Operating a Workshop Event

For instance operators

This is the admin side of running an event, for people who operate their own Orchestra instance (shell + kubectl access). Teaching a class on the hosted platform at orchestraplatform.org? You don’t need this — see Planning & Teaching a Workshop instead.

When an instructor is running a class on your instance, two things are on you: having capacity ready when the cohort launches, and keeping an eye on sessions during the event.

Warm capacity for the cohort

A cluster that scales from zero takes a few minutes to add nodes. If a cohort launches at once cold, the first arrivals wait. Warm the pool ahead of the session so seats are ready:

just warm 40      # hold ~40 sessions' worth of capacity

Set it shortly before the session and return it to zero afterward:

just warm 0

Note

Warming holds spare capacity so launches are instant; it also costs money while held, so scale it back down when the event ends.

Watch the Session Dashboard

The admin Session Dashboard shows every active session, its phase, its owner, and how long each has left. During an event, use it to:

• Spot sessions stuck in Starting and help those attendees.
• See who’s close to expiry (rows are tinted as the deadline nears).
• Extend a session, or terminate a stuck one.

Run-of-show

1. T‑15 min — just warm <cohort size>; confirm the templates the instructor needs are live and their durations suit the session.

2. During — keep the Session Dashboard open; help Starting/stuck sessions.

3. Near the end — the instructor reminds attendees to save their work; extend sessions where needed.

4. After — just warm 0.

Caution

Sessions are temporary — when one expires, its contents are gone. Make sure the instructor tells attendees to download anything they want to keep before their session ends.