hosting events the whole community loves
TRANSCRIPT
Hosting Events The Whole Community Loves
Agenda• How to include your entire
user base in your event planning strategy
• How to provide a variety of events both online and offline and why it’s valuable
• How to create a safe, space for your community that encourages a variety of perspectives
Image: meddygarnet
Who Is Your Community?
Image: kohlmann.sascha
Purpose and ConstraintsImage: Jimee, Jackie, Tom, Asha
Current TouchpointsImage: Michael Elleray
What do they value and need?Image: meddygarnet
Greatest ImpactImage: y entonces
Structure• Camps - around 30 all over the
world - 2/month on average (Beginner)
• PUGs - meeting monthly/quarterly - 130+ meetings in over 75 cities
• Contributor Events - 4x/year quarterly (Advanced)
• PuppetConf - annually (All levels)
Image: Michael Elleray
PartnershipsImage: lollyknit
Set Expectations
Things to Consider
• Experience level of attendees
• Code of Conduct
• Agenda
• Other pertinent information such as guidelines for contributing or dietary information
Measure
Image: boltron
Surveys
Social Events
Registration
Polls
SurveysAnonymity
How can we improve?
Additional InformationQuantitative
Qualitative
What did we do well?
Triage-a-Thon #puppethack
• Initial Goal: Close as many tickets as possible
• Outcome: Poor quality code
• Final Goal: Quality over quantity and make it online only
Documentation for Repeatable Events
• Goal
• Timeline
• Stakeholders
• Logistical needs
• Outcome
• Feedback
• Steps to Improve
PromotionInternal: • staff meetings • company email • calendar invitation• progress updatesExternal: • social media• blog post• swag• other avenues
Level of ExperienceImage: Felizberto - Emmanuel Avetta
Puppet User Groups• Meetups
• Discuss topics of interest related to Puppet
• International
• Community driven
• Roots on the ground
• Intermediate to Advanced
Puppet Camps
• Targeted at beginner users
• Content is community driven
• One day
• In conjunction with an existing conference
• 29 internationally/year
Talk Submissions• On Form: Code of Conduct, Speaker Waiver and
Release, Deadline for Submission, Date for the camp, Other criteria
• Promote: social media, blog, Call For Papers website, user groups, internally
Contributor Events
• 2 Online and 2 In Person
• 1 event /quarter
• 1 at PuppetConf
• 1 in Europe with FOSDEM
• For intermediate to advanced users
PuppetConf
• Annual Event
• Draws all community together
• Requires a multi-pronged approach
Hosting Local User Groups
• Code of Conduct
• Documentation internal and external
• Get buy in from other parts of the company and building management
Image: Nan Palmero
Online and In Person Events
Image: Guigui-Lille
Online EventsPros:
• Low bar to attend
• Brings the event to them
• Low resource spend
• Connect with folks in other areas
Image: Don Hankins
Online Events
Cons:
• No face to face interaction
• Hard to measure participation
Image: vil.sandi - away
In Person EventsPros:
• Extended conversations
• Direct working on projects ensures greater efficiency and impact
Cons:
• Resource intensive Image:greyloch
Creating Safe Spaces
• Code of Conduct
• Diversity Program
Image: Meena Khadri
Code of Conduct
• Geek Feminism Wiki
• Puppet Labs
• actionable
• publicized and enforced at all events
Image: JD Hancock
http://docs.puppetlabs.com/community/community_guidelines.html
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment
https://github.com/python/ pycon-code-of-conduct
Resources
• 2013: 7 proposals from women
• 2014: 29 proposals from women
• Discounted and free tickets; travel assistance
Diversity At PuppetConf
Self Care
Takeaways• Think about your audience, what they need, how to
do it with least resources for both you and community
• Think about how it all fits together to address the needs of your whole community and make sure that there aren’t any holes
• Iterate using quantitative and qualitative feedback
• Take care of yourself when planning and after execution
To the folks who have taught me so much about community and events
• Kara Sowles - Who taught me about community and so much more
• Briana de Jong - Who taught me how to run events with finesse
• Dawn Foster - Who has been my mentor and champion
• Decoding Dyslexia Oregon- who taught me how to fight for a cause
• Holly Files - Who gave me a safe space to ask for what I needed
Thank You!
Image: Jen Collins
Questions?