[openstack-community] Contact sharing
Hi, as a meetup organiser I often have issues finding quality speakers (well known issue) and also sponsors for the meetup (also known but less spoken about). However, each individual group organiser has already a set of company contacts/speakers. So, how about having a shared list (with access restricted to meetup organisers) containing useful contacts. It could have the following structure: * Companies: contact person, type of sponsorship, comments. * Speakers: contact, affiliation, link to presentation (if available) This will allow meetup organisers to contact companies regarding sponsorship. If a company is sponsoring meetup events in country X, they might be interested in doing it in country Y (or not, but it’s worth a try). Do you see any disadvantages with this approach? Alternatively, can it be improved? Cheers, Nicolae
Hi Nicolae, On Wed, 2015-03-18 at 16:57 -0700, Nicolae Paladi wrote:
as a meetup organiser I often have issues finding quality speakers (well known issue) and also sponsors for the meetup (also known but less spoken about).
Yep, these are common requests and I apologize for the time it's taking to satisfy them. There is an ongoing development effort called 'Speaker bureau' managed by the openstack-org team. If you noticed, people submitting a talk for the past and current Summit had the option to check a box asking them if they wanted their name to be listed as speakers for user groups. Those details, afaik, have been collected in the openstack-org database, whose code is now published on https://github.com/OpenStackweb/openstack-org (waiting to be fully pulled into openstack-infra). What's missing to display the Speaker Bureau to user groups is a query to the openstack org DB and php code to display results. The code and the database schema is public: if you know PHP and SilverStripe you can help speed up this project. Another way to help is to write a blueprint and spec for this, to lay out a plan and solicit help to get it executed.
* Companies: contact person, type of sponsorship, comments.
I'm on the fence about this for two reasons. In practice, user groups have a local focus so even if you know the name of a contact person at company X, offering office space and pizza for a group in Germany, that contact may not be interested to help you find a colleague to offer the same in Sweden. On the other hand, the small local firm Y offering meeting space and pizza in Sweden wouldn't have any office outside of such country. The other reason is that I don't think institutionalizing the relationship between user groups and sponsors is good. It's better for the community to keep that relationship casual and ad-hoc. I think the user groups should be "safe" places where people can go to learn things without necessarily becoming marketing leads. Sponsors are useful but we should always remember that successful user groups are made by users, not sponsors. The primary objective of user groups should be to establish a solid base of people willing to meet to share their experiences, help themselves and others. If they have pizza for free or chip in $20 to buy some it shouldn't matter too much. That said, the list of members of OpenStack is public and there is a public mailing list of marketing people where I think occasional requests for sponsorship can be made (at least until they become so frequent they become annoying :)). Thoughts? /stef
Greetings. Excited to see the speakers bureau, up and running soon. Our teams are on Java, Python, Ruby, and Go; funny, no PHP in the last few years. Would have loved to ask for help from some of them. :D On sponsors relationships, while I truly agree that a blurry line should separate it to keep things vibrant and un-"bullied" by big names, it is a can't-live-with-them and can't-live-without-them situation. In our case, Philippines (although we are lately more active in ASEAN (HK/SG)), from 4+ years ago till now, there has been zero (0) corporate sponsorship/support from either technology vendor and/or enterprise. They will both drive their primacy and exclusivity over everyone else (especially industry competitor) or they give nothing. A clear business case and market/brand strategy was constantly requested from us. While there was value in providing these, and we ourselves having some directions on promoting the community, it becomes a deadlock after some time; or everyone just does their own thing or nothing. We once tried to initiate a free half-day seminar, for developers, to introduce OpenStack Community Version as well as guidance on then challenging installation steps. The reception had been a bit cold (which hotel is it held? is the food good? are there any swags and souvenirs? any celebrity). Pizzas and drinks for half a day in a cafe for a free seminar/meetup did not work for us. I guess you can argue the maturity of market is missing and we're reaching out to the wrong groups of people or places. We'll keep trying. A true interested and passionate local community will simply pitch in, individually, if no else does. Maybe regional linkages and support would also help. *Thank you and good day, Dean Marc.* Director - Engineering | Design | Innovations *HK - Dungeon Innovations Pvt. Ltd.* Bonham Trade Centre, 50 Bonham Strand, Sheung Wan +852 81 913 409 *PH - Dungeon Innovations* 49 Annapolis Street, Greenhills, San Juan City, 1500 +63 920 2928888 | +63 2 7440320 http://www.twitter.com/deanmarc http://www.twitter.com/javasparks http://www.twitter.com/DungeonInn http://www.twitter.com/citidotio On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 1:54 AM, Stefano Maffulli <stefano@openstack.org> wrote:
Hi Nicolae,
On Wed, 2015-03-18 at 16:57 -0700, Nicolae Paladi wrote:
as a meetup organiser I often have issues finding quality speakers (well known issue) and also sponsors for the meetup (also known but less spoken about).
Yep, these are common requests and I apologize for the time it's taking to satisfy them.
There is an ongoing development effort called 'Speaker bureau' managed by the openstack-org team. If you noticed, people submitting a talk for the past and current Summit had the option to check a box asking them if they wanted their name to be listed as speakers for user groups.
Those details, afaik, have been collected in the openstack-org database, whose code is now published on https://github.com/OpenStackweb/openstack-org (waiting to be fully pulled into openstack-infra).
What's missing to display the Speaker Bureau to user groups is a query to the openstack org DB and php code to display results. The code and the database schema is public: if you know PHP and SilverStripe you can help speed up this project.
Another way to help is to write a blueprint and spec for this, to lay out a plan and solicit help to get it executed.
* Companies: contact person, type of sponsorship, comments.
I'm on the fence about this for two reasons. In practice, user groups have a local focus so even if you know the name of a contact person at company X, offering office space and pizza for a group in Germany, that contact may not be interested to help you find a colleague to offer the same in Sweden. On the other hand, the small local firm Y offering meeting space and pizza in Sweden wouldn't have any office outside of such country.
The other reason is that I don't think institutionalizing the relationship between user groups and sponsors is good. It's better for the community to keep that relationship casual and ad-hoc. I think the user groups should be "safe" places where people can go to learn things without necessarily becoming marketing leads. Sponsors are useful but we should always remember that successful user groups are made by users, not sponsors. The primary objective of user groups should be to establish a solid base of people willing to meet to share their experiences, help themselves and others. If they have pizza for free or chip in $20 to buy some it shouldn't matter too much.
That said, the list of members of OpenStack is public and there is a public mailing list of marketing people where I think occasional requests for sponsorship can be made (at least until they become so frequent they become annoying :)).
Thoughts?
/stef
_______________________________________________ Community mailing list Community@lists.openstack.org http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community
On Fri, 2015-03-20 at 18:23 +0800, Co, Dean Marc wrote:
On sponsors relationships, while I truly agree that a blurry line should separate it to keep things vibrant and un-"bullied" by big names, it is a can't-live-with-them and can't-live-without-them situation.
I'm not sure this statement is true in general and it's valid only in some cases. I know plenty of tech user groups surviving and thriving without sponsors. Sponsors are useful, for sure, but groups of people with a shared interest can do well also without them.
In our case, Philippines (although we are lately more active in ASEAN (HK/SG)), from 4+ years ago till now, there has been zero (0) corporate sponsorship/support from either technology vendor and/or enterprise.
Probably because the managers of these companies are thinking in terms of 'win-lose' competition, which is a damaging approach to what OpenStack represents. Collaboration can only happen if people think in 'win-win' terms, where enabling a competitor will create a bigger opportunity for all.
They will both drive their primacy and exclusivity over everyone else (especially industry competitor) or they give nothing.
This sounds bad. Have you considered not to try to recruit sponsors if that's the environment? From what you describe, I'm concerned that if you manage to convince one company to sponsor the OpenStack group in Philippines, you're going to import also their win-lose attitude, their intention to 'destroy'(figuratively, of course) the competitor. And one sponsor might alienate all the others. Better stay away.
A clear business case and market/brand strategy was constantly requested from us. While there was value in providing these, and we ourselves having some directions on promoting the community, it becomes a deadlock after some time; or everyone just does their own thing or nothing.
But a user group is not a brand and definitely doesn't have a 'business'. I have the impression that something is off.
We once tried to initiate a free half-day seminar, for developers, to introduce OpenStack Community Version as well as guidance on then challenging installation steps. The reception had been a bit cold (which hotel is it held? is the food good? are there any swags and souvenirs? any celebrity). Pizzas and drinks for half a day in a cafe for a free seminar/meetup did not work for us.
The thing is that you shouldn't need a hotel or good food to attract your audience. If the content offered is not enough by itself, then I'd suggest to work on that first. Why are people in your region not interested in joining a free half-day seminar about OpenStack? /stef
Hi, just to throw in my experiences from OpenStack Finland Meetup. First I was answering to "Contact Sharing" topic, but this got a bit lengthy, so I open a new topic... :) I believe we've found a good balance between the sponsorship and community event. My wish was to build up a group of professionals, who enjoy the event both by having interesting presentations and good atmosphere to do networking. For that, we went for both: Sponsorship and non-sponsor speakers. Not all get to travel to international events. I believe the event must be such that I would go there out of generic interest, and want to go there next time myself too. So few things: 1. If it's evening event, people don't want to be starving: - when I'm hungry after work, I typically go home to eat. I likely don't bother leaving home anymore to any events. - We offer snacks for the participants, so it's nice to come and stay 2. Finnish people don't go talking to strangers, break the barrier: - Have some beers to loosen up the tongs, we Finns love beer :) - Have interesting demo or presentation to have bases for discussion 3. I want to meet and network, leave time for networking in the event - While technical presentations are interesting to technical people, don't push your schedule. Too much is boring. - Make sure there is some time to discuss and network after or in-between the presentations. Perhaps even 1/3 prez, 2/3 free networking and discussions. 1/2 free time in minimum. - This is something we keep still iterating, what is the good balance? So far we've tried different things, and likely will do so. 4. I need the money for such event. I'm willing to hear *a bit* of marketing in exchange. All pros understand that (..there is no free beer ;)). - It's not hard to gather money for hot topics. If your event is good, the sponsors like to look good with you. It's easy marketing for them - Make sure the sponsor understands that no-one is coming to event just to get marketing stuff, the sponsor better have some interesting content, or the sponsorship turns against them. - Having variety of vendors present keeps the event neutral, everyone wins With those principles we've managed to create pretty good meetup group here in Finland. Over 100/~290 (growing) members present in each meetup, that's quite much in a small country. We've made friends between pros in different companies, and it's nice to exchange thoughts and experiences about OpenStack within the active community. Welcome all to the next meetup in September, we're going even bigger co-located with OpenMind, Mindtrek, and DevOps meetup in Tampere! Our events are in English, don't be afraid :) BR, Ilkka Tengvall Cybercom Finland OpenStack Finland meetup team http://www.meetup.com/OpenStack-Finland-User-Group/
Thank you Ilkka for a great post. This is an answer also to the earlier “Contact Sharing” post (I was hoping to get some more reactions but looks like the topic is exhausted). Also, thank you Stefano for a detailed answer to my questions, and I subscribe to the words in both Stefano and Ilkka’s replies. Looks like organising meetups can not become a “structured” process, but always good to get advise and tips. Cheers, Nicolae On 26 Mar 2015, at 09:34, Ilkka Tengvall <ilkka.tengvall@cybercom.com> wrote:
Hi,
just to throw in my experiences from OpenStack Finland Meetup. First I was answering to "Contact Sharing" topic, but this got a bit lengthy, so I open a new topic... :)
I believe we've found a good balance between the sponsorship and community event. My wish was to build up a group of professionals, who enjoy the event both by having interesting presentations and good atmosphere to do networking. For that, we went for both: Sponsorship and non-sponsor speakers. Not all get to travel to international events.
I believe the event must be such that I would go there out of generic interest, and want to go there next time myself too. So few things:
1. If it's evening event, people don't want to be starving: - when I'm hungry after work, I typically go home to eat. I likely don't bother leaving home anymore to any events. - We offer snacks for the participants, so it's nice to come and stay
2. Finnish people don't go talking to strangers, break the barrier: - Have some beers to loosen up the tongs, we Finns love beer :) - Have interesting demo or presentation to have bases for discussion
3. I want to meet and network, leave time for networking in the event - While technical presentations are interesting to technical people, don't push your schedule. Too much is boring. - Make sure there is some time to discuss and network after or in-between the presentations. Perhaps even 1/3 prez, 2/3 free networking and discussions. 1/2 free time in minimum. - This is something we keep still iterating, what is the good balance? So far we've tried different things, and likely will do so.
4. I need the money for such event. I'm willing to hear *a bit* of marketing in exchange. All pros understand that (..there is no free beer ;)). - It's not hard to gather money for hot topics. If your event is good, the sponsors like to look good with you. It's easy marketing for them - Make sure the sponsor understands that no-one is coming to event just to get marketing stuff, the sponsor better have some interesting content, or the sponsorship turns against them. - Having variety of vendors present keeps the event neutral, everyone wins
With those principles we've managed to create pretty good meetup group here in Finland. Over 100/~290 (growing) members present in each meetup, that's quite much in a small country. We've made friends between pros in different companies, and it's nice to exchange thoughts and experiences about OpenStack within the active community.
Welcome all to the next meetup in September, we're going even bigger co-located with OpenMind, Mindtrek, and DevOps meetup in Tampere! Our events are in English, don't be afraid :)
BR,
Ilkka Tengvall Cybercom Finland OpenStack Finland meetup team http://www.meetup.com/OpenStack-Finland-User-Group/
_______________________________________________ Community mailing list Community@lists.openstack.org http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community
Really nice post, we have plans to organize a workshop and an Openstack Day here in Buenos Aires and those comments help a lot. Thanks! On Fri, Apr 10, 2015 at 5:02 AM Nicolae Paladi <n.paladi@gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you Ilkka for a great post.
This is an answer also to the earlier “Contact Sharing” post (I was hoping to get some more reactions but looks like the topic is exhausted). Also, thank you Stefano for a detailed answer to my questions, and I subscribe to the words in both Stefano and Ilkka’s replies. Looks like organising meetups can not become a “structured” process, but always good to get advise and tips.
Cheers, Nicolae
On 26 Mar 2015, at 09:34, Ilkka Tengvall <ilkka.tengvall@cybercom.com> wrote:
Hi,
just to throw in my experiences from OpenStack Finland Meetup. First I was answering to "Contact Sharing" topic, but this got a bit lengthy, so I open a new topic... :)
I believe we've found a good balance between the sponsorship and community event. My wish was to build up a group of professionals, who enjoy the event both by having interesting presentations and good atmosphere to do networking. For that, we went for both: Sponsorship and non-sponsor speakers. Not all get to travel to international events.
I believe the event must be such that I would go there out of generic interest, and want to go there next time myself too. So few things:
1. If it's evening event, people don't want to be starving: - when I'm hungry after work, I typically go home to eat. I likely don't bother leaving home anymore to any events. - We offer snacks for the participants, so it's nice to come and stay
2. Finnish people don't go talking to strangers, break the barrier: - Have some beers to loosen up the tongs, we Finns love beer :) - Have interesting demo or presentation to have bases for discussion
3. I want to meet and network, leave time for networking in the event - While technical presentations are interesting to technical people, don't push your schedule. Too much is boring. - Make sure there is some time to discuss and network after or in-between the presentations. Perhaps even 1/3 prez, 2/3 free networking and discussions. 1/2 free time in minimum. - This is something we keep still iterating, what is the good balance? So far we've tried different things, and likely will do so.
4. I need the money for such event. I'm willing to hear *a bit* of marketing in exchange. All pros understand that (..there is no free beer ;)). - It's not hard to gather money for hot topics. If your event is good, the sponsors like to look good with you. It's easy marketing for them - Make sure the sponsor understands that no-one is coming to event just to get marketing stuff, the sponsor better have some interesting content, or the sponsorship turns against them. - Having variety of vendors present keeps the event neutral, everyone wins
With those principles we've managed to create pretty good meetup group here in Finland. Over 100/~290 (growing) members present in each meetup, that's quite much in a small country. We've made friends between pros in different companies, and it's nice to exchange thoughts and experiences about OpenStack within the active community.
Welcome all to the next meetup in September, we're going even bigger co-located with OpenMind, Mindtrek, and DevOps meetup in Tampere! Our events are in English, don't be afraid :)
BR,
Ilkka Tengvall Cybercom Finland OpenStack Finland meetup team http://www.meetup.com/OpenStack-Finland-User-Group/
_______________________________________________ Community mailing list Community@lists.openstack.org http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community
_______________________________________________ Community mailing list Community@lists.openstack.org http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community
participants (5)
-
Co, Dean Marc
-
Diego Woitasen
-
Ilkka Tengvall
-
Nicolae Paladi
-
Stefano Maffulli