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

meg@puppetlabs.com @meg_hartley

https://puppetlabs.com/community/overview

Questions?