Confessions of a developer community builder

by John Stevenson@jr0cket

Warning:This speaker is

biased

The truth is out there...

What is CommunityAnd what makes communities so valuable

My definition of community:

More than one person with a [ keen | passionate ] interest in something

and willing to [ learn | share]

We rely on community to get things done

Your Development Team is a community

Community is more effective for all

Company success

- Greater awareness of technology, tooling, api / product use- Easier to hire new staff and keep existing staff engaged

Team success

- Increased collaboration and communication- grow the team in capability & effectiveness

Individual success

- Grow your skills- Keep your job interesting for longer

The great thing about community is...you can be a member of so many!

The great thing about community is...you can be members of so many!

What is your Community about?And why should people join in

What can your community do?Ask those involved in the community as it grows...

Within you development team

Brown Bag / lunchtime talks

Pairing / Mob Programming

Book Club

Kata / Coding dojo’s

FedEx day (scratch that itch projects)

Starting your own developer community

Monthly meetups

- Talks / lightning talks / demos

Coding dojo’s

Workshops / hack days

Conferences

Hackathons

My Community Experiences~22 years in the community

Getting into Linux @ University88 Floppy disk install

A few months later install from tape

Open source workshops- Using Ubuntu Linux- Poster design- Video Editing- Desktop Publishing

University outreach

Organised my first coding

dojoOrganiser for

ClojureX conference, ClojureBridge London,

London Clojurians,& logo designer

AtlassianSometimes you can get

paid to build communities(and wear t-shirts)

Salesforce / Heroku

Diversity in Tech

Mentoring / Inspiring others

Inspiring others

Inspiring others

Mentoring (virtually)A Slack community is handy for mentoring individuals or groups

Mentoring widens your own horizons

Standing on the shoulder of giantsA well used phrase that encourages us to build on work done by others

If I have seen further & achieved more,

its because I stood on the shoulders of others

Starting a community

If you create it, they will come...

If you don’t create it, they can’t come

Things to do...to help the event be successful

Describe why people should attend

● say who its for or who will be attending● say what people will gain from it● include feedback from past events

Promote the event effectively

1. use social media networks & contacts2. create a meaningful hashtag & put it

everywhere3. go to other events and talk about your

event4. look for media partners who can spread

the word in their networks

Code of Conduct

&

Under 18’s Policy

Provide detailed location information- Especially if the

directions are complicated

Help people contributehttps://skillsmatter.com/skillscasts/7853-workshop-giving-your-first-meetup-or-clojure-exchange-talk

Visualise the schedule

Make all the things visually appealing

beware of your own bias though...

beware of expensive print costs too…

not everyone loves purple...

Work out your budget early

What are your costs for

- venue, food, advertising, swag, extra wifi, video screens / tv, etc.- speaker hotels / travel, speakers dinner- diversity fund for those otherwise unable to attend

Plan for contingency

- last minute sponsor drop-out- unknown expense- event more popular than you planned

Give your sponsors clarity & options

What are you willing to allow sponsors to do ?

What are you definately not going to allow them to do - ie. product pitches

Provide several tiers of sponsorship packages in a very clear document / pdf

- include reasons why sponsors should sponsor you!

Include a menu of options and encourage sponsors to get in touch and share what they would like to do

- Atlassian sponsored one event and paid for all the event staff to wear an Atlassian t-shirt. This helped the organisers & attendees as well as the sponsor

Healthy food

options, please

I love RaspberriesHave more Raspberries at your event and I will come :)

Finding something simple that your audience will love will improve attendance and return visits.

Things to avoidunless you like stress

Personal Life upheavals

● don't change jobs● don't move house● don't take a holiday whilst organising

Organisational challenges

1. don't try and do this alone2. don't leave everything until the last

minute

3. don't do it alone, seriously!!! Even if this is your job, find someone else to help you and delegate like crazy

Doing the event again? Have a Retrospective

What worked

What didn’t work so well

What should you do more of

What should you do less of

Document as much as you can, so it's easier next time!

Rounding things up...

Find your local community and get involved

No local community? It’s easy to start one..

Thank you

@jr0cketjr0cket.co.uk