tags: events

Toolkit for organizing meetups

Relates to community team issue 181

The Ansible meetup organizer toolkit is a set of resources to ease the setup and organization of meetups, conferences, or any event around Ansible.
The toolkit consists of templates of different documents (emails, social media posts, event pages), checklists, ideas for talks, workshops, presentation templates, etc.

The toolkit is designed to support meetup organizers at various milestones for event organization.

Milestone: Gain awareness of Ansible meetups
- [ ] Understand what constitutes an Ansible meetup
- [ ] Learn about the roles of meetup participants
- [ ] Review and abide by the code of conduct
Milestone: Start planning
- [ ] How to decide on the agenda?
- [ ] How to scout for the venue?
- [ ] Where to collaborate with other groups?
- [ ] How to get the logos, posters following guidelines?
- [ ] Security concerns
- [ ] Securing a venue
Milestone: On the day of the event
Milestone: After the event
- [ ] How to share lessons learnt/ post event report?
- [ ] How to promote your event?
- [ ] How to reach out to the speakers?

Gain awareness of Ansible meetups

What is Ansible Meetup?

Ansible meetup is a gathering of a small to medium-sized group of Systems Engineers, DevOps and SREs. Where they talk about their Automation journey focusing on Ansible, it is a place to teach and learn from each other. Meetup provides a platform for upstream and downstream to meet and share ideas.

How to become a member of the meetup?

One can be a member of an Ansible meetup group by

1. Attending the meetups

Check the list of current Ansible meetups. If there is already a meetup in your area, join it and register for an upcoming event.

2. Presenting at the meetup

Do you want to present t an Ansible meetup? Do you have an idea for a session? Feel free to reach out to the meetup group either by

• Commenting on the meetup page itself.
• Open an issue at the Github repo of the meetup group.
• Share your idea at #ansible-social Matrix room.
• Send us email

Meetup organizers always look for good presenters to enrich their events and meetup group. So do not hold back from sharing your ideas.

3. Hosting a meetup

Want to host a meeting at your organization? Then please reach out

• by commenting on the meetup page of the local meetup
• via social media
• send us an email

4. Organizing a meetup

No Ansible meetup in your area? Send us an email introducing yourself. Be sure to include a link to your profile at meetup.com.

We want to be sure that meetup organizers are committed to building a strong local community of Ansible users. After a brief discussion, we will create the Ansible meetup group in your area, appoint you as a co-organizer, and announce your new group to the world. We will also ship you an Ansible meetup kit with everything you will need to get started.

Secure a date and location for your first meetup! We will help you by spreading the word on social media, reaching out to potential speakers and sponsors in your area, and suggesting new and interesting Ansible content on a regular basis.

Who can become an organizer?

Anyone from the wider Ansible community who is committed to run an Ansible meetup group and plan/organize meetups can become an organizer. The fundamental understanding of the Open Source community, its working, and the belief in this ethos is essential to be an efficient community builder. Some knowledge about Ansible is always a plus.

Ansible Community Code of Conduct

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/community/code_of_conduct.html

Start planning

Now you seem ready and confident to run an Ansible meetup group. Amazing, here is what you have to do.

Mode of the meetup

There are two main ways to conduct a meetup, Online and In-person.

1. Online Meetup

The following is a checklist for having an online meetup

​​​​- [ ] Platform to host the meetup
​​​​- [ ] Fix a date and time
​​​​- [ ] Speaker outreach
​​​​- [ ] Social media promotion plans
​​​​- [ ] Platform to have a conversation with the attendees, speakers, and organizers

An online meetup allows you to connect to a broader audience living in different time zones along with the regular meetup group members. The organizers may want to promote the event on the social media platforms of the time zones coinciding with the event timing to extend the reach of the group.

2. In Person meetup

The following is a checklist for having a in person meetup

​​​​- [ ] Venue to host the meetup
​​​​- [ ] Fix a date and time for the meetup
​​​​- [ ] Speaker outreach
​​​​- [ ] Sponsorship Scout
​​​​- [ ] Social media promotion plans
​​​​- [ ] Platform to have a conversation with the attendees, speakers, and organizers

Finding/selecting Speaker/speakers

Selecting the topics forms the core of any meetup group. Before looking for speakers, if the organizing pays heed to these points, that will be helpful.

What kind of audience are you expecting in the meetup? What is their experience with Ansible and with Automation in general?

Todo : Provide some ideas for talks suitable to 3 groups Beginner, Experienced and Senior

Here are a few place for speaker outreach :

​​​​  1. Social media, email
​​​​  2. Community events
​​​​  3. Github contributions
​​​​  4. Ansible Community Commnication platform

While reaching out to the speakers, one has to be careful to refrain from spamming people to give talks at the meetups. If you know the person or someone who can introduce them, that would be wonderful. And if not, a personal touch to the message is necessary for the person to know you, your intention, and your ideas, so they can make a reasoned decision about accepting or declining the invite. Here are some template messages which might be helpful in this process.

Venue Scout

Any in-person event can not happen without a venue. After the speaker confirms venue is the next and most important thing to get. Here are some templates which might be helpful in case of venue scout.

Resources

Email templates

Speaker Outreach for the first time

Hello,
 
I am {name} , co-organizer at Ansible {place/city of the meetup} Meetup [0].

Ansible is an open-source community project sponsored by Red Hat [1].
It is the simplest way to automate IT. Ansible delivers simple IT automation that ends repetitive tasks and frees up DevOps teams for more strategic work.
Ansible Community [2] is a gathering of a small group of Systems Engineers, DevOps, and SREs to discuss their automation journey focusing on Ansible.
Ansible {place/city of the meetup} Meetup is a platform for upstream and downstream to meet each other to share knowledge and Ansible stories.
We meet every month/once in two months to talk about the abovesaid topics and ideas. 

{Share the reference you met or learned about the potential speaker and their work. Also, why would their talk be helpful for the event, group, and community? You can share some ideas for the talks with them.} 

Would you be interested in giving a talk or taking a workshop or hands-on session on {date} for the {name of the group}?

Please let me know if you want to know something else.

I will look forward to your answer.

Thank you,
{your_name}

Email template once the person confirms for the talk

Hello,

Thank you for confirming the workshop/talk/hands-on. Your session would truly benefit the group.

Now to plan the session can you please provide the following information 

1. Your full name or the name you prefer to be called by the community.
2. The pronoun you are comfortable with.
3. Your introduction, a short bio.
4. Title of the workshop/talk/hands-on
5. Short description of the workshop/talk/hands-on
6. The duration you are looking for the talk.
7. The name of your organization and if you are comfortable sharing them.
8. Are you okay if I tag you on Social media? Please share your social media handles (Mastodon, Linkedin, and Twitter) if you are comfortable.
9. Are you there in the Ansible Matrix? If not, then please follow. Can we share your Matrix username and social media handles in the meetup event page? It will be helpful for the attendees and broader community members to communicate with you.

Please share the details above by {date}. We intend to announce the event on {date}.
 
Looking forward to your reply.

Thank you,
{your_name}

Email template once the event is announced

Hello {name},

We have announced the event. Please review the meetup page [0] and let me know if you want anything edited.

Feel free to promote the event on social media, and you can tag us :). The relevant social media handles are the following :

- [Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/company/ansible/)
- [Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/@Ansible)
- [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ansible)

See you at the event.

Thank you,
{your_name}

Email template for venue scout for the first time

Hello,

I am {name} , co-organizer at Ansible {place/city of the meetup} Meetup [0].

Ansible is an open-source community project sponsored by Red Hat [1]. It is the simplest way to automate IT. Ansible delivers simple IT automation that ends repetitive tasks and frees up DevOps teams for more strategic work. Ansible Community [2] is a gathering of a small group of Systems Engineers, DevOps, and SREs to discuss their automation journey focusing on Ansible. Ansible {place/city of the meetup} Meetup is a platform for upstream and downstream to meet each other to share knowledge and Ansible stories. We meet every month/once in two months to talk about the abovesaid topics and ideas. 

We are looking for a place to hold our meetups with the following specifications
    1. Expected Attendees are {number}
    2. Presentation setup
    3. Recording - audio, video setup, microphone for the audience
    4. Wifi 
    5. Seating arrangement suitable for workshop
    6. Parking facility

Would you be interested in providing the space for us to hold our Meetup on {date}?

We are happy to advertise your name as a venue sponsor and promote it from the official Ansible account on social media platforms, Linkedin, Mastodon, Twitter, and, Bullhorn, the Ansible contributor community newsletter. 

Please let me know if you need to know something else.

We are looking forward to your reply.

[0] link for the Meetup
[1] https://www.ansible.com/
[3] https://www.ansible.com/community

Thank you,
{your name}

Email template for after-venue confrmation

Hello,

Thank you for confirming the venue for our Ansible {place/city of the meetup} meetup on {date}. 

I will be visiting the venue before the event, so we are better prepared on the day of the event :). Please suggest a few suitable dates and times for the visit. Also, please confirm if there is any security requirement.

We will announce the event by the end of the week/shortly. Please let us know the following things by {specify a date}.
    - exact address of the venue 
    - if there is any landmark near the venue (to help to reach the venue easily)
    - security requirement for entrance
    - the organization logo for the promotion
    - social media handles for promotion and the event page

We are looking forward to your reply.

Thank you
{name}

Email template for reaching out Sponsor for the first time

Hello,

I am {name} , co-organizer at Ansible {place/city of the meetup} Meetup [0].

Ansible is an open-source community project sponsored by Red Hat [1]. It is the simplest way to automate IT. Ansible delivers simple IT automation that ends repetitive tasks and frees up DevOps teams for more strategic work. Ansible Community [2] is a gathering of a small group of Systems Engineers, DevOps, and SREs to discuss their automation journey focusing on Ansible. Ansible {place/city of the meetup} meetup is a platform for upstream and downstream to meet each other to share knowledge and Ansible stories. We meet every month/once in two months to talk about the abovesaid topics and ideas.

We are looking for sponsors currently to support our group. There are three ways to sponsor us :

- Venue Sponsor

 Provide the venue to hold the meetup of {} attendees (expected numbers) on {date and time}.

We are looking for a place to hold our meetups with the following specifications
    1. Expected Attendees are {number}
    2. Presentation setup
    3. Recording - audio, video setup, microphone for the audience
    4. Wifi 
    5. Seating arrangement suitable for workshop
    6. Parking facility


- Food Sponsor

Providing the food to hold the meetup of {} attendees (expected numbers) on {date and time}. Here we have two categories :

 - Sponsor a meal (lunch/dinner)
 - Sponsor high tea (coffee, tea, and some snacks)
 
 - Group Support 
 
 You have to sponsor the meetup group itself. Here you can help us by supporting both the venue and food both.
 
We are happy to advertise and promote the sponsor from the official Ansible account on social media platforms Linkedin, Mastodon, Twitter, and, Bullhorn, the Ansible contributor community newsletter. It would add to your reach not only locally but globally. 

 Would you consider being a sponsor? It's also an excellent way to get your company's name out there as an innovative workplace that encourages and supports open-source development. It is a great way to give back to the community and learn from them.
 
Please let me know if you need to know something else.

We are looking forward to your reply.

Thank you,
{Your name}

Follow-up email with the sponsor

Hello hello,

This is {name} again.

Have you looked at my sponsorship email attaching the last email here for your reference?

Please let me know if you need to know something else.

We are looking forward to your reply.

Follow up email with the (venue) sponsor post confrmation

Hello {name},

It is great to hear back from you. And thank you for agreeing to sponsor our Ansible {palce of the meetup} group. 

We will announce the event by the end of the week/shortly. Please let us know the following things by {specify a date}.
    - exact address of the venue 
    - if there is any landmark near the venue (to help to reach the venue easily)
    - security requirement for entrance
    - the organization logo for the promotion
    - social media handles for promotion and the event page

We are delighted to have you in the Ansible community.
 
Thank you
{your_name}

Follow up email with the (food) sponsor post confrmation

Hello {name},

It is great to hear back from you. And thank you for agreeing to sponsor our Ansible {palce of the meetup} group. 

We will announce the event by the end of the week/shortly. Please let us know the following things by {specify a date}.

    - the organization logo for the promotion
    - social media handles for promotion and the event page

I will share the details of the food preferences (of the attendees) by {date}.

We are delighted to have you in the Ansible community.
 
Thank you
{your_name}

Follow up email with the (Group Support) sponsor post confrmation

Hello {name},

It is great to hear back from you. And thank you for being a Support of our Ansible {palce of the meetup} group. 

We will announce the event by the end of the week/shortly. Please let us know the following things by {specify a date}.

    - exact address of the venue 
    - if there is any landmark near the venue (to help to reach the venue easily)
    - security requirement for entrance
    - the organization logo for the promotion
    - social media handles for promotion and the event page

I will share the details of the food preferences (of the attendees) by {date}.

We are delighted to have you in the Ansible community.
 
Thank you
{your_name}

Social media promotion post templates

Ansible has social media presence in the following forums Linkedin, Mastodon, Twitter. Ansible community further has a newsletter, Bullhorn we do promote our events there as well.

While posting about the event please tag the abovementioned handles for extended reach. Here are some social media post templates

Social media promotion before the event : post templates

Wondering where the Ansible project is headed to? Join us in Ansible Community meetup on {date} at {place}.

We are having Ansible Community Meetup, on {date} at {place}. Join us and share your Ansible journey with us.

Ahh, Ansible needs to be able to solve your requirement. Why? Let’s ask people who develop Ansible. Join us in Ansible Community meetup, on {date} at {place}.

Social media promotion during the event : post templates

It is always so nice to see people writing first Ansible Playbook, {ansible meetup group name} at {place}. 

We have started with our {group_name} meetup with a full house. Now is the time to automate things with Ansible.  #community.

Template Presentations