how to create and start a cloudstack user group in your region

How to start and grow a

cloudstack user group in

your region

Karen Vuong

Open Source Program Manager

Open Source Solutions at Citrix

@kar3nv

karenvuong02@gmail.com

About me

• Open Source Program Manager

• Citrix Open Source Business Office

• Apache CloudStack Project Committee Member (PMC) and Committer

• Founder/Organizer of CloudStack Silicon Valley User Group

• Helps organize CloudStack Collaboration Conferences and CloudStack Days

• Fun facts: Bungee jumping, riding my motorcycle and backpacking in California

What is a cloudstack user

group meetup?

BEER!

So what is a cloudstack

user group?

What?

Place to discuss:

CloudStack-related

Technologies,

Hands on workshops,

Tutorials

Who?

CloudStack Users,

Developers, anyone

Interested in CloudStack

When?

About every 1.5

months for 3 hours

Where?

Companies will host

CloudStack meetups

cloudstack user groups around

the world!

Cloudstack silicon valley user group

-founded 2013-

• 1,015 members

• Largest meetup reached up 155 attendees at Apple

• Various sponsors have supported our meetup group – CA Technologies, NetApp, SAP Labs, Apple, Citrix, Datapipe, etc.

• Co-organizers – Ilya Musayevand John Kinsella

Japanese Cloudstack user

group (JCSUG)• Satoshi Shimazaki - vice-chair of

Japan CloudStack User Group

• 450+ members participate in Mailing List Activities

• 110 attendees at meetups

• Host and participate in events

• Study and book reading meetings

• Hackathons

• Birthday parties

• CloudStack book in Japanese (2012)

Cloudstack European

user group

• Founded in 2013

• 100 members and 7 meetups

• Giles Sirett, CEO of Shapeblue and Harm Boertien from Schuberg Philis are the Organizers

Cloudstack collaboration

conferences Europe 2013-2015

Amsterdam 2013 Budapest 2014 Dublin 2015

How many of you have been to a

cloudstack user group

meetup?

agenda• 3-step process:

• Setup

• Promote (emphasis on this)

• What to do after the meetup

Setup Promote After the event

1,2,3,4,5,6…7(?)

What happened?

• There were two other open source cloud meetups going on at the same exact time

• We capped the attendee list at the maximum room capacity

• We did not do anything to promote the meetup

• We did not send reminders to attendees

Let’s not have this happen again

Setup PromoteAfter the

meetup

Setting Up your Meetup Group

Meetup Groups• Heard of meetup.com?

• Tips and best practices for setting it up, promoting, and what to do after

• Yes, there are steps that you can follow - It’s SIMPLE

• I’ve made it even more SIMPLE with checklists!

Setup Checklist for Your Meetups

Setting Up your Meetup GroupIf you haven’t done so already, create a CloudStack meetup group!

Even meetup.com says “you don’t need to be an expert to organize an awesome meetup.”

*Add 15 topics. If you add “CloudStack” People

who search for topics, such as “CloudStack” will

come across your meetup group.

Appearance of meetup page

Email Karen and she can create a banner for your meetup group.

About section

• Include a description of the

Apache CloudStack project

and what the meetups will

be about

• Visit cloudstack.apache.org

for a project description

• Blurb about meetups,

hands on sessions,

tutorials, etc.

Cloudstack trademark

guidelines

• Follow the CloudStack Trademark guidelines located here: https://cloudstack.apache.org/trademark-guidelines.html

• Questions: Email press@cloudstack.apache.org

Setting Up your Meetup Group:

First meetup• First meetup: Start with a beginner’s talk “Introduction to

Apache CloudStack”

• Send out a call for speakers note:• Reach out to the developers, marketing and users mailing lists • Reach out to meetup group members• Reach out to your own contacts

Setting Up your Meetup :

date & time

• Select a date/time for your meetup

• Check meetup.com’s calendar of meetups in your area first for conflicting dates

• Avoid Mondays/Fridays

Setting Up your Meetup:

venue

• Find a Venue

• Reach out to your contacts and ask if they can offer a space for your meetup

• They said YES? Go and check out the space (no surprises).

• Test out the speakers, mic, projector (especially if you are going to live stream)

• Remember to hit “record”

• Ask local libraries, colleges, etc

Setting Up your Meetup:

announce

• Now you’re all set!

• Announce the meetup to your members

• Provide a map and parking information

Setting Up your Meetup:

free event = no shows

It’s a free event – expect a

30% - 50% no show rate

Don’t take it personally

many things get in the way…

Setting Up your

Meetup: The big day

• The day of your meetup:• Arrive about 45 minutes to 1 hour early

• Registration table

• Name badges

• Directional signage

• Beer & Food

• Speakers prepare

• Get slides from speakers

Attendance

• How am I going to get people together?

• Put yourself in their shoes!

Promoting your meetup

Setup Promote After the

meetup

Promo Checklist

CHECKLIST

Social media channels (the project’s LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) ✓

Announce to your meetup group members

✓

Post your meetup on event websites and event calendars ✓

Share a Blurb with meetup group organizers ✓

Email Blasts

✓

Tweet pictures during the meetup ✓

Email the CloudStack developers, users and marketing lists

Promote your Meetup:

social media

• Social media channels:• CloudStack Twitter profile

• CloudStack Facebook page

• CloudStack User Group LinkedIn page

• Open Source LinkedIn pages

Promoting your meetup:

hootsuite

“Save the date! CloudStack Silicon Valley Meetup will be on August 20 clds.co/1FvPyo9”

“RSVP for the CloudStack Silicon Valley meetup on Aug 20 clds.co/1FvPyo9”

• HOW TO:

• Send an email to the CloudStack marketing list

(marketing@cloudstack.apache.org) addressed to Sally Khudari, Chip

Childers or Karen Vuong

• Include a spreadsheet with your tweets about your CloudStack Meetup

• Chip, Sally or Karen will get them scheduled within 24 hours

Tweets

• Create click-to-tweets

• Clicktotweet.com

• Ask others in the community to tweet

Promoting your meetup:

linkedin

Promote your Meetup:

Announce & Remind

• Announce your meetup to group members:• Email members in your meetup group

• Don’t be afraid to send reminders!

• Send reminders 7, 2, 1, and the day of the meetup reminding attendees that it’s still happening

• Setup automatic reminders on meetup.com

Promote your Meetup:

Event websites

• Post your meetup on event websites and event calendars:• opensource.com

• eventbrite.com

• lanyrd.com

• eventful.com

Opensource.com

• Conferences and Events

section

• Click on “submit it today”

• Fill out the form and click

submit

• A RedHat admin will review

and approve your request

eventbrite

Lanyrd.com

Eventful.com

Promote your Meetup: blurbs

• Write up a blurb that other meetup group organizers in the area can share with their members

This meetup will beAWESOME!

#MyAwesomeMeetUp

This is a partner announcement from the CloudStack Silicon Valley User Meetup group. It might

be very interesting for many of you:

____

Dear Community,

It's my pleasure to announce that our next meetup will be around Docker, Kubernetes, CoreOS

and Big Data in Apache CloudStack! Our main speaker of the evening will be Sebastien

Goasguen. He is currently a Senior Open Source Solutions Architect at Citrix, where he works

primarily on the Apache CloudStack project, helping to develop the CloudStack ecosystem.

Sebastien is a project management committee member (PMC) of CloudStack and Apache

libcloud and a member of the Apache Software Foundation.

RSVP NOW: http://www.meetup.com/CloudStack-Silicon-Valley-User-Group/

example

Promote your Meetup:

Email Blasts

Tweet pictures during the

meetup!

You’re done with the meetup!

Celebrate!

Now what?

After the meetup

Setup PromoteAfter the

meetup

After the Meetup Checklist

Good to see you!

Share Links to Slides and Videos

Upload Pictures

Write a Recap Blog Post

Be Consistent and Poll!

• Keep a consistent schedule – every 1.5 months is good.

• Create a poll and ask members which topics they are interested in (make a list of 4 or so)

• Poll only takes 30 seconds!

Checklists are for you!

clds.co/csmeetupguide

QUESTIONS?

Thank you

@kar3nv

karenvuong02@gmail.com

Slides: