Bootstrapping a Tech Community

Demi Ben-Ari

About Me

Demi Ben-Ari, Co-Founder & VP R&D @ Panorays

● Co-Founder @○ “Big Things” Big Data Community○ Google Developer Group Cloud Tel-Aviv○ Ofek Alumni Association

● BS’c Computer Science – Academic College Tel-Aviv Yaffo

In the Past:

● Sr. Data Engineer @ Windward● Software Team Leader & Senior Java Software Engineer● Missile defense and Alert System - “Ofek” – IAF

About Me - Leading Communities

“Big Things”● Big Data● Data Science● DevOps

GDG Cloud● Cloud

Technologies○ Private○ Public

● Ofek Alumni○ General

Tech GroupFocus

Agenda

● Story Telling○ Course of action in the past 2+ years

● Insights: “What actually worked for us”● Questions that came in mind● Conclusions

What is A Tech Community?(IMHO)

How we started?

● Facebook Group - Knowledge Sharing○ Closed Group - Invite Only○ Most of the posts were share by a really small group of people

● Reason○ Share technological posts○ Create a platform for people to communicate instantly○ Basically - Most of the people we already on Facebook

● After a month we had ~150 people only by Invites○ Because of the high adoption, opened up to a public group

Face to Face is always better● Created a Meetup group

○ First initiative - Gave the a talk myself ○ Found a place that will host the event through friends

● The Plan was:○ Monthly meetup○ Each one will have 2 talks○ Talk’s outline the Works

■ Business Problem ■ A bit about the Tech■ How we solved the problem with the Tech

Face to Face is always better

Face to Face is always better● After a year of Meetups (Stats)

○ Facebook Group - ~ 650 people (Around 10-20 really active)○ Meetup Group -

■ ~ 1500 people■ 12 Meetups■ High Demand by companies to give talks and to host

● After 2 Years○ Facebook Group - ~ 1200 people (Around 20-30 really active)○ Meetup Group -

■ ~ 2500 people■ 16 Meetups■ High Demand by companies to give talks and to host

Face to Face is always better

● One year anniversary meetup

What is not Face to Face?

● All of the meetups are recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

Effective Meetup Outline● 2 Talks per meeting

○ 30-45 minutes each.

● Talk’s schedule and structure○ Business Problem.○ A bit about the technology (Really high overview).○ “How did we solve the problem with the technology”.

Questions that came in mind● What language to conduct it in?● Should it be in a single location?● Should you take on sponsorship of some company?● What other events to hold?

○ Hackathons○ Workshops○ Webinars

● Which Platform to spread the word at?

Conclusion

● Be on the Media the Community is at.● Create a Platform for people to feel comfortable to communicate.● Try recording as much as you can to share the data.

◦ As you know, people are “Busy”.● The “30% Rule”.● Keep it as Detached as possible from any Commercial company.● You basically become a router in the end.

◦ Try leveraging it to help people out!● Meet your audience where they are and not where you are

Questions?

● LinkedIn● Twitter: @demibenari● Blog:

http://progexc.blogspot.com/● demi.benari@gmail.com

● “Big Things” Community

�Meetup, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter

● GDG Cloud