Arrange in person GitLab Contributor Days event
What is a Contributor Days event?
GitLab Contributor Days is a gathering of people loving, learning and discussing the open-source DevOps platform GitLab. The event is organized by GitLab team members & the Wider GitLab community which gathers people from all over the world who contribute to the progress of GitLab.
Today it is planned to be a fringe (sub) event of cfgmgmtcamp https://cfgmgmtcamp.eu/ghent2023/ and fringe fringe event of Fosdem https://fosdem.org/2023/fringe/.
Activities?
There is no CFP nor are there any planned sessions. It is more "birds-of-a-feather style, or otherwise said unconference style. We will have tables for +- 30 people and different areas of interest to work on. There will be mentors in the room throughout the day that will help you get started, and there will also be a list of "quick wins" to fix, just to get the hang of it. Returning contributors can obviously work on itches they want to scratch themselves and will have the opportunity to discuss strategies and more in-person.
At the same time, it's possible for the participants to follow the sessions of cfgmgmtcamp, but also for participants of the camp to come and learn to contribute.
Why?
We have a goal of getting to a thousand unique contributors monthly. One of the key pillars we haven't been investing in yet to scale our community, is personal connection and fostering more collaboration. There is a saying that people come for the code and stay for the community. This is exactly what this event aims to do as a POC. Forming meaningful human connections, finding common itches to scratch.
Goals
We expect this event to increase the amount of returning contributors, which in effect will increase the amount of unique monthly contributors. Currently we have 62% of returning contributors, but only 34% of them is a frequent contributor ( > 10 MRs in the last 2 years). With this event we want to increase the feeling of belonging, which will lead to more contributions as these contributors are more likely to stick around, and in effect increase the total amount of contributions while also increasing the total unique amount of contributors.
Data:
- https://app.periscopedata.com/app/gitlab/729542/Wider-Community-PIs?widget=15823693&udv=1725754 - Shows the division between new, returning (> 1 MR in the last 2 years) & highly returning (> 10 MRs in the last 2 years)
- https://app.periscopedata.com/app/gitlab/729542/Wider-Community-PIs?widget=15823626&udv=1725754 - Shows the percentage of new vs all returning visitors
The exact details of our current ROI plan can be viewed at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cgiSHJ8PHlhilSNiuZ2Ly6RKTbbs6GrLrqGhejKyaUI/edit#gid=0
Where?
- Location: Belgium, Ghent
- Date: 7 & 8th of February
- Length: 2 days
Volunteer list:
- @leetickett-gitlab
- @stingrayza
@kgoossens- @zillemarco (unsure whether will be able to attend, but will definitely be able to support organizing)
- @abuango
- @cbacharakis
- @sri19
- @dnsmichi (speaking at Config Management Camp on Feb 7, full attendance Feb 8)
Tasks:
-
Send out questionnaire who is interested -
confirm location -
confirm dates -
create ROI plan -
signoff budget -
Add to meetup.com -
Add to about.gitlab.com/events https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/events/#how-to-add-events-to-aboutgitlabcomevents -
Create section with info on how to get there / create section where to stay -
Market the event on social media, discord, gitter, etc.. in December -
Market the event on social media, discord, gitter, etc.. in Januari -
Send out email to Leading Orgs (cc @epetoskey) that this event is happening and that they are welcome. -
Send out email to Large open source communities that are using GitLab that this event is happening and that they are welcome (@bbehr) -
Order swag so it arrives ahead of the event -
Order print material such as a banner so it arrives ahead of the event (arrange to borrow from FOSDEM :) -
Decide on way of working (label, topics etc..) -
Decide on a social event & dinner on Tuesday -
Decide on breakfast & lunch options for the event
Discord channel: https://discord.com/channels/778180511088640070/1030581072293015603
Consider creating a blog post after the event