Percona Supports Community Events - Organize Yours With Us!

One of the things we love doing in Percona is participating in community events and inspiring people to stay connected in the changing world. We have experience in organizing community dinners, meetups, lectures at universities, booths, and even conferences both in-person and virtually. Percona speakers give talks on events all around the globe.

Have you ever thought about organizing a themed meeting for your local open source community? It may harbor many possibilities for you. New acquaintances might open career opportunities or bring a collaboration on a new project. If you solve a difficult task on your work, discussing it with people from the community can inspire you to look at it from a different angle and benefit from the experience of other people. And last but not least is the pleasure of meeting new like-minded people either online or in-person! If in your location gatherings of open source lovers are rare, maybe you are the one to organize the next?

If you are already stoked about this idea, here are some simple steps to take. And Percona is ready to reinforce you on your way!

1. Define the format of the event, find a location, and set the date. If it is planned as an in-person one, make sure to take into consideration health policies and restrictions in your area.
2. Find volunteers to help you. Contact the Marketing or HR department in your company and ask for support on this journey. Share this experience with your friends and colleagues!
3. Create a form for attendees to fill in, so you could be aware of how many people are interested to go. Some resources, for example, Eventbrite are free to use for free events.
4. Contact various IT companies, universities, or educational organizations to find sponsors or speakers. Sponsoring may include not only financial assistance but also marketing and social media coverage, access to the venue at no cost, participation of invited experts, swag and gifts for attendees, etc.
5. Advertise your event on social media: do regular tweets, post on LinkedIn and Facebook. Do not underestimate your network - notify all of your friends from the open source world and ask them to share the information!
6. Think of the supplies you might need and order or rent them. It might be pull-up banners to advertise your sponsors, swag, paper with pens for your attendees, a flipchart with markers, a monitor or screen for your speakers to demonstrate slides, etc. If you don’t have many attendees, it might be a better solution to ask your sponsors to provide swag rather than order it. Also, don’t forget to make sure that you will have access to electrical outlets at the venue if necessary.
7. And here it is, the day of the event! Organize some social activities for attendees to motivate them to spread the word about your event and your sponsors. For example, give away swag for sharing a picture on social media or arrange a prize drawing.
8. Don’t forget to take some pictures and, of course, have fun! Share the pictures with attendees post-event and publish them on socials.

Planning events is thrilling, rewarding, and not that difficult as it may look at first sight. And Percona is ready to support you! Just contact us at community-team@percona.com to tell us about your meetup or lecture and discuss sponsorship opportunities. We can share our expertise on event organizing, guide you, find a Percona speaker with online or even in-person presentation, sponsor your event, advertise it on our social or provide swag for it. The preference is given to small local community events to avoid long-distance travel for attendees and stay safe and eco-friendly. We are open to new opportunities and would love to work with you. We look forward to meeting you next year! ∎