Building Impact Through Developer Communities | DEM377

Can you hear me now? We're good. Okay. Hi everyone and welcome. My name is Golam Rabeya. I am the Azure community lead. Um and my role is really focused on community, empowering communities around the world. Uh today we are joined by community leaders from .NET, Azure, Fabric, Global AI. And they're here to talk about what it means to build community, how to get involved. Um And we'll hear about their journeys in leadership, lessons they learned along the way, practical ways in which you can get involved, start a community, or even connect with others who share your passion for technology. Uh again, this is meant to be a interactive conversation, so feel free to raise your hand if you have questions, but we'll just jump into it. Um We'll start off with introductions. Looking at my panelists, can you please tell me a little bit about who you are, what community you represent, and how you first got involved in leadership? >> My name is Mitchell. Can you guys hear me? There we go. My name is Mitchell Sellers. I represent the .NET community. I've been active in various bits of the .NET community since 2008-2009. Got into some leadership roles through a couple open source projects and other things. Kind of tripped, fell, and landed there. Not sure that I could do it again. But ever since then I've been in leadership roles within open source communities, conferences, events, and a few other things as well as the .NET Foundation. So, lots of interesting community experiences. >> My name is Prashantji Boyer. I am from the Washington D.C. area of the United States. And I've been active in the community since 2012. My first experience with the community was as an attendee. And then I started helping with the running the user groups and slowly started getting into running uh local conferences as well. Uh and we have one of the strong communities in the DC area. Uh we meet every month in person and also we run like three to four community conferences in a year on various topics around Microsoft tech. >> My name is Ree Merrill. Um I am a principal PM manager with Microsoft and um my job is influencers, community, and events for Azure data. And so what falls under my purview are the MVP programs, um two different user group networks, super users, our engagement at various events um across the community, and then FabCon and SQLCon. Um in my not Microsoft working life, um I run a user group uh based in Atlanta, Atlanta Azure data. And prior to um uh the pandemic, ran um SQL Saturday Atlanta, and haven't gotten back in involved in that lately, but um so personal life, community oriented, and then I turned it into a job. >> Thank you. So can you tell a little bit about what motivated you to step in a leadership role when it comes to your communities? Like what was the deciding factor for you to to take this leadership role? >> I'm a control freak. Um I like to be in charge of things and um when other people don't do it right, I get frustrated. No, I just So even even with my job, right? So um in the role that I'm in at Microsoft, slowly things got put onto my plate, but the same happened kind of in the community, right? I started helping out just a little bit um and found that I could take that on my plate, right? Still have a full-time job, still be a mom to my daughter, but um and then could also um give that little bit back to the community, right? Like I So I built my career in the community, right? I went from junior DBA all the way up to director of database administration for the largest payment processor in the world because I attended user groups and I attended regular meetings and all of that. So, this was just this little way of how can I give back. And then just kind of like took on a little bit more and a little bit more and um next thing I know I'm running the group. So, that's how. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, I have two reasons for it. One is the first uh because some of the mentors who mentored me uh in the early part of my career they were like, "Okay, now I need to you know uh step back. I'm in a phase of life where I need to spend more time with my family." That was one reason. Uh and second is uh I started getting into the leadership role with the communities around 2017 area time. Uh and that's the time I saw, "Hey, this shiny new thing called AI is there. Uh companies like Microsoft and others are investing a lot of time, but there's not much uh you know happening around that." So, how I can get involved uh and you know start my own user group so that you know we like like-minded people come together and start discussing around different topics. Like some of the topics that were really hot that time was uh Microsoft Cognitive Services, like how a developer community can use the services and start build solution. And one of the ways I found is if nobody else is doing it, then why not I just step up uh and you know be a leadership role and start organizing user group meetings. And then at the same time uh there was also a push from Microsoft, you know, "Hey, we need more day-long events on this area. Like can you help us doing that?" And we started collaborating with Global AI Community and also uh Microsoft Azure group, uh where now along with the monthly user group meeting we also started running the day-long conferences as well. >> Yeah, as I said, for and for me it's a very similar to the others, you know, I got started in in my career and the community events and some of those interactions really gave me some opportunities. So, I was looking for ways to give back as people stepped away um and other ways just to be able to kind of help keep things moving along. The other thing is is that as you step into the leadership role, um you get reminded of some of the things that were new to you when you got started. Um they help make you a you know, a better manager, a better mentor as well because you are the one now helping lead those other new people into the community and showing them, okay, well, here, here's how you can get involved. Here's how we might be able to help you help whatever the organization or the event or that kind of thing is. So, it's a way for me to also, you know, help keep that momentum going and bring more to the communities to help keep the process moving. >> Thank you. If someone wants to get involved in the tech community, what's the best way to start? >> Um so, I think I would have to to ask you what does involved mean, right? So, you can you can be an attendee. Like you never you never have to do anything but attend a user group meeting and you're in community, right? You're attending Build, you're here at the session, you're in the community. Check. Right. So, you're done. You've already accomplished one thing on your list, right? Um so, I think it would depend on what involved means, right? You can be an active participant, ask questions, attend meetings, right? Like as a leader, seeing somebody consistently attend is quite the rush, right? Oh, I'm doing something right. They appreciate it. So, that's all you would ever have to do. Um but, I would suggest not jumping into the deep end of the pool if you want to get involved in leading or guiding the community, right? Start small. I started um helping with registration at an event that we hosted. Like that was my my zero entry pool into into leading the community, right? I the first time I spoke at a conference I moderated a women in tech panel, right? Little short entry. Um so I would say start small, pick something, go talk to your local user group leader. How can I help? Can I be the person that's in charge of ordering pizza each month? Can I be the person who makes sure the emails go out each month, right? It's it sounds small, but to that person who's running the group it would be such a load off if even just three people in a group offered to do something each month. So that's my advice. Find your local user group and ask them, "Hey, how can I help?" >> Yep. All great points made by Reeve. One thing I can add is find your sweet spot. Like what do you like to do more? Or what are some of the activities which you enjoy? Uh for some people it may be helping the user group with social media post. Uh some people may be really good in terms of, you know, sending out marketing email. Some people I know uh in our user group they're really good in terms of finding what should the food we order, what kind of quantity, which restaurant we should order from because all these small small things matters and it takes some time. So find your sweet spot uh and then see uh and then start getting slowly into it. And once you like it, then maybe you can take on more and more responsibilities. >> Or not. >> Yeah, as I say and everything that these two mentioned I would completely agree. I'll add two small things. Go to the parties and the after events and anything that you go to. If you want to get involved, that's your place to start. That's where you're going to meet the organizers, the speakers, those of us that are there, right? No matter how many conferences I go to a year, which is like 15, maybe 20 a year, I always go to the parties because you never know who you're going to run into, who you're going to get a chance to connect with. And those introductions are sometimes your ways in, whether it is in a volunteer basis, as a speaking basis, as a professional basis, as a hey, you found the right person to complain to about that product that you used." All of the above can happen, and that's one of those ways in. The other thing is is if you have a unique ability, especially anything in the tech space, if you're a marketing person, a social person, somebody that does some of those things that maybe aren't as prevalent in the community, and those are the types of skills that you want to help volunteer, those are really the things. Even if you just volunteer and say, "Hey, I could do this or I could help with this." Maybe they won't need you now, but they might need you later and then being there and having those conversations, you never know when that networking will come back and be of benefit to you or others long term. >> Okay. So, taking this a step further, if someone wanted to start a user group for your particular community, can you talk through the steps and the requirements and what that looks like? >> Uh so, that's that's just me, right? You two don't run. Okay. Uh so, I run two different user group networks, and we have There's a whole process in place um about what you need to do to start a user group on your own um and to manage it and to qualify for the kind of benefits that we offer. Um we have the Azure Data Community, we have the Fabric Community. Um similarly, Galema has and his group has the same criteria that mine does, right? So, um you have to apply. If you It's It's If you're already running a user group, great. You're applying for support. Do you already meet the criteria? So, to be a Microsoft user group, you actually have to talk about the Microsoft stack. Not every meeting. We both have um um part of our policy is at least half of your meetings need to be about the Microsoft stack. Right? Now, that doesn't mean you can't talk about other stuff the other half of the time, but if you're going to call yourself a Microsoft user group, you better at least dress up like one. Right? So, you have to hold a certain number of meetings a year. You have to have at least two leaders. You can't run one by yourself. Because if you start building this group and you're running it by yourself and you get hit by a bus, what happens to the user group? There's no leadership left to handle things. There's not even anybody left who has the right permissions to email everybody in the group to say, "Hey, somebody got hit by a bus." Right? So, um but there's there is that application process. Now, if you don't already have a group and you want to start one, um I think my advice would be, and this is the guidance that we give to our user group leaders, is that's a really bad idea. If you haven't already run a user group, if you think it's easy, you're you're going to fail. Like you just really really are going to fail. You're going to think it's easy and it's not going to be easy. You're not going to have a support network. So, my advice would be to find another group that you can kind of work with them a little bit, learn the ropes, learn how to how to connect with speakers, learn how to find sponsors, learn how to identify a venue. Um all of these things that that you aren't just born knowing, right? You can learn from somebody else. And then, when you've gotten a little bit of it down, if you wanted to start something on your own, that's when I would recommend um like I don't think we if you apply with us, we absolutely don't just hand out user groups if you have no idea what you're doing. >> I agree. Um reflecting on your experience as community leaders, um what has been your favorite community moment or success story? >> I can go first. So, one of my favorite success story is So, I'm from Washington D.C. area, uh and we have a different kind of diverse uh you know audience over there. Some people work in the federal sector or government sector, some people work in uh the the the commercial organizations. And most of you know, like a lot of things are happening in the federal sector, especially since last 2 years. A lot of people in the D.C. area, they're either out of work or they are they have to change the career. And one of the success stories we had recently is So we we run a lot of you know entry-level kind of sessions, entry-level hands-on workshop where we work with Microsoft and give you the environment where okay, here you go. Just bring your laptop and you're going to build a thing in a day. And couple of attendees they really got introduced to some of the new technologies from Microsoft and one attendee just came to us last month saying, "Hey, because of all this training we had, we actually did a career change and we found an entry-level job now where I was doing something else before, but now I found an entry-level job in IT because the tools or the labs that we you gave us really helped me to uncover new things and now I just launched into that and then to put some extra time and because of that I could make a career change. >> Yeah, as I say, for me a lot of it comes down to especially for user group and an event-based support is it's seeing those individuals progress in their career whether it be, you know, a job scenario as as you mentioned, but I see a lot of people that we help. You know, when we evaluate speakers, one of the hardest things within the event, right, is is saying yes or no to a speaker. Right, I don't ever want to tell somebody no because you don't have any experience because well, how do you get experience if nobody gives you a chance? So, I have a real strong tendency to work with those that are new speakers and there's nothing better for me than to see that person that, you know, gave their first talk at our event, maybe didn't go so great. They got some feedback and they moved on and then now I see them at all of the other events, the same events that I'm at, doing their own thing or starting their own user group. So, for me it's that continuing to feed the cycle and feed the machine. That's the real, you know, winning moments for me is is seeing others seeing those people even, you know, I've been an MVP for 17 years, seeing them get nominated into the MVP program there at Summit with me. You know, that's that's what we're all about is to continue to make things better within our individual communities. >> Um so, I think I think my example of like this this great moment in the community is actually a little bit more personal than yours were. So, um at my user group in Atlanta, this this woman who eventually became my friend said to me one day, "You're the reason I came back." And I was like, "Explain. Like what what exactly do you mean by that?" And she said, "I had come to the user group a couple of years ago. And um the session that they presented was really really complicated." And she said, "I thought I was in over my head." She said, "So, I didn't come back for like a full year." And she said, "Then the next year I decided I'm going to come back again, give it another shot." She had a year of experience on it with her, right? And so, she comes in and sit down. And by then I had moved to town. I was involved in the user group. And I see her there. I've never seen her before. So, I walked over and I introduced myself to her. "Who are you? What do you do? Are you from the Atlanta area? Whatever." We talked for a minute. And then I like call other people over and introduce them to her. Um so, that she felt comfortable and welcomed at this user group. And she said, "And I just kind of knew right then that I found my place and I found my people." And so, she eventually actually became a speaker, became an MVP. She's not anymore. I hired her eventually to work for me. Um but it was And to me, that moment, I didn't even really remember it until she talked about it. That was I was just being kind to someone who had just shown up and sat down by herself. Um but to her, it changed the trajectory of something, right? So, the idea that some little teeny tiny thing that I did, introducing myself to someone and introducing her to other people, that it changed the trajectory of her career, is such like a drug. Right? That's I mean, it was just so powerful for me to know that this one little thing had this kind of impact. So, that's the one for me. >> Thank you for sharing. Uh before we open up to the crowd, um my last question is what was your last event? What did it look like? Um what learnings do you have to share? Like if you had one one mistake that new community leaders can avoid, what would that be? Um yeah. >> I I got this one, unfortunately. Um one of the events that I I helped organize um has been struggling ever since COVID. Um you know, we were in-person all of the time, COVID happened, we pivoted, did our first virtual event. It was an amazing success. And then last year, after a lot of pressure from our community, they're like, "We want to be in-person. We want to be in-person." Um yeah, the money wasn't where the people were, and uh it was a big flop. Um we had a a great success, and then we kind of went down to people still wanted to be there, but they didn't want to spend the money to travel, they didn't want to go anywhere, they didn't want to pay that much money for a ticket. We still got a lot of in-person. And so, the real learning for me with that is trust your gut and and know your community. You know, I gave in to some of the pressures from some long-time community members that we had and said, "Okay, fine, we'll give it a try." Um at the end of the day, you know, thankfully our org had built up enough funds within our community um to where it wasn't, you know, a devastating blow, but in many cases it would have been. So, understanding that audience is one of those things that like if you have a feel for it, you have a feel for it. He mentioned government people. We have a lot of those in the one of the communities that I work within and they don't have travel budgets and they don't do a lot of discretionary spending. So, a $200 online event or a $100 online event, that's a no-brainer. But, a travel to any location, doesn't matter where it is, that ends up being on their own dime and for our community, that meant us going from 150 attendees to only 80. Um, and that's just one of those lessons you learn over time. And so, definitely it's just paying attention and and knowing where you're going and what you're doing, even if you've been doing it for a long time. >> So, on similar note, recently we used to organize a lot of free events and with the free event, one thing we observed is the attendance rate was almost 40 to 50%. So, every time we have a free event and let's say the venue can accommodate 100 people, we used to sell 200 tickets. And we used to plan food for let's say 100 people. And recently what happened is because we had a lot of no-shows, one of the new thing we are trying is just add a nominal fees as a ticket price. Like for example, $10 and $15. And because of that, what we are finding is the attendance rate is almost 80 to 85% and we had a situation recently where we didn't anticipate that. So, we planned the food for 60% people and suddenly 80% people showed up. Luckily, we had pizza places where we can order food from, but that was like a really good lesson learned for us saying like, "Hey, if you are going to charge even $5, make sure your attendance rate is going to be almost 80 to 85%." >> Okay, so my example does not align. One of my jobs is Fab Con, right? So, I help run Fab Con. And so, that was in Atlanta this past year at the Georgia World Congress Center and we had 8,000 attendees in person. It's now the second largest conference that Microsoft runs. Um but we kind of have some of the same problems along the way, right? Um speakers submission, like we get a lot of them but some of them are bad. Um so I spend a lot of time training people on how to write a good abstract. Um but we infuse, I think probably better than a lot of conferences do. Fab Con infuses community into the whole thing. Like the the the budget I have to devote to the community experience at Fab Con um and SQL Con um is is large because I say this anytime I get involved in a conference. You all can go to any conference, any training that you want to anywhere and learn something. But you'll come back to a conference because of the way it made you feel. Did you feel welcomed? Did you feel connected? Did you feel like your speaker knew what they were talking about and that that they were talking to you and that those points landed and that the you know, the expo hall where all the sponsors are did it just feel like they were only screaming marketing at you or was there some level of engagement, right? So we have a huge community lounge. I think the space that it took up in Atlanta was 30 ft by 100 ft of not a single sponsor, nothing commerce, just community. Theaters where they talked about community, um meet and greets, um uh certifications, um MVP program, user groups, game night every night, um in the afternoon cupcakes or cookies or whatever, like bean bags, charging stations, all that stuff. Only community, not commerce. Just giving people the opportunity outside of a of a session to connect and to recharge and to meet somebody or to meet somebody with a like with like interest, right? So, if you all you've been here now a whole day, it's almost the end of the first day. How many of you have not met someone that you have connected with on LinkedIn or some other way? You've all done that, right? Right? So, if you haven't been doing that, you're doing it wrong. Right? You need to build your network. That's what this is for. Your network is your community when you go back to work. That's who's going to answer your questions. So, make the community make the community feed your career while you're here. >> Thank you. Can we get a round of applause for our our panelists?