Austin
April 25-29, 2016

Event Details

Please note: All times listed below are in Central Time Zone


Build It and They Will Come (Easier Said Than Done!)

OpenStack Cloud Computing is much more than technology. It’s a community. And our community wasn’t built by accident! Building and growing this amazing community has been a result of the very deliberate efforts of some extremely dedicated people, as well as crucial community tools like GitHub, IRC, Stack Overflow, Google Hangout, and Twitter. Great OpenStack meetups are powerful. They foster a collaborative, inclusive environment, focused on important issues to the developers and users who make OpenStack tick. Across the world, individual leaders are finding a remedy for the detachment that sometimes plagues remote workers by hosting sanctioned OpenStack Meetups to share and exchange information. Come meet 4 of the top OpenStack Community Managers and OpenStack meetup organizers and hear how they have managed to grow and nurture this vibrant community. Learn best practices and tips and tricks for starting meetups in your area, and retaining your devoted followers. 


What can I expect to learn?

In this session you will hear from the organizers of the world’s largest OpenStack user groups, the tools they use, and how they have manage to build and retain the largest most vivrant global user communities (and local ones in their own back yards). Presented by: Lisa-Marie Namphy & Sean Roberts (SFBay, 5500 members), Tassoula Kokkoris (Seattle, 1300 members), and Gary Kevorkian (LA, 900 members). In the famous words of Mother Teresa “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

Thursday, April 28, 3:10pm-3:50pm (8:10pm - 8:50pm UTC)
Difficulty Level: Beginner
Head of Developer Relations
Lisa-Marie Namphy is one of the OpenStack Ambassadors for the USA and an active member of the OSF Diversity & Inclusion Working Group. Lisa is also a Kubernetes Ambassador. Lisa organizes and runs the SF Bay OpenStack and the Cloud Native Containers User Groups, personally hosting the meetups for the past 9 years. Lisa has been a long time contributor, advocate (and fan) of open source... FULL PROFILE
Blue Box
For over two decades, Tassoula Kokkoris has led teams with her creative, inventive approach to marketing. Starting her career as a fashion copywriter at Nordstrom she then managed award-winning public relations teams in the education and financial sectors before joining the tech industry with Blue Box in 2014. Since her arrival at IBM, she has ignited the OpenStack Seattle community by reviving... FULL PROFILE
Events Marketing Manager
Gary Kevorkian is a 35+ year veteran of the tech industry having worked at a variety of software, hardware, and internet companies. Gary became a part of the OpenStack community when he joined Metacloud (now part of Cisco) in 2013. In addition to serving as key member of the core marketing function driving events and awareness for OpenStack, Gary also leads the OpenStack LA User Group. You can... FULL PROFILE
Technology Leader
“I enjoy working with all the different people involved with OpenStack. There is constant state of optimism and a drive to improve. If I had to pick one thing that makes me feel renewed and happy about my work, it would be helping people to improve themselves. I always am humbled when I can help someone find a new job or gain a new skill. This is what keeps me going.” FULL PROFILE