Here are my rough notes from Community Leadership Summit 2017 keynotes. From what I could see there was video being recorded, so I expect that these will be published soon. I made notes, some people have already shared slides (and I’ve linked to them).

5 Keys to a Successful Contributor Program – Sherrie Rohde – Magento

• @sherrierohde / sherrie@magento.com
• monthly meet ups/chats – #cmgrhangout
• magneto masters (inspired by Lithium Stars – there is a community manager certification course). Super users. Top contributors.
• what is a top contributor program? Not an influencer or advocacy program in this context. People who help move the community forward
• Slides

5 keys to a successful contributor program:

1. Involve stakeholders in your planning early & often
2. Find value for everyone involved. What’s in it for the company? This is important when needing a budget. Don’t forget what’s in it for the contributors – ask what will make them want to be part of this. Have dedicated area of website to give them spotlight / showcase. Create a legacy together (don’t use them! Work together to bring more value to community)
3. Don’t shortcut your communication plan. Announce internally/externally. Know why they are selected
4. Keep an open dialogue. Have quarterly council calls. Find out what happens in their world. Talk about your world. Gathering place: hidden lounge on forums, slack channel
5. Analyze your results. Measuring is important. Demonstrate value of what you’re doing. Measure key objectives. What equals success? Increase in contributors? Survey your masters!

How to run a community publication – Rikki Endsley – Opensource.com

• @rikkiends / rikki@opensource.com
• RH community site with community + content. No author budget.
• make sure they are getting a return on their time and energy
• more than a million page views per month
• have roles. Let people earn status on the blog. In addition you can have role based badges (it works well for blogs, not going to motivate everyone but it does help)
• stay organized and maintain a schedule (they use a trello board). Don’t be so ambitious in terms for schedule
• reach out personally to writers
• people like lists
• give a strong lede. Let people know what they’re going to find
• make sharing content easy
• they also use adobe analytics

Metrics as a Trojan horse for real relationships – Matt Broberg – Intel

• @mbbroberg
• people are all that matter. We miss that when we measure things too closely.
• corporations true goal is to make money. Sales make money. Engineering make products. Marketing provides leads. Support provides loyalty for customers (net promoter score). Community? More hugs?
• accounting for cost? Why do I care if you got a talk or need to order stickers? Calculating ROI is hard. Hugs doesn’t fit into p&l stsfements.
• counting peanuts instead of building community – you watch instead of being a member of the community. Nobody wants a tribal leader who isn’t part of the tribe – that’s called a dictator.
• what’s worth measuring?
• same breath awareness with the top 1-2 competitors in the space in terms of % share of voice
• measure only what your business values. Ask a ton of questions to your organizational leadership. You need to know what success is measured in
• the minute we choose to measure we are choosing to aspire to it. Be choosy about what you measure. And what you share within the organization because you are measured against it
• community doesn’t org chart good
• community does not lead to revenue – but it’s so often the best way to get there. Catalyst effect.
• Ultimately we are story tellers but the metrics can give us validity in the organization
• slides

All Things Open conference – Todd Lewis

• @toddlew / toddlew.com
• answer the “why” of the conference
• what events really are? What results when you focus on the why?
• people coming together with a basic set of values. Manifestation of technology, oss, education, networking, community
• always start with the why. Why am I hosting this? Answer and convey honestly. Trust is the goal
• all things open has the “why”. They also have a code of conduct
• authenticity is vital and key, whatever the venue
• attendees tend to view ourselves as “we” not “me”. Trust helps overlook mistakes.
• do a speaker/sponsor dinner. Release of oxytocin. What do speakers get?
• technology adoption curve – Everett Roger’s – diffusion of innovations 1962
• got to cross the chasm – still applies to technology events. Each of these blocks build on another
• how do you get people (early adopters) on gut? Values!
• always say thank you! Be nice
• “it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice”, “kindness matters”, “integrity is doing the right thing when no one else is watching”

Ask not what your community can do for you – Stephen R. Walli

• @stephenrwalli
• “If I build it, they will come” – you see big companies pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into this pit as well.
• The definitive act of creating open source is you publish your software with an open source license
• Choosing a license is a social contract. License reciprocity is not about software freedom; its a community decision
• How do you choose a home? What do you like about it? There are three sorts of neighbours in your community: people who simply want to live there, people that report potholes & trash, etc, the people that organise the block party, pick up the trash, etc. – in open source for every 1,000 users, 100 will file a bug, out of which 10 people may provide a patch, of which 1 actually read the contribution guidelines!
• Costs of entering & leaving communities!
• What does your 10-minute rule look like? You have to ensure your software does something useful in that time, otherwise they abandon your project or it becomes shelfware.

All Contributions Welcome – Katie McLaughlin

• katie@glasnt.com – KatieConf / @glasnt
• Leslie Hawthorn – how to find and keep contributors – #LABHR – https://hawthornlandings.org/2015/02/13/a-place-to-hang-your-hat/
• Have awards and acknowledgement within a project. E.g. If you contribute to Beeware, you get a shiny coin
• HappinessPackets.io / saythanks.io
• LinkedIn: recommendations & endorsements
• Github: only some commits count, issues and pull requests – see the commit info
• labhr.github.io

5 things I wish I knew before becoming a community organiser – Jason Hibbets – Opensource.com

• @jhibbets
• Shared purpose & passion
• Understand the talent and motivations of participants – ask them what they’re good at, ask them what they want to do
• Practice 2-way goal setting
• Say thank you. A handwritten note? Public recognition
• Listen more. Talk more. Be inquisitive.
• Remember that every interaction is a gift. Even negative reactions (you can maybe flip this)
• Incorporate feedback loops into every interaction. Try, learn and modify.
• Find your superstars and let them shine
• Empower and trust your top participants
• Gamification does not have to be a competition (on opensource.com there are badges and points)
• Show appreciation and gratitude, recognise those efforts (get them conference passes, travel support, additional rights, etc.). In person experiences are the ultimate reward
• Celebrate milestones (hard to do globally; be creative)
• Create a community awards program (beginners as well as experienced folk)
• Be prepared and communicate effectively
• Prepare as much in advance as possible
• Automate as much as you can, but understand when a personal touch is required
• Be short & concise in your messaging
• Don’t go to participants with an ask everytime. You don’t want to be that guy!
• Avoid engaging in endless debates (Slack vs IRC, which linux distributions to use, etc.)
• Community means something different to almost everyone
• Educate all the different audiences
• Be aware that part of the role as organisers is to balance value between community and company
• Document everything you do to measure success; trip reports, interactions, etc. document your Rolodex. Have a monthly report with standard metrics. Document the big wins that standard metrics don’t measure.
• Burnout is real (avoid it)
• Know and understand that community doesn’t stop at 5 o’clock on a Friday. Having flexible work schedules helps!
• Know signs of burnout for participants and yourself
• Have a plan of how to address burnout and recharge your batteries
• Be intentional on creating time for family, friends, etc.
• Grow your career and sharpen the stone. Get different ideas and bring them back in.
• Your most valuable asset: your network. Value and build your network. It goes with you no matter where you go
• slides PDF, slides ODP

Open Source as a Social Movement – Abigail Cabunoc Mayes – Mozilla

• @abbycabs
• Opening story: My Grandmother, My Work, and My Open Science Story
• Marshall Ganz – we turn to narrative quote
• Open Leadership Principles: Design for participation, share decision making, share code and content
• Explore the Mozilla network: Mozilla Pulse (mozillapulse.org)
• internethealthreport.org – what’s hurting and what’s helping the web
• Storytelling in movements
• Communicate values which give us emotions and that provides action
• Marshall Ganz, Public narrative, collective action and power – From Inertia to Public Action

Bonus choice tweet

#CLS17 folks, it diminishes Community to bash other teams. Please stop saying/implying negative things about sales, marketing, etc.

– VM (Vicky) Brasseur (@vmbrasseur) May 6, 2017