Planning IndiaFOSS 3.0

IndiaFOSS Conference
#1

Extremely thrilled to announce the third edition of our annual IndiaFOSS conference!

Call for volunteers in regards to different workgroups shall be open soon.

Stay tuned for more updates.

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#3

MoM - 01-08-2023
Attendees: @WishArya and @mriya11

  1. Freezing the sponsorship deck.
  2. [To-Do]Enable Comments on the talk proposal’s web-view page
  3. For the Industry partners, we discussed which category to allot in them IndiaFOSS 3. sponsor. We decided to allot as per their monetary value.
Industry Partner Tier IndiaFOSS 3.0 Tier
Patron Platinum
Gold Gold
Silver Silver
Bronze Contributor
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#4

Thank you very much for publicly releasing the minutes of the meeting @mriya11 and @WishArya !

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#5

I got really inspired by your posting every update on the forum and planning to do the same for IndiaFOSS. Also, we’ll push other city leads to the same.

@mriya11 please post our previous MoM, that you were mentioning during the call.

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#6

Early bird tickets are live now at a rupees 600, 25% discount. Get your tickets at Register - IndiaFOSS 3.0

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#7

[MoM] IndiaFOSS 3.0 - Phase 1 Volunteers’ Sync

Attendees: Jessica, Jeswin, Ansh, Aman, Vishnu, Kaustubh, Aldrin, Adithya, Anupama, Muhammed Yaseen, Noel, Jins Varghese, Poornima, Ruchika, Priyanshi , Vishal, Andrew, Riya, Mars, Karan.

1. Meeting Overview

  • The meeting commenced with a discussion on the outlined agenda, focusing on IndiaFOSS 3.0 and the significance of FOSS in the current landscape.

2. Second Phase of Volunteer Selection

  • It was shared that the second phase of volunteers call will be for those who will primarily handle logistics.

  • The open call will start by next month, while we shall be reaching out to a few who’ve applied for the first phase, and couldn’t make it for phase 1.

3. Workgroup Discussion and Tracking:

  • Each workgroup was discussed in detail, emphasising effective tracking mechanisms.
  • IndiaFOSS 3.0 Tracker

4. Sponsorship Approach

  • The importance of diversifying the audience for Industry Partnership/Sponsorship for IndiaFOSS 3.0 was emphasised, underlining the potential benefits of engaging a wider range of stakeholders.
  • But the question was why we should approach a diverse range of partners when we can approach niche FOSS Companies or IT/Tech Companies.

5. Creating Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

  • It was deliberated to generate compelling CTAs for each workgroup to enhance engagement and participation.

6. Allocation of Space

  • A comprehensive discussion took place regarding the allocation of space for workshops, booths, and sessions during IndiaFOSS 3.0. Collaborative efforts to ensure optimal utilisation of available space were stressed.

7. Action Items:

  • Volunteers to maintain a tracker for workgroups and ensure regular updates.

  • Each workgroup will log their updates on the forum on a regular basis - to keep a log of the work.

  • Targeted CTAs for each workgroup.

    • Website Design to be completed ASAP.
    • Fix release dates for Marketing materials to be pushed out.
    • Creating lists of target groups (Sponsors, Communities, Diversity - Women Communities, Potential speakers to be invited).
    • Website (Landing Page) - to be shipped by 21st Aug

  • Outreach team (Community Partners/Sponsorship Teams/Diversity Team) to strategise and approach a diverse audience for Industry Partnership/Sponsorship.

  • Detailed planning and allocation of space for workshops, booths, and sessions to be carried out collectively.

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#8

Summary of meeting for IndiaFOSS 3.0 sponsorships team.
Next meeting for the sponsorship team : 21 August 2023.

Team : @amansinha , @WishArya , @charmerDark and @Poruri_Sai_Rahul (me)

Context: IndiaFOSS 2.0 cost ~ 20L and FOSS United was able to do slightly better than breaking even via sponsorships. We are expecting a larger footfall this year so the expected budget for IndiaFOSS 3.0 is ~30L and preferably, we break even this year too.

History: Most of the sponsors for IndiaFOSS 2.0 were internal leads but this year, we want to try and find new sponsors from the industry if possible. Note that FOSS United industry partners are also IndiaFOSS 3.0 sponsors.

We have three broad tasks

  • Talk to existing FOSS United industry partners and see if they’re comfortable with their current sponsor tier for IndiaFOSS 3.0. Try to upsell them to a higher tier, if possible.
  • Reach out to the community to gather personal/direct leads. Community here refers to Telegram and the various Social Media channels we have. Note that this isn’t just FOSS United social media channels but also the individual city FOSS channels.
  • Cold call/email big names in the Indian SaaS industry.

Deadlines : We set Oct 9, 2023 (3 weeks before the conference) as the deadline to start a sponsorship conversation and Oct 16 2023 (2 weeks before the conference) as the deadline to finish a sponsorship deal. This way, we can ensure that the sponsors and the team have the necessary time to review each others materials for the actual conference.

Actions for the next week

  • Finalize the sponsorship deck
  • Coordinate with the marketing team i.e. the content that will be posted regularly regarding the call for sponsors and how frequently the content will be posted.
  • @WishArya and @amansinha will follow up with existing FOSS United Industry partners regarding the India FOSS 3.0 sponsorship deal
  • @charmerDark and @Poruri_Sai_Rahul (me) will work on creating the list of companies to reach out via our community. This involves
    • companies that sponsored IndiaFOSS 2.0 (and 1.0? were there sponsors for 1.0?)
    • companies that sponsored CityFOSS conferences around the country e.g. MumbaiFOSS
    • companies that sponsored FOSSHack and other events that FOSS United organized in the past
    • companies that have hosted the individual monthly meetups in various cities. For example, the Bengaluru FOSS monthly meetup has been running for more than an year now so we should have 10+ companies to reach out to
    • if necessary, a list of companies that sponsored other tech/open source conferences in India
    • if necessary, a list of the biggest SaaS companies in India
  • Create guidelines for sponsors i.e. what they can expect from us and what we expect from them e.g. size of the stall, how we expect them to interact with the audience etc
  • Gather feedback on whether we want to ask individuals to also sponsor. NumFOCUS for example allows individual contributions, which are also tiered.
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#9

16th August 2023

MOM from the first Marketing Sync

Attendees: @Anupama_Bara, Riya, Noel, Jins, @rahulporuri, Yaseen, Karan

Agenda: Plan out the content rollout and deciding the campaigns

Campaign 1: Call for Registrations + Call for Speakers

How?

Using the past year’s content in the form of videos and blogs and pushing out on our social media with CTAs for registrations and talk proposals.

Riya has taken this task up and will compile all the related content in a Google sheet for us to refer to.

Campaign 2: Engagement

How?

  • Posting simple but fun questions for the community members like: “What is the first thing you think about when we talk about FOSS?”
  • Engaging Polls
  • Memes

Noel will be jotting down some ideas for these

Campaign 3: Shoutouts

We could divide this under 2 heads

  • Individual Open-Source contributors
  • Free and Open Source Software

Yaseen is creating a list from which we could shortlist the final shoutouts

Campaign 4: Video Series

How?

Short 40 secs to 1 min videos

Vid 1: Announcement vid with Short snippets from last year.

The CTA will be "Be a part of the FOSS community and join IndiaFOSS 3.0 this year” (We could play around with the words)

Info to be included:

  • No of attendees last year
  • No of talks hosted
  • Save the date for this year
  • Get inspired by the community

Vid 2: Speaker snippets

  • Captivating speaker snippets
  • Share your inspirations, stories, experiences etc
  • CTA should be Talk proposals

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C10pZQMJy_0

IndiaFOSS 2.0 vids: https://www.youtube.com/@FOSSUnited

Jins will start working on the vids

Campaign 5: Sponsorships

  • Announcements and Reminders

Rahul proposed some ideas and expectations. He will be adding the same to the Marketing Tab of the main Google Sheet

Anupama will be creating the entire Marketing plan and Campaign roll-out on Social Media + working on the copy for IndiaFOSS announcement Newsletter

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#10

Meeting Minutes - August 22, 2023 - 9:30 AM

Meeting Attendees:

Agenda:

  1. Handshake’s Sponsorship for IndiaFOSS 3.0
  2. Handshake’s FOSS Initiatives and Workshop Proposal
  3. Collaboration and Future Plans

Discussion Highlights:

1. Sponsorship for IndiaFOSS 3.0:

  • Handshake expressed interest in becoming a sponsor for IndiaFOSS 3.0.
  • They introduced themselves as a FOSS believer and open source company with their works available on GitHub.

2. FOSS Initiatives and Workshop Proposal:

  • Handshake proposed conducting an online workshop/talk-show at IndiaFOSS 3.0 to showcase the benefits and utility of their Handshake tool for the community.
  • It was noted that FOSS United only allows in-person workshops and talk during the event.
  • Erik from Handshake suggested flying down one of their team members to conduct the workshop/talks.

3. Legal Considerations:

  • It was brought up that FOSS United cannot accept funding from foreign entities not operating within India due to legal constraints.

4. Long-term Collaboration:

  • Handshake expressed a desire for a long-term collaboration with FOSS United.
  • Handshake mentioned their plans to provide grants to FOSS companies and contribute to the growth of the FOSS community.

Next Steps:

  • FOSS United to evaluate the feasibility of Handshake’s workshop/talkshow proposal and communicate their decision to Handshake.
  • Handshake to provide additional details about the proposed workshop/talkshow and the potential representative for in-person participation.

Meeting Conclusion:
The meeting concluded with an understanding of Handshake’s interest in sponsoring IndiaFOSS 3.0 and conducting a workshop/talks. Both parties expressed a desire to explore a long-term collaboration that aligns with FOSS United’s legal framework. Further discussions will take place based on the outcomes of the actions defined.

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#11

[MoM] IndiaFOSS 3.0 - Website Team Sync (21/08/23)

Attendees: @mriya11 @Aldrin_Jenson @adithyaanilkumar

tldr: Initial meeting to give website access + plan initial website works.

Work split

  • Community Partners page to be done by 24th September. Should consist of Markdown contents + a form for collecting details from the community partners. Make it have the route /2023/community-partners. (Assigned to @Aldrin_Jenson
  • Landing page tweakings and improvements. Full on Design is still pending so it was suggested to make modifications for major changes right now with reference to old designs and have the functionalities/major components be ready. Few examples would be adding Venue of IndiaFOSS(currently missing), removing speaker suggestions sections, UX improvements for sponsor sections, making the CTAs more prominent, overall UX refactoring etc. (Assigned to @adithyaanilkumar ).
  • Comment feature for Talk Submissions. Riya suggested having a comments feature where everyone can publicaly and anonymously add comments to the Talk submissions page. A user would be able to add new comments with a markdown editor maybe and all comments added should be visible in a thread like format(nesting may not be needed). This feature has already been implemented in the project updates for the FOSSHack submissions page and we would be able to copy most. It was suggested if @nikochiko would be cool to try adding this feature.
  • Riya also suggested a likes feature for the talks submissions received, but currently it is kept as low priority/to be discussed in detail at a later time.

All the above works were suggested to be completed before September/September first week itself.

Miscallaneous Info

  • Everyone in the Web team having access to Frappe Desk has to sign an NDA doc. (@nikochiko please contact Riya about the same),
  • There is a meeting with Design team to be held today(22/8/23) at 8.30PM(tentative) and it was suggested for the WebTeam volunteers to join in as well to get more clarity and insights into the design.
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#12

[MoM] IndiaFOSS 3.0 - Volunteers’ Sync (25/08/2023)

Attendees: Sai Rahul, Riya Sabu, Ansh, Karan, Aldrin, Muhd Yaseen, Priyanshi, Ruchika, Mars, Riya

  • Initial discussion was around the possibility of parallel sessions at the conference apart from the talks.

    • These could include workshops, demos, experience labs, BoFs, open discussions etc.,
    • These would also become the avenue for networking parallel to the talks, that gives a fair-like compared to a corporate feeling.
    • Few things agreed upon:
      • These activities could be both structured and unstructured.
      • Open spaces will be made available for adhoc discussions, BoFs and others activities.
      • Along-with checking the prospect of community showcase, mini-workshops, demos etc., which could be prior announced.

  • Early discounts will be closing on 28/08 - Hence provide a one-day reminder on all social media handles.

  • Website: Big bottleneck removed in web design, development has started and is expected to finish in a few days for website launch.

  • Community partnership:

    • Aiming to curate a diverse set of community partners from different sectors - developer groups, student communities, open source groups, citizen-sector groups etc.,
    • Guidelines for community partners - IndiaFOSS 3.0 - Community Partners
    • More stringent outreach to start the coming week.

  • Marketing: Going on track at a decent pace, tracker being updated, social media access given to whole team.

    • Announcement newsletter :white_check_mark:
    • Call for Sponsors :white_check_mark:
    • 5days left for early bird discount :white_check_mark:
    • We have set a cadence of 3 posts a week.
    • Throwback video is WIP by Jins
    • List of last year assets are collected by Riya
    • Some open source contributors are shortlisted by Yaseen. Next step is to create a template for the same.
    • The SM rollout tracker is updated every week.

  • Diversity in FOSS: needs to gain traction, look out for more such people. If not interested for a talk, convert to a panel discussion, and find more people to put along there, without cutting on quality.

  • Sponsorships: Need to tailor our pitch to companies, upsell existing industry partners, reach out to previous sponsors, and curate a brief about demographics of attendees, engineering managers, software professionals etc as sponsors want to know the audience they will reach if they sponsor, to get more signups and customers to their product, and reach to decision makers in other companies.

  • FOSS United Survey: Design a survey to better understand our FOSS community - nature, contributions etc.,

    • Anonymised in nature with no PII transfer.
    • Planned to be curated and launched.

Action items for this week

:red_circle: Work on website landing page, and public view of submissions.

:red_circle: Outreach and onboard community partners

:red_circle: Follow-up on the mails sent as part of diversity outreach, and explore more.

:red_circle: Explore themes for panel discussions

:red_circle: Update the design roll-out list after website design

:red_circle: Follow-up on sponsors and curate FOSS Survey

:red_circle: Send a reminder for early bird tickets closing

:red_circle: Push out social media posts for the week.

:pushpin: Ideas for panel discussion themes plus mini-workshops and other parallel sessions are welcome from everyone. Do share your comments and ideas if you’re interested in taking it up at IndiaFOSS.

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#13

Attendees: Riya, Yaseen, Noel, Anupama

The next set of actions required.

To stay ahead we will be planning out the next two weeks with 6 posts in advance. This includes crafting captions, designing visuals, and curating related content. Our goal is to wrap this up by the weekend.

  1. Post an interactive Poll
  2. Share last year’s YT video
  3. An interactive question
  4. Share last year’s blog
  5. Announcement video by Jins
  6. Share some fun moments from last year in the form of pictures

Campaigns:

1: Quizzes:

We’re preparing three sets of quizzes, each with five questions. These will roll out once a week. We’ve chosen Airtable to host the quiz, and we’ll be sharing the link across all our social media platforms.

Things to be done: Decide the prize - Merch box, Free tickets or (?)

Riya is putting together the initial questions and flow to kickstart the ops for it.

2: AMA

We can host it twice on Instagram. One in mid-September and the other just before the conference. We might need a hand from Riya M and Vishal to help answer questions. Noel is laying down the groundwork and flow for these sessions.

3: Educational content:

We will be sharing interesting trivia about IndiaFOSS and the world of open source on our social media handles. Keep an eye out for topics like “What is open source?”, “Why FOSS United?”, and "Unveiling India FOSS

4: Yaseen is taking charge of getting our content ready for reach-outs to the print media.

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#14

[MoM] Volunteers’ Sync (1st Sep 2023)

General to-dos

  • Make commenting feature at proposal submissions’ list page

    • Feature: make the proposals anonymised and made available public which will enable the visitors to comment. The comments shouldn’t be anonymous (will help us to regulate the flow).

  • Brainstorm themes for panel discussions

Outreach and Community:

  • 16 community partner submissions till now.
  • Forms will be circulated for proposing parallel activities.

Diversity:

  • Follow up emails need to be sent
  • If possible, approach the speaker and have some talk and then send the follow-ups

Marketing and Design:

  • We have updated the trackers
  • Templates for speaker posts and social media
  • Some interactive activities - trivia, quizzes, games, infographics to be planned.
  • Platform checks for quizzes
  • Shoutout templates
  • Final checks over video

Sponsorship:

  • Work on the FOSS Survey.
  • Podcasts will be launched with the first episode coming out by third week of September.
  • Volunteer stories to be launched in parallel
  • Volunteer meetup to be held in parallel with IndiaFOSS
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#15

[MoM] IndiaFOSS 3.0 - Volunteers’ Sync (9/09/2023)

Attendees: Sai Rahul, Riya Sabu, Ansh, Karan, Aldrin, Muhd Yaseen, Priyanshi, Ruchika, Mars, Riya

Community Outreach update:

  • First set of community partners onboarded.

  • Two specific communities to be reached out to: PaperCrane Labs & Anthill.

Sponsorship Updates:

  • Hoppscotch onboarded, 90% confirmed

  • On to reach out to set of companies who sponsored IndiaFOSS 2.0 and companies who host FOSS United meetups.

  • Recalibrating the strategy for reaching out to sponsors, keeping it organic and less like a sales pitch.

  • Brainstorm on individual sponsors, and think about how to accommodate them, not treat them any differently, just mention their names alongside.

Diversity in FOSS Updates:

  • Cross-reference with CFP submissions and speaker suggestions, there is an overlap.

  • Women in FOSS panel discussion, open on the forum to suggest topics.

  • Women in FOSS needn’t be the specificity, technical knowledge is enough to get them started with Women in Tech.

Talks Ideas:

  • 10 Min lightning keynotes: How a product built on top of open-source is solving a problem, their journey etc.

  • Set up the lightning product talks in the beginning of the conference.

  • Focus more on internal wiring and core of the product than a general point of view.

Marketing Updates:

  • Everything sorted until info posts.

  • Twitter posts to be updated tomorrow (by 9 Sept)

  • Ask sponsors to re-share important info in their networks.

Website Updates:

  • Completed the main 3 sections

  • Landing page almost done

  • Community partners, volunteers and sponsors pending

  • Target to merge by Sunday 10th Sept.

Venue Details:

  • Audi 1 & Audi 2, some space between the auditoriums and some space in front of Auditorium 1 is available. Not much space to accommodate parallel tracks, full fledged workshops, and hands on sessions.

  • Main focus on talks.

All deadlines met till now except website.

Notable Update

We got a slot at:

  • PyCon

  • CityJS

and did a small talk at FrappeVerse by @WishArya

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