KCD Romania 2024 (April)

[otherwise777]

KCD Organizer Checklist

Please fill in information, organizers, and sponsors as you assemble them, and then make a new comment when this application is ready for review.

Event Details

• [x] Event Location: Bucharest
• [x] Event Date and Time: Thursday April 25,
• [x] Expected Number of Attendees: 250
• [x] Event cost per ticket, 400 lei (80 euro)

  Event type:

• [ ] Virtual
• [ ] Hybrid
• [X] In person

  Organizers Details (identify who will be the CFP admin, as well as the financial officer)

• [x] Organizer 1: @otherwise777, ING, sr engineering manager, wouter@onzichtbaar.net, wouter ligtenberg
• [x] Organizer 2: Andrei Pietricica, ING, DevOps engineer, andrei.pietricica1@gmail.com, Andrei Pietricica
• [x] Organizer 3: @vladfr, Upsider, platform engineer, vlad.fratila@gmail.com, Vlad Frățilă
• [x] Organizer 4: Ion Meitoiu, Adobe, Devops Enginer, ion.meitoiu@gmail.com, @Ion Meitoiu
• [x] Organizer 5: (financial officer) Catalin Jora, FikaWorks Collective, Cloud Engineer, catalin.jora@gmail.com, Catalin Jora
• [x] Organizer 6: Romina Druță, Visma, Cloud and Security Research Engineer, romina88.tb@gmail.com, @Romina Druta
• [x] Organizer 7: Elif Samedin, Netfinity Grup, DevOps Consultant, elif.samedin@gmail.com, Elif Samedin
• [x] Organizer 8: Victor Varza, Adobe Inc, Sr. Cloud Software Engineer, victor.varza@gmail.com, @Victor
• [x] Organizer 9: Bogdan Lucaciu, Adore me, CTO, bogdan@adoreme.com
• [x] Organizer 10: Ionut Bradatan, Visma, Senior UX Designer, bradatan.ionut@visma.com

Terms

• [X] No other Kubernetes Community Day event in same major city (check with past organizers)
• [x] Minimum of 3 organizers from 3 different organizations: i have some options, nothing conclusive yet
• [X] Every organizer has an account on Cloud Native Community Groups
• [x] Each organizer lives in or just outside of the KCD location: one of the possible organizers lives in another country
• [x] At least one organizer is a CNCF member employee, CNCF ambassador, or CNCF project maintainer
• [X] All organizers agree to follow the event guidelines and CNCF Code of Conduct
• [x] All inquiries / communication to come via GitHub (comment under your KCD issue) for easy tracking
• [x] All organizers have taken Inclusive Open Source Community Orientation (LFC102)
• [X] Agree to offer at least 3 complimentary tickets to increase diversity for the event
• [x] Share the sponsor prospectus with CNCF via your GitHub issue, and link it on your website.
• [X] Agree to ensure the final program schedule is diverse (e.g., not all speakers of one gender, one culture, or from 1 or 2 of the same company). Here are some tips on how to create a diverse lineup.
• [X] Agree to submit your final lineup to kcd@cncf.io for review, prior to publishing it
• [X] Agree to use Cloud Native Community Groups for registration, scheduling, and event website
• [x] Agree to use Sessionize for CFP and to close it at least 6 weeks before the event

Getting started checklist for organizers

• [x] Schedule monthly check-ins with KCD Core Organizer(s) (kcd@cncf.io)
• [x] Minimum of 3 sponsors committed (not required for virtual only events) Sponsor 1: ING Hubs Ro Sponsor 2: Adobe Sponsor 3: Google
• [x] Identified fiscal sponsor that can accept payments such as from sponsorships and pay out expenses Fiscal sponsor that will accept payments
• [x] Added usernames for CNCF Slack for all organizers so that we can add you to the #kcd-organizers channel
• [X] Create a Twitter handle specific to your KCD event (except for countries like China and Korea where Twitter is not used)
• [ ] Provided CNCF access to all event social handles

Getting started checklist for CNCF:

• [x] Organizer email alias has been created: organizers-romania@kubernetescommunitydays.org
• [x] Region created in Bevy
• [ ] Added to Bevy header
• [x] Send Sessionize CFP code
• [x] Marketing Plan shared

Organizer Planning Timeline

• [x] Planning sheet: here based on whether your event is In-person, Hybrid, or Virtual and link your own spreadsheet here.
• [x] To assure you have a diverse lineup, you are required to send a copy of your program to kcd@cncf.io before you publish it.

Post event checklist for Organizer:

• [ ] Send CNCF event analytics
• [x] Schedule post mortem meeting
• [ ] Send CNCF videos to be uploaded to YouTube
• [ ] Link videos from YouTube to event page
• [ ] Post event survey sent out

Post event checklist for CNCF:

• [ ] Removed from Bevy header
• [ ] CFP deactivated
• [ ] Upload videos to YouTube

[vladfr]

Hi @otherwise777, I came here to open an issue for Bucharest but for Oct 2023, before Kubecon NA.

When were you planning to do this? Have any others expressed interest? We should connect. We are a CNCF member org and would love to help organize.

[otherwise777]

Hi @otherwise777, I came here to open an issue for Bucharest but for Oct 2023, before Kubecon NA.

When were you planning to do this? Have any others expressed interest? We should connect. We are a CNCF member org and would love to help organize.

Hey Vlad,

I have some people that joined the group, we have a kick off call on the 4th of may at 6pm, Let's join forces! Amazing that you had the same idea because i was looking for people to collaborate with

[johnnysnq]

Hey Wouter, I was also interested to try and kickstart the event but let's join forces. Let's join forces, keep me in mind for the kickoff meeting also please.

[victorvarza]

Hey guys, I've just started a local gathering group OpenSource Bucharest which is fast growing. I think there is a big interest locally to organise a CNCF event in Bucharest. Let's get in touch and see if we can organise something maybe this year.

[otherwise777]

Hey Wouter, I was also interested to try and kickstart the event but let's join forces. Let's join forces, keep me in mind for the kickoff meeting also please.

Hey guys, I've just started a local gathering group OpenSource Bucharest which is fast growing. I think there is a big interest locally to organise a CNCF event in Bucharest. Let's get in touch and see if we can organise something maybe this year.

Great news, could you send me your email adres then i will invite you for the kick off

[AudMonte01]

May 11 KICK-OFF MEETING NOTES

Fun facts about the organizers

• Wouter works for ING (15k engineers) - continuous delivery efforts. Lead organizer
• Romina - 5 years cloud engineer, and worked with K8s for the last 3 years
• Vlad - backend engineer (AWS attracted him to the cloud). Part of a FinTech company in Japan
• Andrie has event background in Bucharest - yay! Also a backend engineer
• Ion is a DevOps engineer at Adobe, and use to work with Vlad!

General notes

• Plenty of time before the event
• Sessionize is currently in a POC but might be usable just in time
• Marketing - might consider writing an 800 word blog post announcing the event (once venue and dates are secured)
• fiscal sponsor or organizer who has a non-profit and is savvy to financial laws

To-Dos

• Spending: think about nice to haves versus must haves when it comes to cost
• Find a venue and set the dates

After the venue is secured

• Build your sponsor prospectus. Here are some resources -- https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/safelinks/1/atp-safelinks.html -https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QtJJSqZHc0tvFoZVoPsEIg4LBmxcVmlP?usp=sharing

[otherwise777]

Updated the github issue with organizers and some checked off some other tasks, we're working hard on the venue and sponsor prospectus now and then the first priority will be gathering sponsors

[AudMonte01]

Thank you so much for the update @otherwise777. @k8tgreenley - After the US Holiday, can you please create the alias with the above organizers?

[k8tgreenley]

Here is the organizer email alias: organizers-romania@kubernetescommunitydays.org

[otherwise777]

Here is the organizer email alias: organizers-romania@kubernetescommunitydays.org

Thanks! everything works

[AudMonte01]

JUNE 14 MEETING NOTES

Date: Goal date is May 23, but venues are not yet secured. VenuesL They have a short list of venues to be visited within the upcoming weeks.

Organizer assignments:

• Wouter and Eliff will be treasurers

• Catalin's company will be the fiscal sponsor

• [ ] Sponsorships: Prospectus is 90% complete and will be sent to kcd@cncf.io within the coming weeks

[AudMonte01]

JULY 12 MEETING NOTES

KCD title

• Exception for KCD standards due to Bucharest not being well-known, but Romania is. Good for speaker who will travel to present
• Branding theme has already been created for country versus city
• Keep at KCD Romania but add tagline for Bucharest in social promotions
• Add Bucharest in small type under main title

Venue

• Speaking to hotels like Novatel
• Romexpo - Space for 2 tracks but we don’t know for hallway
• The Arc - only 1 track
• Checking with a Mall and other Hotels

Sponsor Prospectus

• Nearly done, just needs a few more improvements
• Potential sponsors asked questions related to which company the money will go
• In talks with HashiCorp, Orca Security, and Visma

Actions

• Domain - we will have the same name kcdromania creating a separate website
• Marketing - Elif will create social media accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn. The UX designer will create the first images for the social media accounts by August -- NOTE: Logo will be ready by the end of this week (July 14) -- Not required to use logo in profile image, but recommend replacing it with logo once it's ready

[AudMonte01]

AUGUST 23 MEETING NOTES

Dates

• Hosting on a Thursday
• And now looking into April to avoid conflict with Istanbul

Marketing

• Speaking at KCD Austria
• Website is in the works

Venue

• Leaning towards Radison hotel, room for expansion and possibility to split. Central to the city
• Andrei and Vlad will start negotiations with the venues and look into topics like after party and details

Sponsor Prospectus

• 4 committed already at Gold level
• Packages anywhere from 1k - 3k Euros
• Goals is 40k Euros is goal to breakeven

Actions

• [x] Audra to create reoccurring meeting in LFX

[AudMonte01]

SEPTEMBER 20 MEETING NOTES

Venue

• Secured venue dates
• But deposit still needs to be

Sponsors

• 2 companies have inquired
• Secured a couple of sponsorships, Adobe and ING need to sign
• Smaller sponsors may be quicker for payments

CFP launch and close dates

• Victor and Romina will take on CFP and content and have a timeline and plan by next meeting
• Discussed Sessionize and it's possibly availability in October

Other items

• Some people have expressed interest in volunteering
• Audra shared CNCF resources

[AudMonte01]

OCTOBER 19 MEETING NOTES

Sponsors

• first contracts have been signed (large sponsors)

CFP

• CFP committee has been created by team
• [x] Audra to send Sessionize code and instructions to the team alias

[AudMonte01]

NOVEMBER 20 MEETING NOTES

Marketing

• Website update: Team wants to create a sign up form to collect emails for a newsletter. Team to use pre-event form feature in Bevy? https://community.cncf.io/accounts/dashboard/#/chapter-592/event-7244/forms
• Team to promote CFP using #socialmedia channel in CNCF Workspace and tag Katie Meinders to ask to amplify from main CNCF accounts
• Advertise their CFP in the local meetups as well
• CNCF has an event list on both cncf.io/events and cncf.io/kcds

Content

• [x] Audra to provide email alias of EU KCD organizers to to a call for program committee of reviewers
• Keynotes: Team to start looking for keynote speakers, people to attract others to the conference

Sponsoring

• Team to think about speaker sponsorships for travel and lodging
• Broke even with costs (no debt)

[AudMonte01]

DECEMBER 18 CNCF SYNC NOTES

Content

• Closes January 31 and 19 submissions so far
• Keynote speakers? 1 submission via CFP
• [ ] Audra to send a list of suggestions for EU keynote speakers. Latest introductions by mid January

Sponsorships

• Already have enough sponsors to break even
• 3 companies including Google are interested, but under discussion

Ticketing platform decision

• Global ticketing systems do not have Romania included

Marketing

• Sticker voucher code in the new year
• Async about KubeWeekly newsletter that goes out again on January 12
• [x] Logo to be revisited with the team, per the new KCD logo add-on

[AudMonte01]

JANUARY 18 CNCF MONTHLY SYNC NOTES

New logo

• Romina is leading the re-design and will send an update to Audra

CFP

• Joseph Sandoval will be a keynote speaker
• Andrei Pitis will also be a keynote speaker
• 50 submissions so far
• May extend by 2 weeks
• Discussing a closing keynote
• Start time might be 10am because it is common for people to start work at that time

Marketing

• Catlin is working with the ticket platform
• Tickets will possibly open by the end of the month
• KCD Kiosk for team to promote the event

[AudMonte01]

FEBRUARY 15 CNCF SYNC

CFP final submissions

• 4 keynote speakers and make announcements starting this weekend
• 109 submissions (40% are from Romania, and end user community)
• March 15 they will announce agenda
• 2 tracks but might look into a 3rd
• Outside Ambassadors helping review
• Google to present at the end of keynotes (team will call out sponsored talk in agenda)

Marketing

• 50 tickets sold so far
• Companies are starting to buy in bulk

Sponsors

• Google is a diamond sponsor
• 3 incoming sponsors at Gold and Silver
• Will break even in funds, and even have extra for an attendee party

[otherwise777]

Added a few things to check off some of the boxes

[AudMonte01]

Thank you, @otherwise777 . Looking forwarding to the "All organizers have taken Inclusive Open Source Community Orientation (LFC102)" box being checked. :-)

[otherwise777]

@AudMonte01 we're almost there : )

[otherwise777]

@AudMonte01 we're almost there : )

Aaand we're done We're doing the final preps now 2 weeks before the event

[AudMonte01]

APRIL 18 CNCF CHECK-IN

Sponsors

• Some sponsors are helping re-share and create their own posts (even a video)
• Currently dealing with a sponsor speaker issue, but thankful it is one week in advance

Tickets so far

• 340 (surpassed goal of 300)
• Venue capacity is 500

Training vouchers

• [x] Audra to send vouchers via email today or tomorrow with instructions
• The team will be using these as incentive to fill out the survey to help fill out their transparency report

Marketing

• [x] Audra to ask Jessie to re-share this post from main CNCF account
• [x] Audra to update KubeWeekly Newsletter (Final countdown to the event..."
• [x] Audra to create retrospective meeting for May 9 at 9am PT

Other Actions

• Team to finalize housekeeping slides
• Team working on lanyard and badge logisitcs

[WladyX]

I could not make it unfortunately, will the videos be published? Thanks!

[otherwise777]

I could not make it unfortunately, will the videos be published? Thanks!

Videos will be made available soon on our website: kcdromania.ro

[AudMonte01]

MAY 8 RETROSPECTIVE WITH CNCF

Positive feedback

• After party was a big surprise and was very happy
• Great sponsors and names like Google Cloud
• Feedback of attendees wanting more in other cities and countries
• Managed to sell out!
• Great community-oriented, even on the sponsor side (not there to get leads)
• Highly organized team producing the event

Lessons Learned

• Earlier marketing (more work towards the end). Perhaps penalty for last-minute tickets. Social media planning was painful in the last 2 weeks
• More women on the waitlist due to last-minute cancelation
• Tech check's might be best for speakers doing demo
• Fiscal sponsorship was complicated with ticketing and local laws made it hard to get paid in a timely manner
• Official email for communications
• Website experience could be better

Analytics

• Number of registrations versus number of check-ins (96%)
• 10 paid sponsors, and 15 with community sponsors and a small buffer which may be used for non=profit
• 20% non-male speakers (would have been 25% if the lightning talks were)

Post-event marketing

• [x] Elif Credly badges - Contributor to both speakers and volunteers
• Transparency report (Audra already shared with Wouter) -- a better template (less exactness of AMS and more of guidance)
• Team to post a Blog Post on cncf.io/blog
• [x] YouTube video recordings of sessions and Vlad will

CNCF Feedback from organizers

• Contract sharing tool like Docusign to sign digitally would help alleviate a lot of logistical pain
• Social media platform for organizers (Audra recommended free buffer tier)
• 20-25% of sponsors coming in early really enabled the team to get started

[vladfr]

Youtube playlist is up!

[AudMonte01]

Hello @otherwise777 - any update on the transparency report and when it will be ready?