How to help people feel welcome/comfortable/included

[drnikki]

Tons of good ideas going around in chat about how to help people feel welcome and get involved.

[cleverington]

Idea One - Being more welcoming

There was a lot of discussion on those of us with anxiety and (in completely unprofessional terms) a tendency to unintentionally be wallflowers when wanting to participate at Events.

Part of this has to do with "Look at all these people/things/booths who know what they are and what they are doing. This is new to me. Where do I start?"

In response, the group recommended a handful of ideas:

1. "Welcome" Booths staffed with volunteers whose entire purpose is just to be friendly, answer questions, and act as Guides. Not an Information Booth, but a Newbies Booth.
   • They should wear bunny ears. Because its awesome.
2. Interest-based tables sorted out with BIG signs during lunch / social events
3. Interest-based luncheons with invites going out via Social Media

[helenasue]

Welcoming Team - Conversation Jot-Down

There were a lot of great ideas and discussion happening in Slack about having a welcoming team for introverts, and I wanted to get it down quickly so I did a quick cut and paste. If anyone minds being quoted, please let me know and I'll immediately redact it. :)

lauras [3:22 PM]

• There needs to always be a “welcome” table or room where people can get started. It can’t be one thing one time and then woosh you’re thrown into the sea.

lauras [3:19 PM] Maybe as part of the coding suites there should be daily mentoring sessions in the code sprint space. Ideally without disrupting the ongoing coding work ppl are doing.

davidhernandez [3:20 PM] the problem with the sprints for new people is i think they feel the pressure/expectation to produce something which isnt always good for learning or getting acclimated

eatings [3:21 PM] no amount of lectures and mass education would have a fraction of the effect if veterans just made themselves available or open to welcoming others. everybody’s ‘origin story’ seems to center around somebody going out of their way to make them feel welcome, vs. having a guffaw at the prenote.

badfaerie [3:24 PM] Maybe diversity sprints. I know I am not going to participate in a hackathon. The idea of a sprint has that same kinda feel to me.

helenasue [3:24 PM] one of the first things I dove into in the Drupal Community was Coding for a Cause. The idea of pitching in to build a site for a good cause was really rewarding and was more motivating for me to get involved than just learning for my own benefit

badfaerie [3:27 PM] Interactions are easier for some than they are for others

davidhernandez [3:28 PM] id be willing to sit at a table or whatever and help shepherd if that helps anyone.

mlhess [3:28 PM] [3:28]
I will talk to anyone about security or getting started on issues at any time. I think one year we had bunny ears for this

davidhernandez [3:30 PM] what about a designated area? go sit in this room and random veterans will come talk to you

mlhess [3:30 PM] Or a table?

alexdmccabe [3:31 PM] I think waiting for somebody to come over and talk to you would be terrible. Especially if somebody gets overlooked and nobody talks to them. I think a welcome desk at the front is best

tim.plunkett [3:32 PM] the thing about a "come talk to me!" sticker is that sometimes I don't want to talk to anyone, sometimes i do. it'd be nice if it was like a churrascaria where you have the "i want more steak / i'm okay for now" cards to flip over :smile:

lauras [3:37 PM] I’ve seen a color card system so you could change depending upon your mood: RED (leave me alone), YELLOW (talk to me if I know you), BLUE (okay to say hi) … or something like that. Being able to switch is important imho

[rszrama]

For what it's worth, I'd be more than happy to have some way to signal a proactive interest in talking to anyone and everyone at my booth. It's almost always been a hub of activity for folks who are using Drupal Commerce in some capacity, including many first time conference attendees, and I'd be happy to make an official introduction through signage that we're excited to meet new people.

In that regard, I don't really adopt a sales-forward strategy at DrupalCons ... it really is primarily about meeting people and helping folks get plugged in. I'd love to help more people have Tawny's experience: https://youtu.be/ydymU2Fdq98?t=2m20s 😃

I think making that sort of thing an official part of the event can help people get over the vibe (that I'd share) that companies inviting you to come say hi is really about selling you something.

[rvtraveller]

I would love to help out with this effort and figure out a good way to participate. I see it not only as a way to get others involved but also as a way to get myself talking to people I wouldn't normally talk to.

FLDC had this idea of a Genius bar near the lobby for people to go to and talk to the speakers, etc after sessions. I had this idea that I would just hang out there Saturday afternoon to help anyone who had questions about what they were working on (d.o issue, personal project, whatever). Despite numerous tweets about it, I sat there by myself for pretty much the entire afternoon (which wasn't bad...it let me finish my blog post and some other stuff but I would have much rather chatted with folks and/or helped them).

In regard to some of the slack convos, figuring out something around lunch sounds like a great idea.

[rvtraveller]

So here's a thought I had when driving into work this morning that I've seen at other (non-Drupal conferences) -- how can we "make" people have a reason to interact with each other so that they are more comfortable approaching people they don't know. As someone who is fairly introverted, it is easier for me to go up and start talking to someone when I have an ice breaker vs just cold walking up (I think this is why people feel speakers are generally very approachable -- I can start asking/talking with them about what they talked about rather than fumbling with a "hello"). Is there a way (and not for Baltimore but possibly next year or other events) to create a badge "puzzle". When I've seen this elsewhere, your badge/lanyard contains pieces of the puzzle but not enough to solve it entirely. There are 4-8 different types of badges/lanyards (or possibly 4 types of badges, 4 types of lanyards so many more different possible combinations) so you need to talk with a number of different people to get all the different clues to solve the puzzle. Solve the puzzle, win some sort of prize (ticket for next con? something else?).

This would be a bit more involved to pull off -- we'd need to get sign-off from the DA for modifying the badges and figure out how that works with the "sponsors" of the badge but could be a way to get people talking with each other while waiting for sessions to start, in the halls, etc.