Events/Global Strategy 2011

MoCo Events Strategy

Background

Over the past years, Mozilla has organized or participated in a wide variety of events. These events range from casual contributor meetup in a pub to an international (-day gathering of 700 Mozila staff and non=paid staff. Two categories of events stand out:

• events that aim to strengthen and build community (eg. Mozilla Summit, Inter-Community Meetups, Mozilla Camps etc...)
• events that aim to inform and educate about the Mozilla Project (eg. JSConf, CeBIT, FOSDEM, FISOL etc...)

Geographically, events have taken place all over the globe, most events have taken place in Europe.

Drumbeat Events Strategy

Strategy Overview

Mozilla and community organizers have iterated on a number of events hosted in several cities. Now, with months of experience and feedback under our belt, we're taking our event strategy to the next level.

Events propel action through convening.

We're focusing on live events because we believe that by working together in a shared space, we can achieve more. Ideas emerge in realtime, conversations evolve, new connections are made. Because sometimes, despite all the ways we can collaborate together over vast distance, we can get more done f2f.

But that means being deliberate and strategic about what events can accomplish and how all of these small pieces, loosely joined, can make the Web better.

Action through convening

• Events offer new entry points to Mozilla projects and people -- to participants in a global effort to keep the web open
• Through shared action, we can improve web tools that benefit many groups -- artists, educators, businesses, activists, students -- anyone really, who uses the web.
• We are all the makers of the web. And while we conduct much of our making online, often we can teach, learn, and build better in a shared space.

Scale of Action

Small

• frequent microevents. solving one discrete problem and bringing together a small, focused audience.
• easy, lightweight organization

Medium

• workshops, hackfests, and regional meet-ups involving more participants with complexer and more diverse problem set to address.
• more organizational involvement from staff and community.

Large

• annual heavy weights that draw in more numbers and accelerate many projects across a number of topics.
• intense involvement from staff and community.