Volunteer to become a Grafana & Friends Community Organizer!
We are connecting the global community of Grafana users and developers by hosting local meetups near you.
Who are Grafana Community Organizers?
Grafana Community Organizers are volunteers who build communities around the world of people interested in observability, open source software, and Grafana. Their goal is to educate people about Grafana Labs’ projects and products and build relationships between developers in their city.
Interested? Read more below and apply today
Grafana & Friends Meetups
We bring together local developers, Grafana fans, and tech enthusiasts through our network of more than 40 meetup groups worldwide to educate people about open source observability with a focus on Grafana’s projects and products.
Our meetup groups are welcoming spaces for you to learn, connect, and grow your Grafana skillset.
The path to being an organizer:
- Determine if you’re interested and up to the task
- Complete your application
- Join an introductory call with the Grafana team and other organizers in your city
- Begin our one-month organizer training program and start organizing meetups!
What’s in it for you?
Grafana & Friends Community Organizers volunteer to become the go-to Grafana expert in their community as they gain leadership experience and build relationships within the local tech scene and with group members. Additionally, your work with the meetup group makes you eligible for the Grafana Champions Program.
Community organizers have access to:
- An online Grafana & Friends organizer training program
- Monthly virtual Community Organizer office hours hosted by Grafana Labs’ Developer Programs team
- Templates
- Organizer-only slack channel
- Support from Grafana Labs’ Developer Programs team
- A catering budget of $10 USD per meetup attendee
- Grafana Labs stickers!
What’s expected
Grafana & Friends Community Organizers plan, schedule, and run a minimum of four meetups per year for their groups. Our expectation is that you will run the group in compliance with our event code of conduct and that you will act in the best interest of the meetup group and Grafana Labs’ products.
You’ll also be responsible for:
- Recruiting one or two other people to help you run the group
- Securing a free or low cost venue where you can host your meetups
- Organizing a minimum of four meetups per year
- Partnering with local businesses and organizations, and avoiding collaboration with organizations that may have a conflict of interest with Grafana Labs
- Finding speakers for your meetups
- Scheduling your meetups on meetup.com
- Running meetups (setting up, AV testing, introducing speakers, clean up)
- Communicating with Grafana Labs’ Developer Programs team
Failure to meet these expectations or any abuse of the role will result in your removal from the volunteer position.
Who are we looking for?
The ideal organizer is technical and friendly, with a deep understanding of open source technology, observability, or Grafana Labs’ products and projects. A big part of your job will be welcoming people to the group and helping them make connections with other members, so being extroverted (or eager to push the limits of an introvert’s social battery) is a plus.
Successful organizers know their local tech community well. Whether you’re coming into the role with connections to your local tech scene or hoping to make them through this experience, a passion for community-building is a must!
But you’re not in this alone! We encourage you to apply even if you don’t think you’re a perfect match. We’re here to help.
Speak at a Grafana & Friends Meetup Group
Thank you so much for your interest in presenting at a meetup! To provide some inspiration for your talk, we’ve compiled a list of the Grafana community’s most-requested topics. You can also check out your local Grafana & Friends Meetup Group and Grafana Office Hours for examples of the types of presentations we showcase.
Grafana Meetup presentations should be centered on Grafana Labs’ technologies, primarily Grafana Labs’ open source projects. Grafana is fortunate to be part of a large ecosystem of open source technologies, and we encourage presentations that illustrate how Grafana can be used with these other tools. Presentations should be 20-40 minutes in length and technical in nature.
We look forward to reviewing your presentation!
Hosting a Grafana Meetup
Your local Grafana & Friends Meetup Group is happy to come to you! If you’re interested in inviting a Meetup Group to give a technical presentation at your organization, send us an email at meetups@grafana.com.
We’re happy to work with you on creating a presentation tailored to your interests and will sponsor the food and drink at $10 per attendee. We’ll need an onsite contact to help us with managing venue access details and receiving deliveries.
Meetup content guidelines
Grafana & Friends Meetups aim to strike a balance between being open and inclusive and promoting open source observability and Grafana Labs’ projects. We recognize that Community Organizers may have diverse interests. You have autonomy in selecting topics and speakers, as long as they adhere to the overarching principles:
- Focus on Grafana, observability, and open source: Presentations should primarily focus on open source observability tools and Grafana’s projects. Open source projects related to observability, even if not directly tied to Grafana, are encouraged and welcome. At least one presentation per meetup should be directly related to Grafana or Grafana’s ecosystem (e.g., plugins, integrations, or new features).
- Highlight the community: Prioritize collaborations and presentations that align with complementary communities and ecosystems, such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, and various plugin ecosystems.
- Avoid direct competitors: Avoid presentations where a direct commercial competitor offers an observability solution that conflicts with Grafana’s core offerings. Consider the intent behind the presentation. If the goal is to contribute positively to the observability community and knowledge sharing, it may be acceptable even if it involves a competitor’s product.
All Grafana meetups must comply with Grafana Labs’ event terms and conditions.
FAQ
A community organizer is responsible for running a Grafana & Friends Meetup Group. It is best that this person be technical so that they can fill in for missing speakers in a pinch and appropriately vet presentations.
As a community organizer, you will be responsible for the following with help from Grafana Labs’ Developer Programs team:
- Setting a regular cadence of events (minimum of four meetups per year)
- Finding and scheduling speakers, securing venue space
- Communicating with the User Group members
- Ordering food and beverage for the event and coordinating delivery
- Requesting swag from the Dev Programs team for each event
Grafana & Friends Meetup presentations should be centered on Grafana Labs’ technologies, primarily our open source projects. Grafana Labs is fortunate to be part of a large ecosystem of open source technologies, and we encourage presentations that illustrate how Grafana can be used with these other tools. While we want to focus on collaboration, we do not want to lose sight of the Grafana Labs community and helping our users better understand our tools and technology.For that reason, we do not allow presentations from companies with a conflict of interest. Presentations should be 20-40 minutes in length and technical in nature.
We do not allow sales pitches at our events or in messages sent to our meetup groups, and we require that every event complies with Grafana Labs’ event terms and conditions.
The best place to look for speakers is within your group! Send a message to your group members and ask if anyone would like to talk about their Grafana project, or an observability tool they’re excited about.
If you’re having trouble finding a speaker, consider a more free-form meetup, such as a happy hour or a birds-of-a-feather format where attendees are grouped by interest (i.e. industry, technical interest, Grafana use case). Alternatively, you can take a more structured approach by hosting a technical workshop.
The best place to start your venue hunt is with what you have: Does your office allow you to book a meeting room after hours? If not, is there someone in the meetup group who’s able to reserve an office space for you?
If you don’t find any offices within your network, a great next step is to check out your local library, which often has a community room available you can reserve for free or rent at a low cost. (Please check in with the Developer Programs team before making any payments.) Another option in a similar vein is to see if a local restaurant or brewery has a quiet section where the group could meet. Accelerators and incubators (like Microsoft Reactors) or tech schools/ bootcamps (Turing, Galvanize) are also great options.
If all else fails, Grafana Labs’ Developer Programs team is here to help you find a suitable venue.
Each meetup has a budget of $10 per attendee. This must cover all charges associated with the event, including any food and drink, delivery, or venue fees. The Grafana Labs Developer Programs team can make direct payments for you to avoid any delay in reimbursement.
You should anticipate an attendance rate of 50% and purchase food and drink accordingly. For example, if you have 50 RSVPs, you should plan for 25 attendees and aim to spend $250 on food and drink.
Meetup.com has a ton of resources to help you with running a successful group! Here’s their guide to creating and managing events as well as sending messages to your group.
Grafana Labs has meetup groups all over the world, but if there isn’t one in your city, we’ll consider starting one provided that you can commit to organizing quarterly meetups for a year.
Reach out to us at meetups at grafana dot com, and we’ll be happy to discuss this possibility with you.