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hi all,

DevOpsDays DC is just around the corner and I’ve got all the information! We've got a great team of people who will be there representing Chef, and I'm excited to hear how it goes. This is a long email, but please bear with me and read it all the way through — there’s important stuff in here (like a booth schedule!) at the bottom of the email. Have any questions? Just drop me a note.

Here are the basic details:

  • June 11-12 at USPTO (600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia)
  • we're Platinum sponsors, which means we have a table, 1 minute to talk about Chef (or, even better, our presence in the community), and 6 free tickets.
  • While you're at the conference, please be at the conference. What do I mean? No answering emails on your phone or working on your laptop while at the booth. Engage with the audience. Make conversation. Draw people in. If you need to step away to do some work, that's fine, but don't do it at the booth.

For those of you who haven't been to a DevOpsDays event before, they're very loosely organized around topics that are interesting to the attendees. The day starts off with a few scheduled "keynotes," followed by a handful of Ignite sessions. After lunch, it's time for open spaces -- a chance for people to submit topics that they're interested in either talking about or hearing about (or both). This gives us the opportunity to hear directly from our community -- see which topics they're interested in, what the common themes are, and how we can better serve them.

As such, we are sponsoring and supporting DevOpsDays DC to:

  • Fuel the love of Chef. -- At the booth and beyond, we want to excite people about the amazing things you can do with Chef and reaffirm the decision to go with Chef.
  • Make it easy to be successful with Chef. -- We need people on hand that can answer tough technical and implementation questions from customers and prospects
  • Give organizations reasons to buy. -- Let's share our roadmap, demo our new tools, etc.
  • Be their favorite company to work with. -- Recruiting - we also want to be their favorite company to work for. DevOpsDays events are a great place to meet potential employees. Familiarize yourself with the available jobs and be sure to point people to chef.io/careers
  • Speed matters; be disruptive -- How do we make sure we've disrupted the conference in a way that makes everyone think positively about Chef?

Here are a few specifics:

  • Sponsors can access the venue to set up on Wednesday afternoon between 4-5pm, or starting at 6:30am on Thursday morning. Doors open for attendees at 7:30, so please be sure to check the schedule (below) for when you’ll be working the booth to make sure you’re there at the right times.
  • We've shipped t-shirts, stickers, various paper collateral, community summit postcards, water bottles, and 3x5 resource cards to hand out at the show (#allthethings!). We’ve also shipped 3 banners to display behind the table. If you get there and can’t find something for some reason, please email [email protected] or ping Sarah Cheney on hipchat ASAP.
  • We need a volunteer who's willing to talk about Chef and give the basics of what we do, why we're awesome, and why people should love us... in 1 minute. This gives us an opportunity to not only talk directly to the attendees, but also to the livestream audience. It’s worked very well for this to be someone from the area in the past — that way people know who the “face of Chef” is for their region. Telling them about meetups or other events that are in the area is helpful as well -- I suggest mentioning DevOps DC, which Nathen co-organizes. Our timeslot is 9:45 on Friday morning, and we need to be by the stage ready to go at 9:35am.
  • I’ve posted a booth schedule below. If you need to switch with anyone for some reason, please arrange that among yourselves. Our sponsor table needs to be fully staffed (at least 2 ppl) during each of the breaks, and (preferably) have at least one person there at other times when people may wander by. If you feel like spending more time at the booth, by all means, do so! But keep in mind that with the open spaces, we want you to be involved and in conversations with the community while you’re there.
  • We want to be sure we can follow up with people quickly and efficiently. In order to do this, please make sure you get people's business cards who swing by to talk to us. Jotting down a note or two on the back (even if it's just "training" or "Chef newbie") is incredibly helpful for our sales team. Even more important, please don't just stick these in your pockets and take them home -- collect them at the table and I’ll ask one of you to mail them back to me at the end of the show.
  • Without further ado, here’s the booth schedule. And again, if you need to switch for any reason, please arrange for that among yourselves.

Thursday, June 11 7:30-9 (break) - Mandi, Chris 9-10:30 - Jess 10:30-11 (break) - Stephen, Marc, Mandi 11-12 - Mark 12-1:15 (break) - Chris, Jess, Julian 1:15-2:30 - Marc 2:30-3:45 - Julian 3:45-4 (break) - Mark, Mandi 4-4:30 - Stephen

Friday, June 12 7:45-9 (break) - Jess, Julian 9-10:25 - Marc 10:25-11 (break) - Julian, Chris, Mark 11-11:55 - Jess 11:55-1:15 (break) - Stephen, Chris, Mandi 1:15-2:30 - Mark 2:30-3:30 - Stephen 3:30-4:45 - Mandi

Lastly, here’s some suggestions on how to be “Chef” at a conference:

  • Wear your Chef t-shirt and/or jacket. Represent! Forgot your Chef t-shirt? Grab one from the stash at the booth.
  • If you need to answer an email, phone call, text, etc., that’s completely understandable! Just step away from the booth to do so. When you’re at the booth you need to be present, inviting, and ready to participate.
  • Please don’t eat food at the booth. This means if you’re scheduled to cover the booth during lunch, you should duck out of sessions early to get food, or plan on getting lunch elsewhere after your shift.
  • Please DO, however, drink lots of water. Conferences can be draining, and you need to make sure you stay hydrated! Also be sure to take breaks to get food, walk around, meet people and enjoy the event. You aren’t chained to the booth the whole time… get out there! See what people are talking about and how the conversations are going.
  • Don’t forget your business cards! When people have in-depth questions, have them shoot you an email or give you a call to follow up at a different time. If they’re based in your area, and you’re comfortable doing so, offer to follow up over coffee or lunch.

If you have any questions while on site, your main contact is none other than Nathen Harvey himself! I’ll be available via phone, hipchat and email as well. I’ve attached the sponsor guide in case you have any questions about where our table is located, etc.

Any questions that I can answer? -m.