 Hello everyone. Thanks for tuning in for my presentation, which is on the topic elevating open source events to retain contributors. A little about myself, I'm Makotsha Priya, a DevRel and developer at the WeavingTepps community have community management experience with hash node, also a front-end developer, a blogger and a community enthusiast. Something to ponder upon, have you ever attended an event where you felt out of place, like you didn't belong or your voice wasn't heard? Or from an event organizer perspective, where you had trouble finding long-term contributors after your initiatives. I'm pretty sure you must have. So, what could be the possible reasons for these event drop-offs? First is the lack of interest. The event theme content may not align with their personal preferences or priorities. So, if the event does not offer content that is relevant, valuable or engaging, two attendees, some may drop-off. Second is the community exclusion. There could be lack of diversity and inclusivity in the community itself. Third, scheduling conflicts and unexpected circumstances. Something which we can't do anything about but yes, should be taken into considerations. Situations like conflicting priorities, last-minute obligations, transportation issues and so on. And lastly, some common factors like inconvenient event timing, high ticket prices or requires a significant travel expense, inconvenience of travel or event details or updates not being communicated effectively or in a timely manner or could be overbooking because of that there would be a crowded audience and attendees might not have a very good experience and this might lead to frustration. So, these are the possible reasons for event drop-offs. So, what could be the possible solution? So, the first being is event focus. Deciding the focus of your event is the first and foremost important step as it sets the scale, tone and pace for the rest of your event planning. So, first, figure out what your purpose is, why you are gathering people together, who are you looking to gather together and how do dates and timing work for that particular group? There are so many events out there already. So, how your event sets you apart from the others and why would people want to attend yours? These are the questions that you need to ask yourself and your team. In short, make sure you are bringing an event with value to a group that will value the information. Once you know the purpose and the intended audience, you will be able to quickly determine the other parameters. Next, we need to create a comfortable environment where everyone feels encouraged to participate. Firstly, create spaces where new contributors can ask questions, learn and receive guidance from more experienced contributors. Secondly, you can provide mentorship opportunities and also create an atmosphere where everyone feels valued and respected regardless of their background, experience level or identity. Then, we need to focus on building connections and fostering collaborations beyond the scope of a single event. So, here are some ways you can achieve this. Organize regular, imposing meetups where they can connect, share their ideas and work. Then you can also host online events like webinars, virtual conferences or Q&A sessions. You can also create online forums or chat rooms where the contributors can connect, share knowledge, ask questions and collaborate on project development. Then, I strongly believe that to retain contributors, we need to recognize and appreciate their contributions to open-source projects. You can do this by giving the contributors a shout-out on social media platforms. You can also create a section on the project's website to highlight their work and could also invite them to future events, conferences, giving them an opportunity to showcase their skills and receive feedback from the community. A clear roadmap is essential for retaining contributors and keeping them motivated. So, here are some benefits of having a clear roadmap. So, they can see the bigger picture and understand how their contributions fit into the project's goals. And they also feel that they are part of the project's development and that their contributions are valued. So, by having clear roadmap and communicating it to them, we can ensure that they understand the project's direction and their value in it and also their role, of course. Now, some quick tips. So, first is code of conduct, which is the most important aspect. It's not just about having the code of conduct. It's about knowing how to actually execute it. So, it is important to distribute your code of conduct before and during events and regularly point people to it. So, you could do this using registration panels, websites, email communications and also mention it at the keynote stage. You also need to make sure that whoever is running your conference knows how to address any code of conduct issue that comes out. Second is diversity. So, we have to do a lot of this intentionally to overcome that. So, for example, you are looking, proactively looking for a speaker with name recognition but also if the speaker can be a woman, that is great. If it can be a person of color, that will be better. If it can be from a gender minority, fantastic. Third are the post-planning and the pre-event planning questions that you need to ponder upon. So, first is who are you going to engage with? How is it going to be publicized? What is our follow-up strategy? What is our pre-event strategy? What is our post-event strategy? What metrics do we need to use? These are must-have questions that you need to add to your own event planner. And lastly, the hashtags, which I personally find it very useful because if you have a unique hashtag on Twitter for a certain event, you can actually go back and look at all the tweets from three years ago or two years ago from that event. Socializing and networking have always been a big cross at the conferences, right? So that's why breaks should remain frequent and certainly be placed between every talk. Someone has rightly said that the true value of open source is not just the software but the community that builds and supports it, right? So feel free to reach out to me by email, Twitter, and I would love to answer any questions if you have. And thank you everyone for joining. You have been a lovely audience.