by David I | May 9, 2018 | Conference, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Education, Machine Learning |
When springtime arrives, developers and developer relation professionals know that it is major developer conference time in the US and around the world. Of course it all started with the annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference, this year in Palo Alto California at the end of March. Most of you know that there are developer events and conferences throughout the year on every continent. At the same time, some of the most important and influential conference,s that impact developer programs and developers, are all scheduled during the months of May and June.
The Grand Slam of Springtime Developer Conferences
Facebook started things off on May 1 & 2 with their F8 conference in San Jose California. This week we have Microsoft Build 2018 in Seattle (from May 7 to 9) and Google IO 2018 in Mountain View (May 8 & 9) in the same week. It was fun to hear Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President of Operating Systems, tell developers during his day 2 keynote that he would end at 10am so that some developers could switch over to the Google IO opening keynote. Apple will complete the grand slam with WWDC 2018 in San Jose from June 4th to 9th.
But Wait, there’s even more for Developers this Spring
Ciscolive! happens in Orlando Florida June 10-14. You might think that Cisco is a networking and hardware company, but they also have a great developer program with DevNet. I attended last year’s event in Las Vegas and the DevNet Zone has a huge exhibit and workshop space and loads of developer sessions during the conference.
DocuSign’s Momentum developer conference takes place in San Francisco on June 20-21, just before the end of Spring. “If you thought replacing paper with eSignature was a win, get ready to go further. It’s time for the modern System of Agreement. Get the insights, inspiration, and networking to take advantage of all that’s possible, next, and new with DocuSign.”
So Much New Tech to Learn. So Little Time. Tons of Developer Fun!
So much development tech to digest in such a short period of time. Let’s summarize them all with: more AI, more cloud, more services, more devices, more IoT, compute at the edge, more serverless, more APIs, more tools and more fun for developers of all types, sizes and locations. I’ll try to cover more in coming DevRelate blog posts.
If you are having a developer conference that starts before the first day of Summer (in the Northern Hemisphere), send me an email with the details.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://devnet.evansdata.org/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
by David I | Mar 20, 2018 | Conference, Developer Outreach, Developer Relations, Evans Data |
There’s less than a week until the start of the 14th Annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Palo Alto California (March 25-27). With 6 keynote speakers, break out sessions, workshops, a Sunday boot camp, round table discussions and loads of time for networking, this year’s conference will be a spectacular opportunity to move your developer program to higher levels of success. There are only a few seats left for this one of a kind conference focused on developer relations best practices, developer program excellence and optimal developer outreach.
Here are a few of the “can’t miss” things that are happening during the conference.
Keynote Speakers
Janel Garvin, Evans Data Corp – Founder and CEO
Hot Topics in Software Development 2018
Janel will draw on multiple recent Evans Data development surveys to give a broad overview of the current development landscape spanning Cloud, Big Data, AI, Machine Learning, Mobile and IoT.
Paul Cutsinger, Amazon – Head of Alexa Voice Design Education
Anatomy of an Amazon Alexa Evangelist
Who are they? What makes them tick? What do they accomplish? In this session, you’ll get a behind the scenes look at how the Alexa evangelism team operates and what we strive to achieve.
Jonas Jacobi, IBM – Head of Developer Advocacy, Worldwide
IBM and The Developer Economy
Jonas will discuss how IBM has, in less than 12 months, changed its developer engagement strategy, changed the senior executive teams perspective of the developer economy, and rallied the entire company behind the mission to become the most trusted and respected technology company in the World.
Guy Kawasaki, Canva – Chief Evangelist
Developer Relations “Fireside” Chat
David Intersimone (“David I”), Evans Data’s Vice President of Developer Communities, will host a conversation with Guy Kawasaki covering developer relations best practice and experiences. They’ll also take questions from conference attendees. Kawasaki was chief evangelist of Apple and David was chief evangelist for Borland/Embarcadero Technologies’ Developer Tools Group.
Roger Chandler, Intel – Vice President & General Manager, Developer Programs & Initiatives
Co-Designing the Future with the Developer Ecosystem
For decades Intel has partnered with software developers around the world to define, deliver, and improve their products. Learn how Intel co-designs user-focused platforms with the software ecosystem, makes it easier for developers to better harness the capabilities of Intel products, and helps ISVs to better sell their software products. This talk will provide specific examples from IOT, Artificial Intelligence, PC Gaming, and Virtual Reality to make it all fit together so that end-users are delighted and developers can grow their business.
Sam Ramji, Google – Vice President of Product Management for Google Cloud Platform
Open, cloudy, platform-shaped: developer relations for a new normal
Open source is ascendant. Digital platforms are shaking up the Fortune 500. Cloud is eating the glass house. As stewards of the profession, we share an awesome responsibility to define new best practices for developer relations in a changing world. This presentation shares what we’ve learned at Google on the journey we all are on to the future of Dev Rel.
Expert Panel, Round Table Discussions, Live On-Stage Developer Focus Group
Future Directions for Developer Relations and Developer Technologies
Our panel of experts will discuss the future of developer programs and how new technologies are reshaping the features, conversations and deliverables for every developer community.
Moderator: David Intersimone (“David I”), Evans Data – Vice President of Developer Communities
Panelists:
Michael Aglietti, ThingWorx – VP of Developer Relations
Mithun Dhar, HERE – General Manager Developer Relations (Evangelism, Marketing, Engineering, and Product Management)
JJ Kass, Dropbox – Head of Developer Programs
Andrew Lee, Airbnb – Business Development and Developer Relations
Lothar Schubert, GE Digital – Director, Developer Relations
Hot Topic Round Table Discussions
Join your colleagues for in-depth roundtable discussions on topics that matter in Developer Relations, including: Measuring ROI and Metrics, Utilizing Social Media to Attract and Engage Developers, Scaling a DevRel Team, Running Hackathons and Events, Effectively Communicating with Developers, API success factors, Educating and Training Developer Communities, and the Art of Internal Evangelism.
Live Onstage Developer Focus Group – This is your chance to ask developers what you want to know – a panel of developers answer the questions you submit.
Moderator: David Intersimone (“David I”), Evans Data – Vice President of Developer Communities
Workshops
Kristen Scheven, AngelHack – Chief Marketing Officer
Sustainable Growth Marketing: Building a Developer Ecosystem that Lasts
People throw around the term growth hacking often, but very rarely does it lead to community growth that lasts. During this workshop, we’ll build a marketing action plan that focuses on creating a sustainable and diverse developer foundation through content marketing, email drip campaigns, developer outreach and complementary innovation programs.
Michael Rasalan, Evans Data – Director of Research
Benchmarking Developer Program Offerings and Quantifying User Satisfaction
To accurately target the developer market for your tools and services, segmentation is vital. This is commonly done by classifying developers by the types of applications they create. This typology is valuable and delivers results focused on developer targets, but sometimes you might want to look at developers by other segments. This interactive workshop looks at how various ways to segment the developer population and provides a jumping off point for examining developers that will allow you to expand your reach.
Yolanda Fintschenko, Ph.D., Fixate IO – Co-Founder and Chris Riley, Fixate IO – Co-Founder
The A to Z of Practitioner Content Marketing
In this workshop, we will define practitioner content marketing and how it compares to public relations, demand gen, and influencer marketing. We will then build a practitioner content marketing strategy with workshop participants.
Matt Schmidt, DZone – President
Building the Ideal Developer Community
A key component of a mature developer relations strategy is the effective use of community. How do devs on your team communicate and collaborate? What is the average amount of time it takes them to get answers? What if you could reduce the amount to time your team spends hunting down resources and resolving issues? A productive and engaged developer community can help your company reach its goals faster and cheaper, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Attend our workshop for a hands-on planning workshop that walks attendees through the process of launching an online developer community that is sure to be a success.
Breakout Sessions
Cliff Simpkins, Microsoft – Director, Azure Developer Marketing
Virtual Event ROI: Experiments and Learnings
Larry McDonough, VMware – Director, Product Management
Beyond the Portal: An Innovative Developer Engagement Approach
Desiree Motamedi, Facebook – Head of Developer Product Marketing
Developers and the Future of Technology
Mike Guerette, Red Hat – Global Developer Program Manager
Starting a Developer Program Begins with Data
Lothar Schubert, GE Digital – Director, Developer Relations / Product Marketing
Building Sticky Relationships with Developer Experiences
Marie Huwe, DocuSign – VP, Developer Programs and Evangelism
Developer Market Segmentation: Who are developers and what do they want?
Kris Chant, Salesforce – Developer Relations Director
Using Community to Grow your Developer Program
Scott Burnell, Ford Motor Company – Global Lead, Business Development & Partner Management
WIIFM?
Michelle Little, Evans Data Corp – Analyst
Digging Deeper: Understanding Developer Motivations.
Julie Anderson, HP Inc. – Developer Outreach Program Manager
Outreach in the Enterprise: Using Hackathons to Create Culture Change at HP Inc.
Sunday Boot Camp
The Evans Data Corporation’s Developer Relations Boot Camp provides a solid foundation on which you can build or enhance your developer program. Concentrated sessions in this one-day instructional program provide the insight and actionable information you can use to build your brand and establish strong relationships with your developer community.
After each session Boot Camp attendees will break into teams to work on projects related to each topic. Each team will report back to all attendees and discuss their findings and solicit feedback.
Boot Camp Faculty:
David Intersimone “David I” – Evans Data Corp – Vice President of Developer Communities
Michael Rasalan – Evans Data Corp – Director of Research
Scott Burnell – Ford Motor Company – Global Lead, Business Development & Partner Management
Michael Aglietti – ThingWorx – VP Developer Programs
Date: Sunday March 25, 2018
Time: 9am – 5:00pm
https://evansdata.com/drc/2018/bootcamp.php
by David I | Feb 15, 2018 | Conference, Developer Community, Developer Marketing, Developer Outreach, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Education, Evans Data |
In an event unlike any other, developer relations experts from leading companies in the software, telecom and web markets will come together at the 14th Annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference, March 26-27 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto California, to discuss best practices and reveal the techniques behind their success!
New this year: Interactive Workshops
In addition to six keynote presenters and multiple breakout sessions, this year we have also scheduled four interactive workshops during the conference. Each conference attendee will choose to participate in two of the four workshops being held on Tuesday, March 27 at 9am and 10am.
These four workshops will provide accelerated learning for conference attendees to work together to:
- Build a marketing action plan that creates a sustainable and diverse developer foundation
- Craft a practitioner content marketing strategy
- Learn how to segment a developer population that will allow you to expand your reach
- Plan the launch of an online developer community that is sure to be a success
Workshop Sessions, Dates/Times, and Leaders
Here are the four workshop sessions, the date/time when they take place on Tuesday March 27th, and an abstract that describes the workshop in more detail. You can also click on the workshop leader’s name to see their biography.
Workshop: Sustainable Growth Marketing: Building a Developer Ecosystem that Lasts
Date/Time: Tuesday March 27 – Track 1 Room – 9:00am
Workshop Leader: Kristen Scheven, AngelHack – Chief Marketing Officer
Workshop Abstract
People throw around the term growth hacking often, but very rarely does it lead to community growth that lasts. During this workshop, we’ll build a marketing action plan that focuses on creating a sustainable and diverse developer foundation through content marketing, email drip campaigns, developer outreach and complementary innovation programs.
Workshop: The A to Z of Practitioner Content Marketing
Date/Time: Tuesday March 27 – Track 1 Room – 10:00am
Workshop Leaders: Yolanda Fintschenko, Ph.D., Fixate IO – Co-Founder and Chris Riley, Fixate IO – Co-Founder
Workshop Abstract
In this workshop, we will define practitioner content marketing and how it compares to public relations, demand gen, and influencer marketing. We will then build a practitioner content marketing strategy with workshop participants.
Marketing is moving from using a megaphone to creating targeted conversations. Developers do not respond well to traditional marketing, but they also do not want to be the last to know about features, functionality, and techniques. They look for vendors that can impart technical value with each piece of content they put out and ignore obvious product promotion pieces unless they include content that makes tool or technique adoption easier.
Having these targeted technical conversations requires a new strategy — practitioner content marketing. Practitioners who sit outside your organization but are willing to put their name on content for your organization is more credible, results in better quality leads, and increases your company’s share of voice in conversations important for your industry segment. Practitioner content market is a way to let the market, prospects, and customers know that you speak their language and can provide value beyond features and functionality.
Workshop: Benchmarking Developer Program Offerings and Quantifying User Satisfaction
Date/Time: Tuesday March 27 – Track 2 Room – 9:00am
Workshop Leader: Michael Rasalan, Evans Data – Director of Research
Workshop Abstract
To accurately target the developer market for your tools and services, segmentation is vital. This is commonly done by classifying developers by the types of applications they create. This typology is valuable and delivers results focused on developer targets, but sometimes you might want to look at developers by other segments.
This interactive workshop looks at how various ways to segment the developer population and provides a jumping off point for examining developers that will allow you to expand your reach.
Workshop: Building the Ideal Developer Community
Date/Time: Tuesday March 27 – Track 2 Room – 10:00am
Workshop Leader: Matt Schmidt, DZone – President
Workshop Abstract
A key component of a mature developer relations strategy is the effective use of community. How do developers on your team communicate and collaborate? What is the average amount of time it takes them to get answers? What if you could reduce the amount to time your team spends hunting down resources and resolving issues? A productive and engaged developer community can help your company reach its goals faster and cheaper, but it doesn’t happen overnight.
Attend our workshop for a hands-on planning workshop that walks attendees through the process of launching an online developer community that is sure to be a success.
Additional Conference Links
See you at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto for this one of a kind conference that brings together developer ecosystem strategists, developer marketing, and developer relations professionals to meet, exchange ideas, forge partnerships, and share insights on developer ecosystem development.
by David I | Feb 5, 2018 | Conference, Developer Community, Developer Marketing, Developer Outreach, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Newsletter |
At the upcoming 14th Annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference (DRC2018), Guy Kawasaki will participate in a “Fireside Chat” with David Intersimone “David I”. During the keynote, David I will ask Guy Kawasaki a series of questions covering developer relations best practice and experiences. They’ll also take questions from conference attendees. This keynote session will take place on Tuesday, March 27 at 11:15am at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto California.
Guy Kawasaki was chief evangelist of Apple and David was chief evangelist for Borland/Embarcadero Technologies’ Developer Tools Group.
About Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. He is on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, a brand ambassador for Mercedes Benz USA, and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley). He was also the chief evangelist of Apple. He is also the author of The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and nine other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Guy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GuyKawasaki
Guy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guykawasaki/
Guy’s Website: https://guykawasaki.com/
About David Intersimone “David I”
David Intersimone, known to many as David I, is a passionate and innovative software industry veteran who extols and educates the world on developer tools, software development and software architectures. David I joined Borland Software in 1985 where he practically invented Developer Relations. During David I’s forty-three years as a developer, development manager, developer community executive and chief evangelist, he has created a thriving global developer community, thousands of articles, videos and blog posts.
Before Embarcadero acquired the developer tools business from Borland Software, David spent more than 20 years with Borland in various evangelism, engineering, and development capacities, including creating the company’s developer relations program.
Today, David I shares his visions and insights as a pioneer in developer relations with program managers and directors through Evans Data’s Developer Program Advisory where he gives workshops, guidance and advice on program creation and enhancement and through the DevRelate Developer Program community website.
David I on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidi99
David I on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
David I’s DevRelate blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Join us at the Evans Data 14th Annual Developer Relations Conference
The conference takes place on March 26 and 27, 2018 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto California. There is also a Sunday, March 25 Developer Relations Bootcamp strategic workshop that provides a solid foundation on which you can build or enhance your developer program. Concentrated sessions in this one-day instructional program provide the insight and actionable information you can use to build your brand and establish strong relationships with your developer community.
During the two day conference the keynotes, sessions and workshops will cover all aspects of developer relations, ranging from the business side (program ROI, the connection between developer programs and company revenue, budgeting for/costs of developer programs, how to get an organization’s commitment of internal resources, etc.) to the marketing side (techniques for recruitment, awareness tactics, community loyalty building programs, legal/privacy and global privacy considerations, conducting a privacy audit, internationalizing a US-based developer program, etc), and much more.
Whether you are starting a new developer relations program or building on a current one, you deserve all of the help you can get – and this is the place to get it!
In an event unlike any other, developer relations experts from leading companies in the software, telecom and web markets will come together to discuss best practices and reveal the techniques behind their success!
You’ll find additional Developer Relations Conference information, keynote presenters, speakers and conference schedule on the DRC2018 Web Site.
by David I | Aug 29, 2017 | Conference, Developer Marketing, Developer Relations, DevRelate |
I am a speaker at the API World 2017 conference taking place in San Jose California September 23-28, 2017. The Conference, run by DevNetwork, is the world’s largest vendor-neutral API conference and expo, organizing the API Economy. API World is dedicated to the mission to be independent and facilitate connections, knowledge, trust and business within the developer community of API providers and consumers.
Ten Developer API Success Factors for your Developer Marketing and Developer Relations Program
My talk takes place on Wednesday, September 27 from 11:00am – 11:50am. I am part of the API World API Marketing track during the conference.
Today more than 80% of developers belong to one or more developer programs. Sixty-two percent of developers, in a recent Evans Data Developer Program research survey, say they don’t use APIs that aren’t supported by a Developer Relations program. What motivates a developer to want to adopt a particular technology or tool? What motivates them to buy?
The answers to these questions are crucial to the success of API marketing efforts. In order to sell a product, companies must be able to first, reach developers, second, provide a clear and unique message that emphasizes the particular value and functionality of their tool or platform, and finally, convince developers that these offerings can benefit them and/or the company they work for. Knowing what the primary influences are in the developer world is critical.
There are many aspects related to a developer’s API adoption and a company’s decision to open their APIs to developers. These aspects can include: API features, Documentation, Developer Support, Reasons for joining and staying in a program, ROI and Developer Program Measurement, Developer Outreach, Training, Spurring Participation, Developer Resources, and App Stores.
In this API World session, you’ll hear about the many aspects of successful API adoption, developer program features and developer marketing best practices that lead to a successful partnership between your company and developers.
Evans Data Tactical Marketing Reports
In creating my API World talk I will be using developer focused research that is included in this year’s Evans Data “Developer Marketing Survey 2017” and “Developer Relations Survey 2017“.
Stop by and Say Hello
During API World, I will also be roaming around the conference and exhibit hall. It will be awesome to see all of the companies that are providing APIs for developers to use. If you have time, stop by my talk and say hello.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
by David I | Jun 30, 2017 | Conference, Developer Marketing, Developer Outreach, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Outreach |
I spent the past few days in Las Vegas for the Cisco Live 2017 C-Scape industry analysts meetup. I had two days (thankfully in air conditioned rooms and buses) of meetings with executives, leaders of product groups, and customers in general sessions, round table discussions and one on one meetings. I also attended the opening keynote with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and had the pleasure to witness his sit down conversation with Apple CEO Tim Cook. There is plenty of news about Cisco’s announcements, products, and technologies in the news, so I won’t repeat those sorts of things here. This DevRelate blog post is focused on how Developer Relations outreach can be multiply integrated into a company’s in-person conference.
Best Practices for an Integrated Developer/User Event
At most technology company conferences, you already have most of your executives, product managers, marketing specialists, and technology gurus. Combining partner, analyst, partner, ecosystem and press meetings into the same location makes a lot of sense. Cisco did a great job of bringing us into the middle of their conference including meetings with customers who talked about their success stories. We had plenty of time to ask questions during the meetings as well as during informal conversations during dinners later in the evening.
I got to hear from customers during some of the general sessions and round table discussions. While it is always good to talk with members of the teams, it is a special pleasure to be able to listen to and ask questions of customers and their experiences.
I really enjoyed the discussions with Michael Giresi, CIO of Royal Caribbean about how extended teams work closely together to enhance their customer’s experiences with project teams that include IT, DevOps, Business, Product, and Developer members. From my notes he said “it is about the team being accountable for the complete solution – embedding accountability for the complete experience versus just the application experience. Assign ownership for the performance of the whole solution – assign the right people to the ‘whole team’. The concept of applications and infrastructure being separate is nuts! The old way doesn’t work anymore.”
I also got to talk with Michael Sherwood, Director of the Department of Information Technologies for the City of Las Vegas about the implementation of their Smart City plans to include IoT, Open Data and Developer APIs. Michael even sent me a follow up email yesterday with additional information and links.
It was very clear that software, developers and APIs were front and center in just about every hardware and software product presentation and demonstration. Integrating a very active Cisco DevNet Zone in the convention center with class rooms, hands on workshops, and cool developer solutions also reinforced the theme of developers at the center of everything. While developers often think of APIs for platforms, frameworks and services, Cisco also demonstrated the openness of programming at the ASIC level.
When you are planning your conference, you can leverage your company and team members investments to the maximum by integrating your whole “extended” ecosystem – technology, marketing, research, partners, analysts, experts, authors, consultants, developers, thought leaders, trainers, educators, and others to orchestrate a complete event. For those technology and software companies that integrate and add value, you can also be a part of the larger story during the event. I am probably already preaching to the choir, but piggy-backing on an event to reach out to a larger developer audience is always a good thing.
Just before I left the Cisco DevNet Zone and the convention center, I stopped by the Cisco DevNet Opportunity Project pod. Cisco DevNet is encouraging developers, companies and others to get involved to “unleash the power of data and technology to expand economic opportunity in communities nationwide. To create solutions that help families, local leaders, and businesses access information about the resources they need to succeed.” Find out more about the US Department of Commerce Opportunity Project at https://opportunity.census.gov/
While it was extremely hot outside in Las Vegas this week (glad to be home in the cool environment of Monterey Bay), it was also extremely beneficial to see the awesome team at Cisco and the wide array of tech companies and developers working together to move our industry forward. I hope that you all have success in your future events whether they be small, medium, large, extra large or XXXXL.
What are your Best Practices for a Completely Integrated Developer Event Experience?
If you have your own best practices where you integrate multiple audiences, partners, press, analysts, users, developers and others in your events, send me an email with what works best for you.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
