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 26, 2018 | DevRelate, Webinar |
This blog post includes additional information and links used in this week’s DevRelate Webinar “Internal Evangelism and Enablement to Support your Developer Program“. Developer Relations team members spend most of their time doing external evangelism to their developer community and prospects. At the same time, it is even more important to have an active and ongoing focus on internal evangelism to keep key stakeholders and departments aware of what you are doing while eliciting their help and guidance for your efforts. To some, it might seem like quite a task but it can be accomplished by setting up enabling internal technologies and systems to make it easy for employees beyond your developer relations team to support your efforts. This webinar will cover multiple ways for you to keep your company up to date while garnering their continued support and provide assistance with your content generation and activities.
The information and ideas contained in this webinar come from years of evangelism experience and also feedback from multiple Developer Relations professionals who are DevRelate members.
Topics Covered in this webinar
- The Value of Internal Evangelism
- Internal Community Newsletter
- Events “Tag Along”
- Trip Reports
- Pictures/Stories on the Office Walls
- Internal Webinars/Briefings/Lunches/Calls
- Awards Voted by Employees/Stakeholders
- Employees as Community Members
- Community Member Advisory Board
- Encourage Top Members to Visit
- Internal Dashboards/Channels/Systems
If you have additional ways that you do internal evangelism inside your company, send them along to David I for inclusion in this blog post.

14th Annual DevRel Conference March 26-27, 2018 – Palo Alto, CA
Two full days of sessions, round tables, workshops and networking events. Join top developer program managers as they share insights from some of the most successful programs in the industry including: GE, Oracle, RedHat, DocuSign, Ford and leading keynotes from IBM, Intel, Google and Guy Kawasaki join Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data Corp.

Developer Relations Boot Camp – Sunday March 25, 2018
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.
New Interactive Workshops!
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.
Benefits of attending the Boot Camp
- Grow your developer community with the right members
- Use best practices to drive business success
- Reduce your DevRel costs and Increased your Program’s Scalability
- Improve developer experiences on your Community site
- Leverage developers to increase business value
- Satisfy developer pain points
Boot Camp sessions
- Program Strategy, Getting Buy-In and Framework for Success
- Essential Developer Program Basics
- Know Your Developers: Developer Personas and Segmentation
- Crafting a Win-Win-Win Strategy for your Developer Program
- Best Practices for Successful Developer Relations Programs
- Effectively Communicating with Developers
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.