RustConf Community Table

[ashleygwilliams]

@wifelette has pinged me about the community team table at RustConf this year! is anyone interested in leading this? we have done the table in previous years, but with our new subteam organization, i think we have the opportunity to do something a bit more organized with it.

current outstanding questions:

• anyone want to lead this effort? (even if you aren't attending, a point person would be great)
• whiteboard? (if so what would we use it for)
• stickers/swag?
• calls to action (should we try to use the table to recruit folks for specific teams/initiatives etc)

[ashleygwilliams]

pinging @rust-community/events-team for any thoughts on this! (not exactly what the events team does, but i imagine ya'll would have particularly great feedback)

[skade]

I think that would be great. My experience is that people never quite know what we do and a table and some conversation helps a lot there!

[sebasmagri]

I'd like to give some feedback from last RustConf's community table while we discuss this.

The Whiteboard idea of being able to nominate people that have done good for the community was awesome, but did not go further; probably we should have a special mention for those persons at the end of the conf? or even a small prize? (something simple, like a rusty metalic ferris prize).

On the other hand, I think the table could use a bit more of identification, being at a Rust conference on a table with just a Rust tablecloth and Rust stickers is probably not that clear if we want to communicate "This is what the Rust Community Team does", and actually a common comment from people approaching the table was "Ah, you're the community team", with an uncertain face. So probably a good poster/banner where we clearly communicate we're the Rust Community team, probably displaying pictures of events, gatherings, etc. The calls to action idea is great and I think it improves this situation.

[skade]

So, I have an issue with finding "notable" community members. That's much of a popularity contest and also runs the danger of repeating the same names over and over. Here's an interesting modification though: who don't we know of?

I agree with the identification, we'll have a similar problem if we are accepted for FROSCON at a similar time. Would it be possible to design banners and shirts until then? Just the designs, I think it would be best if the booth staff can manage the printing themselves.

[ashleygwilliams]

@skade i'm not sure i understand what you are talking about re: notable community members? i'm not sure i see any mention of this, perhaps i am missing something? in general, the identification of people usually has the goal of identifying folks we don't always think of?

[ashleygwilliams]

for RustConf, i think we can do a few things:

• use the whiteboard as a way to write out what we do and identify ourselves as the community team
• make a schedule so that we always have folks at the booth
• have notecards we hand out that suggest several calls to actions/ways to get involved

thoughts?

[ashleygwilliams]

in general, i don't usually like the idea of shirts because i really prefer to wear my own clothes, which is usually not a tshirt. maybe we can get ribbons to attach to our name tags or make a rust community team sticker that we can stick on the name tags?

[skade]

@ashleygwilliams I was referring to the whiteboard idea @sebasmagri proposed.

On second thought, agree with the T-Shirt issue, thanks for raising that! Ribbons are probably a better (and cheaper) way to do things!

The events team thought about creating a small postcard "how to run your own Rust meetup".

[sebasmagri]

And I agree with trying to avoid the whiteboard to become a popularity contest. Still, I think having an open area of the whiteboard for the attendants to write is a good idea, I just don't know now what would be adequate to encourage in that area.

[Manishearth]

Last year the whiteboard was pretty great; folks wrote kudoses on it. I don't think it became much of a popularity contest but we could switch that around anyway. If we do add some announced prizes that can make it problematic though; it's best left informal.