Conference Chats

About

Conference Chats is a community space for community organizers. Resources include a twice-monthly video call and a Discord server to share advice, support, news, and other topics related to community organizing and event planning. It began as an online extension of the kinds of gatherings that naturally happen among organizers when attending events together and has been meeting monthly since late 2019. No experience is necessary to join, only an interest in building communities. Participants' experience ranges from brand new to event organizing through many years of running events for thousands of attendees.

Whether you've been building communities and running events for years or just wondering what goes into making your favorite conferences happen, this group is for you. To join, review our Code of Conduct and then meet us in Discord.

FAQ

When and where does the group meet?

Video calls take place in Discord at the following times:

• the first Friday of the month starting at 1:00PM US Eastern time (ICS file)
• the second Wednesday of the month starting at 9:00PM US Eastern time (ICS file)

See the calendar below to view these events in your local time zone.

These calls typically last several hours, and participants are free to drop in any time during a scheduled event. Outside of these video calls, we share news and discussion throughout the month via text chat.

Is this just for conference organizers?

While Conference Chats has its roots in conference organizing, the group is open to many types of community organizers. These include (but are not limited to) conferences, meetups, and online communities. We encourage participation from organizers with various backgrounds, and we all benefit from this kind of cross-community communication.

I've never built a community before. Can I still participate?

Of course! The experienced organizers of the group are happy to share what they know. Talking with other organizers is a great way to jump start your first event.

What kinds of communities do we talk about?

Primarily annual community-run conferences, but there are no strict rules about this. For historical and network effect reasons, we cover a lot of Python and related open source technology events. Events planning is the common thread, though; topics need not be specific to the tech sector.

I have more questions!

Join us in Discord, and we'll be happy to answer them.