We want to support you in any way we can to host a successful meetup! If you are struggling with anything reach out to us via community@confluent.io and we’re always here to help :)

Below are only some of the many ways we can provide support:

• Finding a speaker and/or a venue
• Providing F&B - we generally have pizza/beer but are also open to other suggestions!

We are happy to jump in at any point to support you!

There are Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink® groups all over the world that you can host meetups for (check this page for the whole list)! Some of these groups are run by Confluent and some are run by community members. Once you find a Kafka or a Flink group in the city where you want to host the meetup, let us know (community@confluent.io) and we can work with you and the community organizer to make the meetup happen.

An alternative to hosting a meetup is to find a non-Kafka/Flink group (e.g. local DevOps group) that may be interested in Kafka/Flink-related topics. Once you find a group that you’d like to collaborate with you can either message us (community@confluent.io) with the details and we can help you organize it or you can contact the organizer of that group directly to see if they would be interested in a Kafka/Flink talk. They are more likely to respond if you already have a speaker and a topic ready.

Finding a speaker can be challenging at times but anyone from the community is welcome to be a speaker as long as they are technical and knowledgeable! There are many different ways to find speakers such as reaching out to the Confluent Community Team (community@confluent.io), asking around in your network, connecting with people on our Community Slack/ Forum (please always keep in mind our Code of Conduct), messaging local community members on meetup.com, and more.

Once you find a speaker please remember to share our Rules of Engagement to ensure that everyone has a good experience at our meetups.

Ask your speaker to prepare and provide the below information as you will likely need it later when creating the event page:

• Full Name and Title
• Bio (short paragraph)
• Twitter Handle
• Title of the Talk
• Talk abstract
• Length of talk

The speakers are free to choose the topic as long as it relates to Apache Kafka® or Apache Flink®. Speakers can also talk about other technologies, but only if they closely relate to and are interdependent with Kafka or Flink (part of the ecosystem). The talks will need to be 100% technical, vendor-neutral, and not salesy. Another thing to keep in mind is to check the past events of the meetup group to make sure that a topic is not being repeated.

Below are some potential topics:

• Apache Kafka® 101
• Apache Flink® 101
• Clients
• Cloud
• Containers
• Data Mesh
• Event Sourcing
• Exactly-once Semantics
• Kafka Connect
• Kafka Core
• Kafka Internals
• Kafka Streams
• ksqlDB
• Microservices
• Multi Data-Center Deployments
• REST Proxy
• Schema Registry
• Security
• Spring Framework and Apache Kafka
• Stream Processing
• Streaming ETL
• Use Cases

Standard presentations can be downloaded in this drive.

While it is flexible, our meetups are usually held between 4 PM - 7 PM on Tue/Wed/Thurs and avoid Mon/Fri/Weekends/Public holidays. We do however understand that depending on where you’re holding the meetup, the local attendees might prefer specific days/times so feel free to choose whatever works best for your local community!

Once the date/time is set, make sure to send a calendar invite to all those involved (e.g. speaker, host, etc.) with as much details as possible to make it easier for everyone to find all the information in one place (e.g. venue, agenda, local support POC, link to the meetup invite, information on catering, swag tracking number-if applicable, link to the zoom if online, additional details/instructions)

We recommend each talk to be around 30-45 minutes long with 1-3 speakers per meetup. For virtual events, we suggest that the meetup does not exceed 1 hour.

For an example of an agenda see the below:

Virtual

• 6:00pm-6:05pm: Introductions & Online Networking
• 6:05pm-6:50pm: Title of talk, Speaker, Company
• 6:50pm: Q&A

In-person

• 6:00pm: Doors open
• 6:00pm - 6:30pm: Pizza, Drinks and Networking
• 6:30pm - 7:15pm: Title of talk, Speaker, Company (Speaker 1)
• 7:15pm - 7:45pm: Title of talk, Speaker, Company (Speaker 2)
• 7:45pm - 8:00pm - Additional Q&A & Networking

Depending on the situation, and your resources, you'll need to decide if your event will be Online-Only, In-Person, or Hybrid!

Online-only Meetup

For online meetups, we recommend using a video conferencing tool like Zoom. The settings on your Zoom should be set to have a safe meetup and avoid uninvited guests. Please refer to this guide on how to make your Zoom safe. If you do not have a video conferencing account and if you would like us to host it please specify that in the form.

In-Person Meetup

In order to host an in person meetup you need to find a venue. Below are a few things you should consider when choosing the venue:

Location: Host the meetup in a central place to make it easier for members to travel to. Depending on the city you might want to consider places with parking nearby

Size: The size of the venue should be appropriate for the number of attendees you are expecting

Provision of the necessary equipment/resources:

• A space for theatre-style seating. Depending on the size of the group, a larger meetup group may require a larger space than a small group
• A projector/screen, microphone, and presentation ‘clicker’
• Space for swag, beer and pizza to be laid prior to the event (fridge or ice buckets for the beers ideally)
• WiFi

Looking for a venue: A good place to start when looking for a venue is to check if you can book a space at the company where you work. These spaces will most likely be available after work hours.

Alternatively, you can reach out to members of the local community - many times you will find that there are members who are happy to provide a space for the meetup! Co-working spaces and tech hubs/accelerators may also be an option as they generally provide space for little cost.

If you have a smaller group you can also get creative and host it at unconventional venues such as park, cafes, etc. You can also use what3words to signify a meeting spot.

Hybrid Meetup

When you host an in person event you can also have the choice to stream the event online for those who did not attend in person. For this to happen you need to follow the instructions on both online and in person events simultaneously.

Now that you have a speaker and a venue, it’s time to set up the event page. We use meetup.com as a platform to organize our meetups. We do understand that there are other platforms that are more widely used in some countries (e.g. connpass in Japan) so feel free to explore other platforms. In order to post an event to meetup.com please fill out this form so that we can post the details on your behalf.

Once you have sent us the form filled we will create the event page and share with you a draft. We suggest sharing the draft with the speaker/host to ensure all the details are correct, especially the date and venue. Once all the details are confirmed, let us know and we will go ahead and announce the event.

We usually announce the virtual meetups 1-2 weeks prior to the event day and 2-3 weeks prior for in-person events. Announcing the meetup too far in advance might not be the best as people could forget about it resulting in a low attendance rate. To promote your meetup, share it with your network via LinkedIn/ Twitter etc., or other suitable platforms. If you think a topic benefits members of other community groups you can always contact the organizers to let them know about the meetup and ask them to share it with their members. For example, if you have a talk on Kafka and Kubernetes, you might want to reach out to your local Kubernetes group.

For food and drinks, we generally order pizza and beer/soft drinks. However, we do know that some cities may prefer other types of food/drinks so feel free to explore other options. If you plan to provide alcoholic beverages, make sure to check with the venue if this is okay. Some venues may not allow alcoholic beverages due to their license. It’s always nice if the venue has a fridge or ice buckets for the drinks!

To figure out how much food to order, use the below guide: Note: Expect around 40% of the RSVPs to actually attend (e.g. if you have 100 RSVPs expect around 40 attendees)

General quantity suggestion: Pizza 2 Slices Per Person

• 35% Margarita
• 15% Vegetarian/Vegan
• 25% Meat
• 25% Chicken

General quantity suggestion: Drinks Depends on the region, but try two beers per person and a handful of soft drinks

Normally the budget for catering is $15 (USD) per person

Once you have the website where you want to order the F&B from fill in this form and we will order it for you.

We like to record all of our meetups so that those who weren’t able to attend or those who just want to rewatch the presentation can easily do so. You can have AV on site, record it on your own camera and/or many video conferencing platforms like Zoom will have functions that will allow you to record. So if you do happen to record the meetup feel free to share it with us at community@confluent.io and we will upload it on our Meetup Hub.