Starting a local group
A local group can be three people in a café or a monthly video call. What matters is that it meets regularly and that people leave knowing more than when they came.
Contents
Finding interest
- Post in the forums and the chats: "Is anyone in <region> or speaking <language> interested in meeting?"
- Ask colleagues, customers and students who use Exponential.
- Two or three interested people are enough to start.
Choosing a format
| Format | Good for | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Online call | Spread-out groups, one language | A video tool, a host |
| In person, informal | Cities with several users | A quiet place |
| In person with talks | Larger groups | A room, a projector, a speaker |
| Contribution day | Groups that want to give back | Laptops, test installations (A contribution day) |
The advocates' pages cover the details: Proposing a meetup, Running an online meetup.
The first meeting
- Fix a date, a time and a place or link, two to four weeks ahead.
- Name a contact person for problems, as the code of conduct asks of event organizers (Community safety and privacy).
- Prepare one short talk or demo, and plenty of time to talk.
- Ask at the end what people want next time.
A simple agenda
| Time | Part |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Welcome, introductions, the code of conduct in one sentence |
| 0:10 | One short talk or demo (for example a new feature of the latest release) |
| 0:30 | Questions and problems people bring |
| 1:00 | What we could do together next; next date |
Talk material can be built from the help, which is free documentation (Twenty-minute talk slide outline, Lightning talk script).
Keeping it going
- Meet on a fixed rhythm, for example the first Tuesday of the month.
- Share the organizing among two or three people.
- Keep a short public note of each meeting, without personal data.
- Invite newcomers explicitly; groups that only talk to themselves shrink.
Announcing it
Describe it as what it is: a community-run group. Do not use project logos or the word "official" unless the project has agreed (Naming and brand, Claims you must not make).
Related pages
- Local groups and community events
- A contribution day
- Proposing a meetup
- Measuring advocacy honestly
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
Become an Exponential Partner
Partners share their information, provide funding, contribute back and develop the products with us, and that is how Exponential grows. A partner website and dashboard are planned for mid-2027: please become a partner today to speed up our growth rate and land new features faster.