Scaling your Developer Relations program is a challenge faced by virtually all organizations. It doesn’t matter if you are a startup with 10 people or IBM – you still need to scale your efforts.
IBM probably has one of the biggest Developer Relations organizations in the world. Even with such size, Developer Advocates cannot be everywhere to host in-person workshops, meetups and attend conferences. You cannot scale with people.
Even if you could send a Developer Advocate to every meetup or conference, there are many more developers who don’t attend meetups or conferences. There are many reasons, maybe they leave in an area where there are no meetups or they don’t have conference travel budget. You need to reach these developers and also scale.
The way to scale a program is through content, online meetups (webinars), videos and online forums. I shared how to scale with online meetups and content before:
- Using online meetups to scale your Developer Relations program
- How content creates content (or you can read the entire content series)
All these resources are available to anyone with an internet connection regardless of location and can be consumed any time of the day or night. In addition, all these digital resources can provide value for a long time, months or even years.
You can also combine different events together such as online meetups and hands-on workshops to produce an online developer conference.
That’s exactly what IBM Developer Advocacy organization is launching in November. It will host a half-day online conference with talks and hands-on workshops. The event will run four times, targeting different parts of the world:
- North America, November 2, 2019
- India, November 9, 2019
- Europe, November 14, 2019
- Asia, November 23, 2019
The event has two tracks you can see below and you will be able to earn badges. For detailed session descriptions and to register, go to: Register and learn more about the event.
Another big benefit is that you don’t need to get travel approval and travel anywhere. You can watch and participate in this conference from the comfort of your home, favorite coffee shop or the park (and maybe even the beach). And with regards to traveling and Developer Relations, here is a great blog post from Bear Douglas on Toward carbon neutral Developer Relations.
IBM Developer Advocate Steve Martinelli said is perfectly:
And lastly, if you are in San Francisco on Monday, October 28 – check out this meetup where we will discuss this exact topic.
Max Katz 
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