Introduction to Apache Retreats

Apache Retreats are locally organised, concom supported events dedicated to getting a geographically linked group of Apache committers and contributors together, typically for a weekend.

How do Retreats fit into the Apache conference+meetup landscape?

Retreats are focused on existing Apache committers, and those near to committer status. They tend to be geographically focused primerily, with project focus second.

Unlike an Apache BarCamp, a retreat is concentrating on existing committers and potential committers, whereas a BarCamp tends more towards potential users and future committers. Unlike a project meetup, a retreat will cover multiple projects. Unlike a full conference like ApacheCon, retreats tend to be shorter, cheaper, and more run on unconference lines.

Who comes to Apache retreats?

We aim to have three groups of people attending retreats:

Local-ish committers interested in meeting others, discussing their projects and new projects, learning and having fun
Local users and interested tech types who'll pop along one day to the BarCamp to learn more about the ASF and our projects
Committers from one of a few sponsoring PMCs, who will be involved in project brainstorming, planning and hacking, in addition to taking part in the BarCamp and socialising.

We've found it works well to have people from all three groups present

Why would my PMC want to get involved in an Apache Retreat?

There are a number of benefits to being a sponsoring PMC, including:

You get a hackathon / get-together / planning session without having to book a venue, sort out catering etc
The cost of the event is very low due to concom support and concom arranged sponsorship (typically attendees only need to cover travel and food)
TAC support is available to get anyone to the event who needs help
You get to build your community, and bring in new committers

What would my PMC need to qualify to be a sponsoring PMC?

You need to have most of your committers near the retreat. If your committers are geographically clustered but not near this retreat, wait for the next one / organise your own! (If your committers are very geographically spread, you should meet up at ApacheCon)
Your PMC should be active, but not have oodles of corporate dosh sloshing about. Those few lucky PMCs with lots of sponsorship should probably just host their own hackathon weekend (as most already do), without the need for concom support and subsidy
You'll need to get enough of your committers to come along!
And that's about it

What would my PMC need to do as a sponsoring PMC?

Firstly, we'd need you to work to get your committers and potential committers to the event. Hopefully most will be able to get work funding, especially as the distance to travel is low for many and the event cost is low for all. For the remainder, you'll need to work with TAC to get travel funding.

Then, you'd need to help out a bit with some publicity for the event. This is likely to be writing the odd paragraph before the event.

Finally, at the event your PMC will need to do a few talks to the other attendees about your project. Ideally these will be both interesting, and of value for helping those attendees convince their employers to send them to the event! So, we'll need some information from your for the signup site, eg

"Jim Blogs will do his world famous 'making Apache Foo run faster in 20 minutes' talk"
"Joan Smith will talk about the new diagnostic features in Apache Foo 3.1 which make troubleshooting a breeze"

Remind me again of the benefits of being a sponsoring PMC...

You get to have a (usually) weekend long hackathon, get-together and planning session
You get this without having to organise the venue or catering
The cost to attend the event is very low - typically just travel and food
You get to meet, discuss and socialise with a wide range of other Apache committers too, not just your own project
You help make the event a success!

What are the steps?

Decide if you want to participate
Nominate a contact
Give us the blurb for a couple of talks your PMC will give to others at the retreat, which will hopefully help others when it comes to getting their travel approved
Tell your committers to start trying to get their travel and attendance approved
Work with TAC for anyone who can't

PMCsAtApacheRetreats