In this talk, we are sharing what we've learned over the years organizing one of the biggest community-driven conferences in the region. In 20 minutes we cover as much conference marketing strategy, implementation tips and performance analytics as possible 

1. How to bring 1000 attendees to
your DevFest
With marketing budget < $100
Alina Yurenko
Marketing & communications @ GDG Lviv

2. ● Responsible for posting cat pics and
gifs as Devfest Ukraine;
● Love when marketing and
technology come together
● GDG Lviv team is 91% engineers.
Guess who is the one spoiling the
statistics 😉

3. #dfua
TOC
Background
Before the DevFest
— Do your research
— Plan campaigns
— Choose your channels
— Track & Improve
During the DevFest
— What are the goals
— Be engaging
— Be informative
— Nurture brand ambassadors
After the DevFest: keep going!

5. #dfua
DevFest Ukraine
1000
attendees
48
sessions
16
countries

6. “Bring world class conference experience
— something you can feel at the world’s
best tech events — right next to your door,
so that you can learn, grow and contribute.
// our mission

7. How do you grow fast with
limited budget and keeping
high quality?

8. Before DevFest
During DevFest
After DevFest

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Before the DF| Main Goals
● Bring attendees;
● Work on brand awareness;
● Run badass c4p campaign;
● Promote your speakers, make them superstars;
● Become visible and appealing for sponsors;
● Manage expectations and share important updates.

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Before DF| What you shouldn’t do
Post random content on Facebook

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Before DF| What you should do
Post random content on Facebook
Run a marketing campaign!

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Before DF | Marketing Campaigns
Set of marketing actions, which
are time-specific and aiming at
achieving particular goal

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Before DF | Marketing Campaign Types
● “Tickets go live”
● “Call for speakers”
● “First speakers announced”
● Call for sponsors
● Diversity campaigns
● Opportunity campaigns (students, CS teachers)
● International campaigns
● Occasional campaigns: Programmers’ Day, September 1st, Valentine’s Day

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OCT
New website
Collect emails, gather
fans in between the
seasons
MAR
Tickets go live
Limited amount of
special price tickets;
Roll out the next
tickets in batches
APR
Sponsors
Give a good discount
for the first ones to
keep your budget
balanced throughout
the year
MAY
Speakers
Somewhere
around/after I/O
start reaching
speakers
JUNE—OCT
Push tickets
Now is the time to
bring as many
attendees as you can
handle:)
Diversity
Also this is the time
for diversity &
opportunity
campaigns
OCT
Final check
Make sure to deliver
important messages:
location, schedule,
additional activities,
limitations and so on
High-level schedule example

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How to track campaigns
https://devfest.gdg.org.ua/?utm_source=facebook&
utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=web_keynote&
utm_term=javascript&utm_content=cat_banner

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How to track goals
ga('send', 'event', [eventCategory], [eventAction], [eventLabel],
[eventValue], [fieldsObject]);
ga('send', 'event', 'ticket', 'buy_click', 'Lazy bird');

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Before DF| Tools & Platforms
Slack
Mention
Sessionize

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25. Before DevFest
During DevFest
After DevFest

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During DF| Main Goals
● Put together and prepare media team;
● Keep promoting sessions and activities;
● Troubleshooting: share emergency messages, monitor
and react to frustrated comments;
● Generate multimedia content for after the DevFest.

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Media Team Guidelines
● Divide the work
● Tone of voice
● What & how to post
● Good examples
● Bad examples

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People do not trust brands.
They trust people like them.
Find and promote brand ambassadors!
During DF

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During DF

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During DF

31. Before DevFest
During DevFest
After DevFest

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After DF
● Thank your crew, attendees, speakers, partners, sponsors!
● Post photos asap so people can enjoy & repost —> give
you buzz;
● Use the content you generated during DF to bring
constant value to attendees and stay visible;
● Start preparing for the next DevFest 😎

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Content to share in between the seasons
● Repost what fans and attendees are saying;
● Share speaker quotes;
● Casually check up on attendees and speakers, don’t keep
silent for a year;
● Share sessions recordings & slides;
● Share interviews you recorded during DF.

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2X growth during 2 seasons
2013 2014 2015 2016
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
2017 2018
2X

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Key takeaways
● Run meaningful campaigns;
● Track & improve performance;
● Engage with attendees and nurture brand ambassadors;
● Use the power of online communication to generate buzz globally;
● Stay lively, fun and engaging throughout the year;
● Start preparing for the next DevFest now 😎

37. Thank you!
Questions?
Alina & GDG Lviv team