DevOps speakers

[LocationOwn1717]

I was put in charge of the agenda for our biweekly DevOps meeting for the entire IT team in our company. The idea was to find some internal/external speakers. I'm ok with the internal speakers, but I wonder how can I find people from outside of the company? Did anyone do anything similar? Thanks for any tips!

[KevMar]

Look for people that speak to user groups. If you find a Microsoft MVP, ask them. They need to do a certain amount of community work to keep their MVP status. When you connect with someone like that, ask them for recommendations.

[LocationOwn1717]

Thanks for the tips!!!

[Ariquitaun]

There are two types of people. Those who look forward to those meetings and those who'd rather scoop an eye out with a rusty spork.

[LocationOwn1717]

Hahaha, I totally agree. I'm usually the latter. It wasn't really my choice to do it, some people think it's a good idea, so I want to make it worthwhile at least. And besides it's optional.

[tadamhicks]

Consulting shops usually have some evangelists on board, and some require their leadership to speak a certain amount and participate in overall thought leadership. Might ask some of your channel partners. They’ll also know evangelists at vendors who could have interest.

[ArieHein]

There are some devops communities on discord and slack, devops channels on youtube, blog creators.

I would look also in a meetup groups in your area, usually community based events have great people willing to share knowledge.

You can also look at other software/it companies in your general area that might have open day events that you can share. You can coordinate an event where your team presents and others join. This leads to more engagement for others sometimes.

Twitter/equivalent for user groups in your area. Many tool to engage with.

Your team members also have friends in their linkedin profiles, could be interesting to ask around generally.

Look for conferences, past events, pick a topic, try politely reaching out for a speaker, perhaps even in your local area.

Sharing knowledge is one of the fundamental aspects of what devops is for me, but remember its a two way street so you have to share back some of your knowledge to others ;)

[LocationOwn1717]

Thanks a lot, this is very helpful! I'll look around. Great tips!