drupalpune Speaker outreach
Filling three slots a month — main session, lightning talk, BoF — and building a bench so next month starts from a list rather than from nothing.
Draft, never send. Everything goes to Gmail drafts for review.
Slot model
Every meetup has three slots. Track them and never send a generic ask when you could send a specific one.
| Slot | Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Main session | 45 min + 15 Q&A | Fill first — the announcement needs a headline |
| Lightning talk | 25 min + 5 Q&A | Best slot for a first-time speaker |
| BoF | 45 min discussion | No slides. Lead with this for anyone hesitant. |
Compute open slots by counting confirmed rows in data/speakers.csv against
these three. "We still have the lightning slot open" converts; "would you like to
speak" doesn't.
Workflow
1. Date and slot state
python3 scripts/meetup_date.py
python3 scripts/pipeline_report.py
Get the meetup date, which slots are filled, and who is overdue a reply.
2. Find the row
data/speakers.csv (gitignored). Read name, email, expertise_tags,
preferred_format, city, last_talk_title, last_talk_date, stage,
last_contacted, notes.
If they aren't in the file, add a row first. Never invent an email address or a past talk.
3. Pick the touch
stage |
Touch | File |
|---|---|---|
not_contacted |
1 — invite | assets/touch-1-invite.md |
invited, silent 5+ days |
2 — nudge | assets/touch-2-nudge.md |
interested, no topic |
2-b — topic suggestions | in touch-2-nudge.md |
topic_proposed + agenda locked |
3 — confirm and brief | assets/touch-3-confirm-and-brief.md |
confirmed, meetup done |
4 — thank you | assets/touch-4-thankyou.md |
declined this month |
none until next cycle | — |
4. Personalise
- If they've spoken before, say so, by title.
last_talk_titleandlast_talk_dateexist for this. It is the difference between an invitation and a broadcast. - Match the format to the person, not to what's convenient — see the table in
references/session-formats.md. - If they're interested but topicless, offer two or three concrete topics from
references/topic-prompts.mdcrossed with theirexpertise_tags. Most people have five talks in them and haven't labelled any of them. - Lead with the BoF for anyone hesitant. "No slides needed" removes the single biggest reason people say no.
- Out-of-town speakers (
city!= Pune) need three weeks' notice and a mention of travel. Checknotes.
Resolve every {{#if}} before drafting. Conditional syntax must never appear in
a draft.
5. Draft, show, update
Gmail create-draft tool → show the user the full body → update the row:
stage, last_contacted, next_action, next_action_date, notes.
If Gmail isn't connected, write to out/ and say so.
Cadence
| When | Do |
|---|---|
| T-28 | Wave 1 — 6–10 invites. Main session first. |
| T-21 | Announcement live; wave 2 for whatever's still open |
| T-14 | Agenda locked. Confirm-and-brief every speaker. |
| T-1 | One-line reminder with time and address |
| T+2 | Thank-you, log the talk, set the 90-day re-invite |
Volume
6–10 invites in wave one for three slots. Enough for a decent hit rate, not so many that you're turning people away — which is worse for a community than an empty slot.
Handling replies
| They said | Do |
|---|---|
| Yes, with a topic | topic_proposed. Confirm at T-14. |
| Yes, no topic | interested. Touch 2-b with concrete suggestions. |
| Not this month | declined, next_action_date = next month's T-28. Ask again. |
| Too nervous / no time | Offer the BoF explicitly. Half the time this converts. |
| Silence, twice | declined for this cycle. Try again in two months, not next month. |
Voice check
Before showing any draft to the user, check it against docs/voice.md for the
mail-specific tells. If the unslop skill is installed (see
skills/unslop/ATTRIBUTION.md - it is fetched, not shipped), run the draft
through that first. A draft that reads as machine-written gets deleted by someone you will
meet at a conference.
Do this to the finished draft, not to the template. Do not strip the voice out along with the tells.
References
references/session-formats.md— the three formats and who to offer whichreferences/topic-prompts.md— turning "I don't have a talk" into a title