Resource: Event promotion and lead capture pack

[RCheesley]

Parent: #67

Summary

OAI already does a pretty great job of posting on social and occasionally writing blog posts around events, especially when we run an OpenAPI track at APIdays or DeveloperWeek. What’s missing is a single, easy‑to‑grab 'engagement pack' that gives event teams everything they need from first announcement to post‑event follow‑up - including ways to track potential member enquiries and talk about membership opportunities/benefits.

This issue can serve as a first-draft of that pack for discussion/review.

The aim is that anyone representing OAI at an event - whether they’re chairing a track, giving a talk, or just meeting people in the hallway - can:

• Talk about OAI and membership in a consistent way
• Capture useful contacts without fuss
• Follow up at least once afterwards
• Feed a few stories and insights back into our content and membership work

From what I can tell, we often do not typically have a booth at events as a single point of engaging with people, rather, leads might be likely to arise via:

• People attending the OpenAPI track and having conversations with team members
• Conversations after talks / in the hallway track
• Meetings with sponsors and other speakers

So this pack is written with 'embedded track' events in mind as well as booth‑style events - just refactor to include references to a booth if you have one.

How to use this pack

1. Before the event

   • Pick one or both LinkedIn templates and schedule them.
   • Make sure speakers know the short OAI intro and have the conversation starters to hand.
   • Set up the shared lead capture system (if it's not already set up) and share the link with everyone representing OAI. Ensure they can access the form/project.

2. During the event

   • Use the intro blurb in talks where appropriate.
   • Have at least one person responsible for noting down leads and brief context.
   • Take a couple of photos or notes that can feed into a post‑event recap.

3. After the event (within a week)

   • Send at least one follow‑up email using the templates provided.
   • Log any strong membership or clinic interest separately for deeper follow‑up.
   • Publish a short LinkedIn recap if you have enough material.

🤔 Side note/thinking out loud: Perhaps we could create a GitHub Action which would take values from a GitHub Issue and automatically generate the content below (and the LinkedIn posts, following the required templates) with the event-specific information included. The main issue could become the central place to curate the content (e.g. using sub-issues for each LinkedIn post / email etc) and also for post-event reporting. GitHub does something similar to organise their Open Source Friday event webinars (see issue template and workflows).

For now, I've kept this deliberately light‑weight. The idea is to give the outreach team and event volunteers enough structure to be consistent, without adding lots of overhead or being too prescriptive. If folks want to write their own content, all good - these can be used as a starting skeleton for those less confident or with less available time.

1. Before the event

1.1 LinkedIn - announcement post

Template

Heading to [EVENT NAME] next month?

We’ll be running the OpenAPI Initiative track on [DATE(S)], with sessions on:

• [Topic 1 – for example AI‑ready APIs with OpenAPI and Arazzo]
• [Topic 2 – for example governance and Overlays in regulated industries]
• [Topic 3 – for example real‑world OpenAPI implementations at scale]

If you’re thinking about how to design, orchestrate and govern APIs in an AI‑native world, come along to the OpenAPI sessions and say hello.

We’ll also be happy to chat about:

• How members use our monthly clinics to get unstuck on spec questions
• Opportunities to get involved in Arazzo and Overlay work
• What membership looks like if your organisation already relies on OpenAPI

See you at [EVENT NAME].

#[EventHashtag] #OpenAPI #Arazzo #Overlay #APIs

Post this 3–4 weeks before the event.

1.2 LinkedIn - one‑week reminder

Note: feel free to add more reasons - I just added a couple for a starting point. It might also vary depending on what's happening in the track.

Template

One week until [EVENT NAME].

If you’re attending, here’s why you might want to drop into the OpenAPI Initiative track:

For developers

• Hear directly from people building and using OpenAPI, Arazzo and Overlays
• Ask questions after the talks - we love the hallway track!

For engineering leaders

• See how other teams are preparing their APIs for AI and complex workflows
• Learn how members use our clinics and governance work to reduce risk

Come and find us after the sessions and say hi.

#[EventHashtag] #OpenAPI #APIs

2. At the event

2.1 'Who we are' speaker blurb for 'official' OAI speakers/representatives

Short intro speakers can drop into their talks which is aligned with the proposed positioning:

I’m speaking here as part of the OpenAPI Initiative, the Linux Foundation project that stewards the OpenAPI, Arazzo and Overlay specifications. We work with members and contributors across the industry to keep API standards open, interoperable and ready for the next generation of use cases - including AI and complex workflows.

2.2 Conversation starters

For anyone representing OAI, especially after talks or in corridors, this gives some ideas for how to open the conversation leading to membership:

Opening questions

• “How are you using OpenAPI at [your organisation] today?”
• “Are you already working with Arazzo or Overlays, or mainly OpenAPI so far?”
• “What’s the most painful part of your API workflow right now?”
• “Have you ever been stuck on a spec question and wished you could just ask the people who maintain it?”

If they mention implementation challenges

“That’s exactly the sort of thing members bring to the monthly clinics. They get to talk directly with spec experts and usually walk away with a concrete answer instead of spending days digging around GitHub issues.”

If they’re hiring or building a platform team

“A lot of members tell us the speaking and showcase opportunities help them attract engineers - people like working at organisations that are active in the standards they rely on.”

If they’re a tooling vendor

“For tooling companies the big value is early visibility - members are in the room when new features and changes are discussed, so they can update their OpenAPI/Arazzo support proactively rather than reactively.”

3. Capturing leads

We want something that works whether you’re at a booth or just roaming, so that if membership might be an option you can easily snag that lead for following up.

3.1 Simple lead capture system

Suggested fields:

• Name
• Organisation
• Email
• Role (dev, architect, product, leadership, vendor, etc.)
• How we met (talk, track attendee, sponsor, hallway chat)
• What they were interested in (clinics, membership, Arazzo, Overlay, general)
• Consent given to add to newsletter (yes/no)

We can't use HubSpot as LF won't allow us to have access to the data, citing PI limitations - so effectively as soon as it gets into the system, we can't access it.

Instead we could make a simple system which could live as a Google Form with an automation to create a GitHub issue, or just created directly as a GitHub issue using an issue template if the person has access to the (private) repo to save the extra step? The important thing is that everyone uses one place to log potential member enquiries from events. This could also be used to automatically add them to the newsletter if they request it.

If a booth is being used at an event, the booth staff could use the form on a phone or tablet to enter the information.

3.2 Minimal script for asking permission

“Would you be happy for us to follow up after the event with a couple of links and more information about clinics/membership? If so, can I grab your email?”

If they say yes, add them to the form. If not, let it go.

4. After the event - post email follow‑ups

4.1 'Great to meet you at [EVENT]' - general template

Subject
Great to meet you at [EVENT NAME]

Body

Hi [FIRST NAME],

It was great to meet you at [EVENT NAME] - thanks for taking the time to chat about [brief reminder of the topic you discussed].

Here are a couple of links that might be useful based on our conversation:

• [Link to relevant spec / doc / blog post]
• [Link to membership benefits or clinics, if relevant]

If you’d like to explore any of this further - whether that’s getting help with a specific OpenAPI/Arazzo/Overlay question, or understanding what membership looks like for [COMPANY] - I’m happy to set up a quick call.

All the best,

[YOUR NAME]
OpenAPI Initiative Outreach Team

P.S. The membership benefits overview is here if you’d like to take a look.

4.2 'You came to the OpenAPI track' - focused template

For people where you only know they attended the track (for example from event scans) - not sure if you get this information from events so providing it in case you do!

Subject
Thanks for joining the OpenAPI track at [EVENT NAME]

Hi [FIRST NAME],

Thanks for joining the OpenAPI Initiative track at [EVENT NAME].

We covered a lot of ground - from [short list of topics, for example 'AI‑ready APIs' / 'Arazzo workflows' / 'Overlay for governance'].

If you’d like to dig deeper:

• Specs and docs
  • OpenAPI → [link]
  • Arazzo → [link]
  • Overlay → [link]
• How members work with us
  • Monthly clinics with spec experts
  • Member‑led panels and showcases
  • Governance and SIG participation

You can see a short overview of membership and benefits here.

If you’re curious whether membership would make sense for your organisation, or you just have a tricky spec question you’d like to get in front of the right people, reply to this email and we’ll point you in the right direction.

All the best,

[YOUR NAME]
OpenAPI Initiative Outreach Team

5. Social posts during and after the event

5.1 Live‑from‑event post

Day one at [EVENT NAME] and the OpenAPI track is underway.

So far we’ve covered:

• [Talk 1 topic]
• [Talk 2 topic]
• [Talk 3 topic]

Great questions from the room on [theme – for example AI agents using APIs, governance in financial services, etc. - maybe add a photo].

If you’re here and want to chat about how OpenAPI, Arazzo or Overlay fit into your plans, come find us after the sessions.

#[EventHashtag] #OpenAPI #APIs

5.2 Post‑event recap

We had a fantastic time at [EVENT NAME] running the OpenAPI Initiative track.

A few themes that stood out

• [Insight 1 – for example 'AI governance is increasingly API governance']
• [Insight 2]
• [Insight 3]

Huge thanks to the speakers and attendees who shared their experiences with OpenAPI, Arazzo and Overlay.

If you’d like to continue the conversation, learn more about membership, or get involved in our clinics and panels, you can find more information here

#[EventHashtag] #OpenAPI #Arazzo #Overlay #APIs

Post-event reporting

It'd be good to implement some light-touch post-event reporting once an event wraps up, for example:

• Number of people attending event / track (if known)
• Number of logged opportunities
• Number of follow up emails sent
• Newsletter registrations
• Number of outcomes (e.g. clinic bookings, BGB atttendees etc)
• Any content that came about (e.g. post event wrap-up, what we learned, etc)