Hi everyone, Happy New Year! I’m excited about all the amazing events planned for 2025, especially the upcoming Iceberg Summit.
As some of you may know, I’ve been actively involved in organizing meetups in both Seattle and the SF/Bay Area. I’ve also supported others in planning and hosting meetups in various regions. Based on these experiences, I’d like to propose adding a dedicated section to the Iceberg Community Guidelines <https://iceberg.apache.org/community/#community-guidelines> that focuses on meetups and events. With the rapid growth of Iceberg Community Meetups worldwide, I believe it’s important to establish these guidelines to: - Uphold the Apache and Apache Iceberg trademarks while ensuring meetups align with the values of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). - Provide clear guidance on the expectations for organizers, speakers, and participants. - Support new and existing meetup organizers in hosting successful events. Context and Background Since last year, there has been growing interest in hosting local events centered on Apache Iceberg. The first Seattle meetup was launched in May 2024 at Stripe’s Seattle office to celebrate and discuss the 2024 Iceberg Summit. Since then, the Seattle meetups have become a regular occurrence, hosted at various company offices, with the next one scheduled for February. In the SF Bay Area, we heard from several people eager to kick off similar events. We shared tips on organizing, hosting, managing calls for proposals, and selecting speakers. The SF meetup series has been a tremendous success, with the most recent event attracting over 200 signups and 100+ attendees. It’s now a recurring series, with the next meetup already reaching over 300 signups. Toward the end of 2024 and into early 2025, similar meetups began popping up in cities like NYC, Singapore, Japan, and Bengaluru. Plans are underway for even more events across Europe, additional U.S. cities, and other regions. Proposed Guidelines Uphold the Apache and Apache Iceberg trademarks Meetups must respect ASF policies regarding trademarks. For example, naming should follow the format: “Apache Iceberg Community Meetup @ {Place}” to reflect their affiliation with the Iceberg community. For the Seattle and SF/Bay Area meetups, the ASF has granted us permission to use the “Apache Iceberg” trademark for branding and the YouTube channel ( @IcebergMeetup <https://www.youtube.com/@IcebergMeetup>). To streamline the process, we’ll work with the ASF to extend permissions to “Apache Iceberg Community Meetup” events in other locations. Other events focused on “Apache Iceberg”, but not related to the “Apache Iceberg Community” can and should separately request permission from the ASF. Guidance on the expectations for organizers, speakers, and participants Events are driven by organizers who are volunteers from the community. All attendees (organizers, speakers, participants) are expected to be respectful, open, and come with the best interests of the community in mind. Sponsors and speakers are welcome but must align with community-first principles, as outlined in the ASF Code of Conduct <https://www.apache.org/foundation/policies/conduct>. Talks should avoid being focused on marketing and instead contribute technical, educational, or practical insights. In the past, we’ve provided constructive feedback on talk proposals that lean too heavily towards promotions to ensure content remains valuable to attendees. Support new and existing meetup organizers in hosting successful events We want to create a simple, step-by-step guide for anyone interested in starting an Iceberg meetup in their region. We have created a playbook <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y87k-8nCMczzORIcsePDu6CWTTO0h9qI67W_go8BmPA/edit?tab=t.0> to help streamline the process for new meetups. This includes advice on suggested format, information on hosting, speaker selection, event promotion and more. The goal is to make it easier for community members to establish local meetups and grow the Iceberg community globally. We’ll update the playbook to reflect on learnings from hosting the Seattle and SF/Bay Area events. Call to Action I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this proposal. If you’re interested in starting a local event, please post on the dev list or reach out to me directly. Best, Kevin Liu
