Apereo participates in a variety of annual events to support open source software development, adoption, and participation in higher education.

Current Environment

Several factors now affect Open Apereo.

1. Been there, done that”: Decreased interest from traditional, internal, attendees (i.e., Apereo members and project contributors) due to perceptions that the conference content is limited to:
   1. Apereo Foundation level activities and initiatives which may not seem relevant to individual developers, academics, or project participants,
   2. Detailed, project-specific presentations not applicable to other Apereo community members outside that project,
2. Project specific events: Emergence of project or audience specific conferences where Apereo projects can focus on their own development interests and community initiatives (e.g., SakaiCon, Opencast Summit, Xerte21, etc.).
3. Unclear Audience: Confusing scope of the Open Apereo agenda offers either project specific content or high level, policy and practice content that may not be relevant to a broader developer or academic audience. 

Shifting Landscape

Partnering with other open source and educational events extend Apereo’s opportunities to engage with our current community, while also building awareness and growing membership with organizations and projects not currently involved with Apereo, Apereo projects, or Apereo institutions?

Goals

• Raise affinity for Apereo with current membership.
• Increase the value of Apereo membership.
• Reduce travel burdens and costs related to conference participation.
• Raise awareness of open source development activities, projects, and communities in higher education,
• Promote Apereo as the home of open source in higher education to the broader open source and education communities,
• Expand the networking, collaboration, and partnership opportunities for the Apereo community projects

Strategy

• Extend reach and relevance: Identify and partner with multiple, regional open source or education-based events, inline with Apereo, as the “home of open source in higher education.”
• Embed and engage: Coordinate and develop an “education” track (for open source events) or an open source track (for education events).
• Community development: Promote events and activities with Apereo community, as well as other higher ed open source communities (benefiting partners) while partners promote Apereo to increase the profile of the Foundation.
• Lead generation: Promote events to higher ed open source projects as a benefit of membership (community engagement, reduced registration fees, curated session guides, complimentary Apereo and higher ed/open source activities, e.g., BoFs, meetings, social events, etc.).
• Member retention: Promote events to Apereo members as a benefit of membership (reduced registration fees, curated session guides, complimentary Apereo and higher ed/open source activities, e.g., BoFs, meetings, social events, etc.)
• Increase sponsorship value: Extend the reach and benefits to Apereo sponsors through event partnerships.
• Extend regional events’ promotional value: expand the audience to education and edtech communities.

Success Criteria

• One regional event per year in partnership with an existing event in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.
• Increase overall attendance at partner events by 5% through Apereo-based registrations (Apereo members, project contributors, or unaffiliated, edtech open source projects).
• Doubling in registrations over 2022 Open Apereo attendance.
• 25% of participants registered through Apereo represent, non-Apereo, higher ed open source projects.
• 10 new Apereo projects
• 5 new commercial affiliates per year
• 3 new institutional members per year

Conferences

Open Apereo