Report from the Board QSA, November 2019

The TYPO3 Association Board met at the new TYPO3 Company office in Düsseldorf, Germany, 4th to 5th November 2019. 

As it coincided with a regular open sprint, there was also a great opportunity for the Board to meet and talk with the typo3.org and Server teams.

Marketplace

When it became clear that a marketplace should not be a part of the TYPO3 Company business plan, the Association assigned money to a TYPO3 Marketplace project. A first version of the marketplace will be launched in 2020 as a free products and services listing for TYPO3 Association members from Bronze and up.

It has been difficult to find a way to handle tax in a global marketplace without incurring great management expenses. The board discussed the options and decided to launch the Marketplace first as a tool that connects buyers and sellers, rather than handling the entire sales process. The sales process will still be evaluated later on.

More information will be published in a separate article later.

Budget Ideas for 2020—Good, but Wishing for More

The Board reviewed the ideas submitted by the community using the online form. There were many good projects, but the Board would like to encourage more submissions next year. The budget ideas are also a place for experiments and research. The results of the review process will be published separately.

TYPO3 Company Marketing and Events

The Company’s Events and Marketing Manager, Marco Tiel, presented his ideas for the future of our event ecosystem. He discussed the ideas and strategic choices with the Board and Company CEO Mathias Schreiber.

CertiFunCation

The current concept will be used again in 2020. Due to the changes in demand created by an online certification service, the concept may be revised in 2021.

Developer Days

The Board would like to continue the Developer Days as an annual event. For 2020, the event will take place in Karlsruhe, using the same organizing agency as in 2019, punkt.de.

The Board would like to change the concept of the Developer Days to include fewer talks and more workshops, coding and teaching sessions, and developer onboarding activities. The event should also focus on helping the Association reach core goals by involving more young developers and increasing international representation.

T3CON

The TYPO3 Conference will use an 18-month cycle, synchronized with the LTS releases. The next conference will be announced for October 2021. Clarifying the audience and meeting its needs will be crucial. This may mean opening up the conference to a broader interest group outside of the TYPO3 community.

TYPO3 Award Ceremony

The TYPO3 Award should continue as an annual event. The event should aim to be a marketing event for TYPO3 and a high point in the year for the community. As there will be no T3CON in 2020, it could be combined with another event, such as DMEXCO.

TYPO3 Camps

TYPO3 bar camps are a sign of the vibrant TYPO3 community and essential to its growth. Using the TYPO3 name for a bar camp is usually an indicator for excellent community-driven events.

The TYPO3 Company will continue to attend community-organized barcamps as an added value to camp organizers.

The Company offers all camps to move their registration process into the TYPO3 Eventbrite account. Getting more camps into this solution is a stated goal for the Company, as the benefit is not only a quality registration process but also ecosystem intelligence.

DMEXCO

The TYPO3 presence at this important European technology fair will be continued and expanded. Several TYPO3 Company partners have already signed up for next year after taking part in the large and successful booth in 2019.

Marketing in 2020

The TYPO3 Company marketing effort will be coordinated with the Association through a collaboration between Marco Tiel, Association Board member Mathias Bolt Lesniak, and Marketing Team lead Luisa Faßbender. 

The Board’s Roadmap for 2020

Meetings and Dates

The Board will continue the bi-weekly online meeting schedule. Physical meetings will take place in Düsseldorf in February, April, September, and November 2020.

If you are interested in joining our meetings, please contact us.

Emphasis in 2020

The Board will continue its work in many areas, but these topics will receive special focus in the coming year:

• Education: 
  • Define long-term goals.
  • Develop a master plan.
• Events: 
  • Introduce an events committee.
  • Improve the voucher management.
• Memberships: 
  • Introduce a new membership type for end-users (agency clients), aka. Industry Membership.
  • Introduce more self-service options for members and the community at large.
• Contribution:
  • Improve and streamline the online onboarding experience.
  • Continue the regular open sprints.
  • Introduce market outreach sprints.
  • Visualize contribution and improve contributor appreciation.
  • Improve the management of the teams.
• Budget management:
  • Improve the technical process.
  • Communicate better to get more budget ideas.
• Market share:
  • Create additional income streams for the Company.
  • Increase visibility at trade fairs and events outside of the TYPO3 community.
• Vibes and values:
  • Invest in communication training for key personnel.

 
Proofreading: Heather McNamee