As organizers and contributors of some of the technology industry's most impactful events and community experiences, we need to ensure we take a collaborative approach to address the shift to more virtual and online experiences due to COVID-19. This repository is to help us all easily and effectively produce online experiences that do not necessarily replace in-person events, but allow us to still continue learning, networking, and collaborating together.

Utilize this repository to reference the Virtual Event Playbook to help transition typically in-person held events to virtually held events, produce new online experiences, receive guidance on various online event platforms, and learn best practices. A Code of Conduct is included, since a Code of Conduct should be published for any in-person or virtual experience, no matter the audience or subject matter.

COVID-19 specifically has caused an enormous amount of disruption in our daily lives and the way we network, educate, and communicate with one another. As a community, we must be able to effectively produce experiences in these strictly online and physically-distant circumstances, while also obtaining best practices for online experiences during and post COVID-19. When executed effectively, online events provide a large amount of benefits that in-person sometimes cannot like inclusivity, accessibility, and convenience. Our hope is that these learnings can be gathered for better forms of communication and potentially combined with in-person and online events in the future.

• virtual-event-code-of-conduct.md
  • A Code of Conduct specifies a baseline standard of behavior so that people with different social values and cultures can communicate effectively, productively, and respectfully. This is imperative at both in-person and virtual events. The Code of Conduct included within this repository can be used for online experiences to both protect and inform the audience of the standards of behavior the organizers require to participate.
• playbook.md
  • As the organizers and contributors of the technology industry’s most impactful events and community experiences, we need to take a collaborative approach to address the shift to more virtual and online experiences due to COVID-19. Utilize the playbook to review the different types of digital experiences, key digital event elements, virtual event standards and requirements, and additional resources and best practices.
• inclusive-planning-process.md
  • Hosting an inclusive event requires inclusivity intentionally woven throughout the entire event process, especially from the beginning. Utilize this guide to ensure you have a diverse planning committee, inviting diverse speakers and participants, and constantly finding ways to evolve and improve.
• speaker-request-response.md
  • Virtual events are being organized faster and diversity and inclusion is receiving less prioritization. Included are tools for each speaker and requested participant to ensure diversity and inclusion standards are maintained. Utilize a drafted email and suggested steps that can be sent in response to speaking, sponsoring, and participating requests.

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.