Early this year, the Mage-OS Nederland association was founded to facilitate the Magento community in The Netherlands. And weeks ago, we decided that the Yireo event MageUnconference Netherlands (June 2023) should be placed under the same flag. And to make the association work and to finance the unconference, we need funding.
A bit of history
The Netherlands was first inhabited by Germanic tribes, then partially occupied by the Roman empire, then partially added to France, then Burgundy, then Hamburg, before becoming independent during a long lasting war of 80 years. Next, we made a mess ourselves, murdered some politicians, choose a king, seperated the north from the south (Belgium) and The Netherlands was kickstarted. A bit of history, almost pointless, but it has a charisma that we are eager to bring back in the Magento ecosystem: The Dutch can be quirky, independent and innovative.
In recent Magento years, the community was somewhat fragmented when it came to community events: Dutchento organized MeetMagento, Yireo (us) organized Reacticon and MageTestFest and Elgentos (and others) organized MageTitans. But there was not a shared platform under which all Dutch events were taking place, no shared promotion, at times it felt more like competing instead of collaborating. With the coming of the Mage-OS Nederland association this is changing.
A non-profit association
The Mage-OS Nederland association is currently based on voluntary work by the board (Jeroen, Sanne, Roland, Michiel, Core, Sander and me) and various others (spread across committees and working groups). The work has just started, but the vibe is good because everyone seems to agree that such a Magento community needs to be non-profit, so that there is no (or less) doubt on why one would contribute. It is all for the greater good.
Promoting Magento and organizing events costs money. With Mage-OS Nederland, the contribution fee for members this year is 10 Euro, so we are not assuming to raise a lot of money there. Instead, the main funding will need to come from sponsors. We are in the process of setting up sponsoring packages. But one thing has been decided already: The sponsor packages for events (like MeetMagento) will be separated from the sponsor packages for the association itself. More details on what the sponsorship of the association will look like will be announced in the upcoming weeks and/or months. But it will include promotion on the MOS NL site, social media, newsletter and possibly more,
Sponsoring the unconference
For events, the game is different. Mainly because a more low-level event like an unconference (max 200 attendees, relaxed location, focused mainly on developers) leads to different sponsoring opportunities than a large-scale MeetMagento event. Because of this, sponsor packages are decided upon per event: MeetMagento, MageTitans, MageUnconference, Webwinkel Vakdagen, New Years Eve drink, etcetera.
Why sponsor the MageUnconference Netherlands? First of all, it is organized by Yireo, which might sound like a big name (huh?) but it's actually a small group: Yireo is a one-man company (me) plus some freelancers (Ruben, Janet and when it comes to events: Ruud & Sean) and that's it. And this small group of people is working hard to make the unconf a success. It's almost non-profit, as in that the event does not give a huge revenue stream (we are not professionals) and we are in for it for the fun. With that, the MageUnconference is different from your average event.
Second, the crowd that is attracted by an unconference is different as well: It is more about socializing with each other, talking about technical things (there will mainly be developers) and all in the relaxed atmosphere of an old Dutch fortress (1629). Sponsoring the unconference means giving developers the opportunity to enhance their knowledge by collaborating with each other.
MageUnconference NL - the first event of Mage-OS Nederland
Third, the MageUnconference NL has now become the official first event of Mage-OS Nederland. Sponsoring is also allowing the association to do other things. Various board members of the association will contribute to the unconference as well. At the unconference, we will brainstorm further upon the association (future events, other opportunities, other tasks).
There are more reasons, but the main message here is: The Dutch are back. And we are kicking ass with a new association and an unconference. Either attend the unconference, or fund us, or join us in our activities. We are welcoming all efforts.
About the author
Jisse Reitsma is the founder of Yireo, extension developer, developer trainer and 3x Magento Master. His passion is for technology and open source. And he loves talking as well.
