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PayPal X Innovate 09: Tips on hosting a developer conference

Tamara — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:55:43 +0000

On November 3^rd and 4^th, PayPal will be hosting their first dedicated developer conference – PayPal X Innovate 09 – to unveil their open platform. There will be hundreds of developers participating in more than 35 interactive technical sessions and Code & Build Labs. To find out more about the conference and what it takes to put on an event of this size and nature, we got the inside scoop from PayPal’s Naveed Anwar, senior director of the PayPal Developer Platform.

What is PayPal X Innovate 2009 and what was the genesis of this event?

It’s PayPal’s first developer conference. On July 23 we announced that we were opening up our platform, giving developers full access to PayPal’s features and giving them the tools to build applications that leverage the great infrastructure and payment platform that we’ve established. The purpose of the conference is to gather this information and give our developers the tools and resources that they need to be successful. The community has asked for this event for some time, so we are excited to bring it to life.

Are there particular highlights that you are excited about?

We have a fantastic speaker line-up including John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO, Scott Thompson, president of PayPal, and our guest Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media. We have tracks focused on mobile, devices and new technology moderated by industry leaders and VCs.

But what I’m really excited about is seeing developers showcase what they’ve done with the beta version of our API and giving attendees a chance to share with the world how they envision transactions changing the way people think about building applications that have clear monetization models.

Apart from these great sessions we are going to have close to 200 engineers available from the PayPal platform team who are responsible for the infrastructure and APIs – real people who have worked on the product available onsite to work with the attendees to help them with during the code and build sessions.

Check out a list of these highlights and more here.

What are some of the unique things that you have to think about given that this is specifically a developer conference?

I think with all conferences, as an organizer you really have to have great content and world-class speakers. As a developer conference, providing access to real people that know the code is essential to making the attendee experience as rich as possible. We put a lot of thought into the code and build sessions. Attendees come to learn in a hands-on environment where they can get instant feedback. We’ve gone as far as to let attendees sign out rooms to host impromptu sessions and we’ve worked to set up many opportunities for attendees to demo their apps and share their work with the community through a demo pit and kiosks. We’re also working on a few surprises to really enhance the conference, so check out x.com for more details closer to the event.

Who are the sponsors and how did you attract them?

We have more than 20 great sponsors like Playspan, Sun and Zuora. We started working with our existing strategic partners to understand how we could create an event that they wanted to be a part of. We started these conversations early, focused on compelling content, and worked to make them a core part of the program, integrating them into panels and workshops instead of just having them as a monetary donor.

How big a role does social media play in this event and how specifically are you using it?

We will be using social media to connect attendees and generate buzz. We’re doing all the basics like running a Twitter account and a Facebook event page. We also spoke to the major blog influencers and focused on creating enough great content for them for them to want to blog about. Social media is key to creating and fostering a viral effect which is important for reaching potential attendees. We’re using flip cam videos to capture announcements about the conference so that people have something to share and pass on and get excited about.

We’re using the Twitter Hashtag #ppxi09 to aggregate all the tweets about the event and help attendees connect before, during, and after the event. At the event we will stream the Twitter feed so that everyone can see the buzz and chatter in real-time.

Do you have any other best practices to share with other event planners who are throwing large events like this?

Here’s my top five best practices:

1. Know your audience.

2. Define parameters, goals and metrics upfront.

3. Focus on content and make sure that your event is unique.

4. Look carefully at timing. Time your event around a major announcement and leverage the momentum.

5. Be open with the community. Gain credibility with them. It’s the community that will take your event, and ultimately your product, to the next level.

Eventbrite Honored Among Commerce Giants as a Webware 100 Winner

Julia — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:16:17 +0000

We’re thrilled to announce that Eventbrite has been named a Webware 100 Winner!

Nearly 630,000 votes were cast during the voting this year to pick the best Web 2.0 sites and services. Eventbrite was picked as a top 10 service in the “Commerce” category along with some huge names such as PayPal, Craigslist, and Amazon.

A big thank you to all of our supporters who voted to help us win our very first award!

xo The Eventbrite Team

TechCrunch50: It’s like TechCrunch40, but better!

Jack — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:38:20 +0000

These days it seems that every Joe with a Meetup following is trying to pull-off a tech conference of some sort or other. And if anybody knows how many Joes there are in the world these days, it’s Eventbrite. Hehe. But noise and rabid entrepreneurship in the space notwithstanding, it’s clear that there are only a few truly important tech conferences that one should really make an effort to attend. Why are they important?

1. Because they convene the most influential people to our business and technological lives

2. Because they try to bring interesting new companies to light, and occasionally succeed

By that measure, one of the most important tech conferences of the year is certain to be TechCrunch50. A sure sign of its importance (not to mention its success) is the fact that it is now impossible for anyone who does not already have a ticket to attend. TechCrunch50 is oversold. I convey this with some self-interest, since I’ll be working the door on Monday and do not wish to play bouncer to too many of you, lol. Actually, that isn’t exactly true. I hear there’s a waiting list now, but the mechanics through which anyone will be selected that way are anybody’s guess.

But seriously, I deliberately plagiarized the title of this page, published so many months ago, to call attention to the fact that promotional hyperbole has come to pass. TechCrunch50 is very likely going to be better than TechCrunch40. To list just a few reasons:

The one-on-one interview with Peter Thiel

The Parties

The Panels

A provocative theme

If it weren’t so cruel to do so, I would say DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO ATTEND TECHCRUNCH50.

Eventbrite powers TechCrunch40 conference registration

Star Developer Interview Video

Tamara — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:03:07 +0000

Two weeks ago Eventbrite was awarded the PayPal Star Developer Award at PayPal’s DevCon developer conference in Chicago. Our Director of Engineering, Rafael Orozco, was on hand to receive the award and was interviewed by PayPal’s Carolyn Mellor:

Eventbrite wins PayPal Star Developer Award

Patricia — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:46:16 +0000

Earlier today at the 7th annual PayPal/eBay Developer’s Conference in Chicago, Eventbrite was awarded the PayPal Star Developer Award for Most Innovative Application of 2008. Needless to say, we are all quite thrilled. “We are grateful and honored to receive the PayPal Star Developer Award.” said Kevin Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO of Eventbrite. “PayPal has built a great platform and a vibrant developer community. We’ve been privileged to have a long and close working history with PayPal, and are very proud to see the Eventbrite application recognized…” In Chicago to receive the award for Eventbrite was our very own Director of Engineering, Rafael Orozco, who proceeded to dance on his hands when he heard the news. Rafael was later interviewed by PayPal’s Glenn Lim, and reports he’s having a fabulous time in Chicago.