Laura Gill Board 2013

I am Laura Gill and I would like to be considered for the XSF Board 2013.

Background
I have been a part of Surevine for just over 4 years; working my way up from the first employee (in the early days job titles mean nothing, everyone does everything!) to Communications & Engagement Lead.

What this officially means is that I am responsible for all internal and external communications, marketing and engagement with employees, partners, clients and open source communities. Unofficially, I do everything but write the code.

I have a background in Journalism and have more recently completed a CIM Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing Communications. It is these skills that I would like to bring to the Board.

XMPP involvement
I started up the XMPP UK Meetup with XSF Elected Members (and my colleagues at Surevine) Lloyd Watkin and Ashley Ward in 2013, and have successfully held 2 meetups to date (which have included presentations from Florian Jensen and Kevin Smith). Plans for the third Meetup are in the pipeline - a practical session on the ‘Internet of Things’. To date, we have 48 members in the Meetup group.

Surevine are investing heavily in XMPP, and consequently I am now using an XMPP based social network on a daily basis to communicate internally with my colleagues.

Why me?
I am confident that my marketing, communication and organisational skills could really benefit the XMPP community, and the XSF Board as a whole.

Marketing
 * Website: I would like to use the skills and experience gained in re-launching Surevine’s website to improve the XMPP website, with a focus on better explaining the features and uses of XMPP.
 * Brand awareness: I would like to increase awareness of the ‘XMPP brand’ across complimentary open source communities and most importantly, targeted end users.

Communication
 * Engagement: I would like to help develop the XMPP community both on and offline. Initial suggestions include meetups outside of London, increased social media engagement and event participation.

Event Management
 * I organise and run quarterly RLMs (real-life-meetups) for Surevine, who are predominantly a distributed team. This includes travel, venues, agenda and entertainment so would be happy to help with summit organisation.

Contact
XMPP: [xmpp:laura.gill@surevine.com laura.gill@surevine.com ]

Email: [mailto:laura.gill@surevine.com laura.gill@surevine.com]