One of the mainstays of the open source ecosystem are community events. Open Source Summit, Community Over Code, SCaLE... all examples of community events with vitality and influence within open source. But unlike more commercially focused events, community events are not as simple to measure in terms of benefits to organizations that participate. Without sales leads or conversions, how does a commercial organization measure the gains of participation? And for community projects, what's the return on investment in running a booth or giving talks at such events? In this presentation, Brian Proffitt outlines the challenges of figuring out the ROI of community event participation, and then will offer multiple potential solutions Red Hat has been experimenting with to measure impact and gains. These solutions will include:

• Collateral delivery
• Messaging impact
• Calls to action

Brian will also discuss measuring the health, ROI, and strategic fit for events, in order for organizations to determine which event will have the best impact for an organization's primary mission.