After we initially opened 2020 registration this past Tuesday, July 14, we started to receive a few questions and comments from friends and people who know us well and are familiar with what we do.

In short, they went something like this ...

"Hey, what if we have budget dollars available (for training or staff conference participation) but don't want the swag you're making available? What if we want to help ATO continue to do the work you're doing?"

Quite honestly, we didn't have a good answer, and we thought we needed one.

So, we created the $49/no swag option - to provide an opportunity to support what we do while enabling world-class education and networking for them and/or members of their team.

The $49 USD Community Supporter option includes all programming over both days of the conference, but does not include the swag we're making available in the VIP 1 and VIP 2 packages. You get the substance, without the stuff.

We'd also like to take just a minute and let those that may not be familiar with ATO know what we do and why we'd like it to continue. We've been at this for nearly a decade and we hope to be doing it for much longer into the future.

1

We host meetup groups (Research Triangle Park/RTP and Open Source South Carolina) designed to create opportunity for many while making world-class education available - and they're free of charge. We also started the first-time speaker series at these meetups a few years ago, designed to give first time speakers an opportunity to deliver a first talk in front of a friendly audience. In addition, these meetups feature not only technical and process oriented content from established speakers, but also feature other members of the community who have events and initiatives to promote of their own - and we're proud to say we've helped many in this way.

2

We host other special events, such as Spacewalk 2020, designed to not only feature great content but to again highlight historically underrepresented organizations doing amazing things.  At the event this past January (pre COVID-19) we interviewed three (3) amazing local organizations doing wonderful things to promote them and heighten awareness around the good work they're doing. We'd like to think the interviews and promotion helped Women in Tech Allies, Women Who Code, and Dev@RTP, and we believe they did based on the feedback we've received.

Watch our interview with Women in Tech Allies
Watch our interview with Women Who Code
Watch our interview with Dev@RTP

3

We use All Things Open and the Open Source 101 Series to not only focus on technology and process education and networking, but to encourage and enable an open dialogue on the topics of inclusion and diversity. We regularly host talks, panel discussions and sessions, as well as stand-alone events like the Inclusion & Diversity in Open Source and Technology program (taking place Monday, October 19 in 2020). We feel discussion and understanding are vital.

Watch the promo video for Open Source 101 and learn more
Watch the promo video for All Things Open 2019
Watch the "Inclusion & Diversity Best Practices" panel discussion from ATO 2019
Watch Adrienne Smith & Brittany Glover discuss "Open Office Culture" at the Inclusion & Diversity event in 2019

Finally, we're proud to be a Certified B Corporation. Achieving the certification took us approximately 1.5 years, but it was well worth it. We sincerely believe companies and organizations can survive and even do well while doing good, and we're putting that belief to the test.

A condition of the certification is to prove a commitment to values such as treating team members and members of the community "right", a belief in inclusion and diversity, and a commitment to the environment, to name just a few. We hold our values dear, and we're grateful to be recognized for it.

So, as you can see any dollars generated help us fulfill our mission and (hopefully) set an example in the process. We firmly believe leadership matters and that each and every one of us can have a positive influence if we make the effort.