---
layout: blog
title: "Expanding our Contributor Workshops"
date: 2019-05-14
slug: expanding-our-contributor-workshops
---

**Authors:** Guinevere Saenger (GitHub) and Paris Pittman (Google)

**tl;dr** - learn about the contributor community with us and land your first
PR! We have spots available in [Barcelona][eu] (registration **closes** on
Wednesday May 15, so grab your spot!) and the upcoming [Shanghai][cn] Summit.
The Barcelona event is poised to be our biggest one yet, with more registered
attendees than ever before!

Have you always wanted to contribute to Kubernetes, but not sure where to begin?
Have you seen our community’s many code bases and seen places to improve? We
have a workshop for you!


KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Barcelona’s [new contributor workshop][ncw] will be the
fourth one of its kind, and we’re really looking forward to it! The workshop was
kickstarted last year at KubeConEU in Copenhagen, and so far we have taken it to
Shanghai and Seattle, and now Barcelona, as well as some non-KubeCon locations.
We are constantly updating and improving the workshop content based on feedback
from past sessions. This time, we’re breaking up the participants by their
experience and comfort level with open source and Kubernetes. We’ll have
developer setup and project workflow support for folks entirely new to open
source and Kubernetes as part of the 101 track, and hope to set up each
participant with their very own first issue to work on. In the 201 track, we
will have a codebase walkthrough and local development and test demonstration
for folks who have a bit more experience in open source but may be unfamiliar
with our community’s development tools. For both tracks, you will have a chance
to get your hands dirty and have some fun. Because not every contributor works
with code, and not every contribution is technical, we will spend the beginning
of the workshop learning how our project is structured and organized, where to
find the right people, and where to get help when stuck.


## Mentoring Opportunities

We will also bring back the SIG Meet-and-Greet where new contributors will have
a chance to mingle with current contributors, perhaps find their dream SIG,
learn what exciting areas they can help with, gain mentors, and make friends.

PS - there are also two mentoring sessions DURING KubeCon + CloudNativeCon on
Thursday, May 23. [Sign up here][mentor]. 60% of the attendees during the
Seattle event asked contributor questions. 

## Past Attendee Story - Vallery Lancy, Engineer at Lyft

We talked to a few of our past participants in a series of interviews that we
will publish throughout the course of the year. In our first two clips, we meet
Vallery Lancy, an Engineer at Lyft and one of 75 attendees at our recent Seattle
edition of the workshop. She was poking around in the community for a while to
see where she could jump in. 

Watch Vallery talk about her experience here:
<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uKg5WUcl6WU" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>


What does Vallery say to folks curious about the workshops, or those attending
the Barcelona edition?

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/niHiem7JmPA" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>


Be like Vallery and hundreds of previous New Contributor Workshop attendees:
join us in Barcelona (or Shanghai - or San Diego!) for a unique experience
without digging into our documentation! Have the opportunity to meet with the
experts and go step by step into your journey with your peers around you. We’re
looking forward to seeing you there! [Register here][ncw]

[eu]: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/contributor-summit-europe-2019/
[cn]: https://www.lfasiallc.com/events/contributors-summit-china-2019/
[ncw]: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/contributor-summit-europe-2019/
[mentor]: http://bit.ly/mentor-bcn