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The old contests were promoted on the blog here's an example. Admittedly the prizes were "we have start up money" level - but the 'general' model , having a series of categories (and essentially you'd probably be able to figure out winners with an (internal?) SEDE script or three) would be the something you could do with a CM and someone mailing out packages. Maybe even better with a sponsor. You'd lack reach though even compared to the early days I suspect. I'm not a marketing guy so I've no real ideas on how to improve that.

The old contests were promoted on the blog here's an example. Admittedly the prizes were "we have start up money" level - but the 'general' model , having a series of categories (and essentially you'd probably be able to figure out winners with an (internal?) SEDE script or three) would be the something you could do with a CM and someone mailing out packages.

There were specific incentives for new users, encouraging both users from other sites, and folks who found out about it elsewhere. The goal to these events, fun aside should be positive, long term engagement.

Maybe even better with a sponsor. You'd lack reach though even compared to the early days I suspect. I'm not a marketing guy so I've no real ideas on how to improve that.

In a sense - winterbash was a replacement for a significant number of 'smaller' community events. In the early days we had anniversary contests for the trilogy and other earlier sites, graduation events for new sites.

I've no specific suggestions - but rather an overview of... issues and suggestions

I'd say the goal for any contest would be three fold - attracting folks on the periphery into becoming regular contributors, showing appreciation to established users and attracting new users.

I think a useful starting point is working out what resources the company can put into it on the long run. We've had a lot of the things we did in the past run out of steam because the company couldn't sustain it. We've had 2-3 attempts to bring back swag fall on the wayside. Finding a company that'll say print on demand swag and ship it at a reasonable cost to SE might mean a reasonable prospect of per site swag for example. Figuring out the logistics - whether of tangible rewards, or sustainably building in non tangible ones is a first step.

Ideally the 'lightest' engineering lift would be meta based contests - but you'd be focused on existing users.

The old contests were promoted on the blog here's an example. Admittedly the prizes were "we have start up money" level - but the 'general' model , having a series of categories (and essentially you'd probably be able to figure out winners with an (internal?) SEDE script or three) would be the something you could do with a CM and someone mailing out packages. Maybe even better with a sponsor. You'd lack reach though even compared to the early days I suspect. I'm not a marketing guy so I've no real ideas on how to improve that.

I would say though, it needed no engineering work, and I half recall outside the T shirt, a good chunk of early contests were "we'll order it from you from somewhere, and get it delivered".

I'd like to address one potential issue though

"I am interested in hearing what people want to see for future community events." What if we don't see a future for such events?

The company has often had a lack of follow through on such initiatives.

In a sense - something like the Stack Overflow Student Ambassador Program is a good example of a 'low' engineering lift initiative. It had (to me) a clearly defined goal, and while the question had a fairly negative score - the follow up answer was positively received. It very nearly follows the patterns laid out earlier as well. It could be an example of how events could be run. There's other historical examples, but this is already a very long post.

I feel like we never really heard anything about it after that.

Question really is - what was the longer term implications of this. Were there users from there who ended up becoming established SO contributors? Did everyone lose interest and it wasn't worth following up? Was there a lack of funds, or no event to sponsor this year? Or is it coming soon, and we're just being impatient (and meta can be at times, and occasionally a little demanding.)

An event that runs 1-2 years and gets dropped because of lack of resources, or simply forgotten is going to have much less of an effect than something people looked forward to every year. You don't need a lot of engineering work - you need in a sense, marketing towards the various constituencies and a goal of moving people into deeper levels of engagement from where they are now.

In a sense - winterbash was a replacement for a significant number of 'smaller' community events. In the early days we had anniversary contests for the trilogy and other earlier sites, graduation events for new sites.

I've no specific suggestions - but rather an overview of... issues and suggestions

I'd say the goal for any contest would be three fold - attracting folks on the periphery into becoming regular contributors, showing appreciation to established users and attracting new users.

I think a useful starting point is working out what resources the company can put into it on the long run. We've had a lot of the things we did in the past run out of steam because the company couldn't sustain it. We've had 2-3 attempts to bring back swag fall on the wayside. Finding a company that'll say print on demand swag and ship it at a reasonable cost to SE might mean a reasonable prospect of per site swag for example. Figuring out the logistics - whether of tangible rewards, or sustainably building in non tangible ones is a first step.

Ideally the 'lightest' engineering lift would be meta based contests - but you'd be focused on existing users.

The old contests were promoted on the blog here's an example. Admittedly the prizes were "we have start up money" level - but the 'general' model , having a series of categories (and essentially you'd probably be able to figure out winners with an (internal?) SEDE script or three) would be the something you could do with a CM and someone mailing out packages. Maybe even better with a sponsor. You'd lack reach though even compared to the early days I suspect. I'm not a marketing guy so I've no real ideas on how to improve that.

I would say though, it needed no engineering work, and I half recall outside the T shirt, a good chunk of early contests were "we'll order it from you from somewhere, and get it delivered".

I'd like to address one potential issue though

"I am interested in hearing what people want to see for future community events." What if we don't see a future for such events?

The company has often had a lack of follow through on such initiatives.

In a sense - something like the Stack Overflow Student Ambassador Program is a good example of a 'low' engineering lift initiative. It had (to me) a clearly defined goal, and while the question had a fairly negative score - the follow up answer was positively received. It very nearly follows the patterns laid out earlier as well. It could be an example of how events could be run. There's other historical examples, but this is already a very long post.

I feel like we never really heard anything about it after that.

Question really is - what was the longer term implications of this. Were there users from there who ended up becoming established SO contributors? Did everyone lose interest and it wasn't worth following up? Was there a lack of funds, or no event to sponsor this year? Or is it coming soon, and we're just being impatient (and meta can be at times, and occasionally a little demanding.)

An event that runs 1-2 years and gets dropped because of lack of resources, or simply forgotten is going to have much less of an effect than something people looked forward to every year. You don't need a lot of engineering work - you need in a sense, marketing towards the various constituencies and a goal of moving people into deeper levels of engagement from where they are now.

In a sense - winterbash was a replacement for a significant number of 'smaller' community events. In the early days we had anniversary contests for the trilogy and other earlier sites, graduation events for new sites.

I've no specific suggestions - but rather an overview of... issues and suggestions

I'd say the goal for any contest would be three fold - attracting folks on the periphery into becoming regular contributors, showing appreciation to established users and attracting new users.

I think a useful starting point is working out what resources the company can put into it on the long run. We've had a lot of the things we did in the past run out of steam because the company couldn't sustain it. We've had 2-3 attempts to bring back swag fall on the wayside. Finding a company that'll say print on demand swag and ship it at a reasonable cost to SE might mean a reasonable prospect of per site swag for example. Figuring out the logistics - whether of tangible rewards, or sustainably building in non tangible ones is a first step.

Ideally the 'lightest' engineering lift would be meta based contests - but you'd be focused on existing users.

The old contests were promoted on the blog here's an example. Admittedly the prizes were "we have start up money" level - but the 'general' model , having a series of categories (and essentially you'd probably be able to figure out winners with an (internal?) SEDE script or three) would be the something you could do with a CM and someone mailing out packages. Maybe even better with a sponsor. You'd lack reach though even compared to the early days I suspect. I'm not a marketing guy so I've no real ideas on how to improve that.

I would say though, it needed no engineering work, and I half recall outside the T shirt, a good chunk of early contests were "we'll order it from you from somewhere, and get it delivered".

I'd like to address one potential issue though

"I am interested in hearing what people want to see for future community events." What if we don't see a future for such events?

The company has often had a lack of follow through on such initiatives.

In a sense - something like the Stack Overflow Student Ambassador Program is a good example of a 'low' engineering lift initiative. It had (to me) a clearly defined goal, and while the question had a fairly negative score - the follow up answer was positively received. There's other historical examples, but this is already a very long post.

I feel like we never really heard anything about it after that.

Question really is - what was the longer term implications of this. Were there users from there who ended up becoming established SO contributors? Did everyone lose interest and it wasn't worth following up? Was there a lack of funds, or no event to sponsor this year? Or is it coming soon, and we're just being impatient (and meta can be at times, and occasionally a little demanding.)

An event that runs 1-2 years and gets dropped because of lack of resources, or simply forgotten is going to have much less of an effect than something people looked forward to every year. You don't need a lot of engineering work - you need in a sense, marketing towards the various constituencies and a goal of moving people into deeper levels of engagement from where they are now.

In a sense - winterbash was a replacement for a significant number of 'smaller' community events. In the early days we had anniversary contests for the trilogy and other earlier sites, graduation events for new sites.

I've no specific suggestions - but rather an overview of... issues and suggestions

I'd say the goal for any contest would be three fold - attracting folks on the periphery into becoming regular contributors, showing appreciation to established users and attracting new users.

I think a useful starting point is working out what resources the company can put into it on the long run. We've had a lot of the things we did in the past run out of steam because the company couldn't sustain it. We've had 2-3 attempts to bring back swag fall on the wayside. Finding a company that'll say print on demand swag and ship it at a reasonable cost to SE might mean a reasonable prospect of per site swag for example. Figuring out the logistics - whether of tangible rewards, or sustainably building in non tangible ones is a first step.

Ideally the 'lightest' engineering lift would be meta based contests - but you'd be focused on existing users.

The old contests were promoted on the blog here's an example. Admittedly the prizes were "we have start up money" level - but the 'general' model , having a series of categories (and essentially you'd probably be able to figure out winners with an (internal?) SEDE script or three) would be the something you could do with a CM and someone mailing out packages. Maybe even better with a sponsor. You'd lack reach though even compared to the early days I suspect. I'm not a marketing guy so I've no real ideas on how to improve that.

I would say though, it needed no engineering work, and I half recall outside the T shirt, a good chunk of early contests were "we'll order it from you from somewhere, and get it delivered".

I'd like to address one potential issue though

"I am interested in hearing what people want to see for future community events." What if we don't see a future for such events?

The company has often had a lack of follow through on such initiatives.

In a sense - something like the Stack Overflow Student Ambassador Program is a good example of a 'low' engineering lift initiative. It had (to me) a clearly defined goal, and while the question had a fairly negative score - the follow up answer was positively received. It very nearly follows the patterns laid out earlier as well. It could be an example of how events could be run. There's other historical examples, but this is already a very long post.

I feel like we never really heard anything about it after that.

Question really is - what was the longer term implications of this. Were there users from there who ended up becoming established SO contributors? Did everyone lose interest and it wasn't worth following up? Was there a lack of funds, or no event to sponsor this year? Or is it coming soon, and we're just being impatient (and meta can be at times, and occasionally a little demanding.)

An event that runs 1-2 years and gets dropped because of lack of resources, or simply forgotten is going to have much less of an effect than something people looked forward to every year. You don't need a lot of engineering work - you need in a sense, marketing towards the various constituencies and a goal of moving people into deeper levels of engagement from where they are now.