The Makers of MozFest — Sarah Allen
It takes a lot to create MozFest — especially people. This series of articles gives some of those involved to share their MozFest stories from their unique point of view. Sarah Allen is the Executive Festival Director.
Describe your MozFest experience!
My MozFest experiences started in 2013 when a company approached me to help produce an event. They mentioned Firefox, so I was instantly interested.
I was blown away by the sense of community, camaraderie and collaboration at the event.
Everyone was so friendly and no answer was ever the wrong answer. People were keen to listen and to ask for your opinion.
Mozilla asked me to come back in April 2014 and it’s been great. I began playing a bigger role in the community here in the UK, meeting partners and opening up the office to the community. After a couple of years focusing on production, this year I am festival director. It’s my job to ensure that wranglers feel supported and that they have the space and tools to build their dream and vision.
MozFest is now a full time, year-round job. As soon as the Festival is finished we have feedback meetings, discuss what worked and what didn’t. It’s not an end point, work on the Festival never really ceases. We want to bring people in from other events and encourage partners to host events. All of this is being driven by the network.
What motivated you to become a part of the open movement?
Initially the brand recognition of Mozilla was the thing that attracted me. Now I love the sense of community, the focus and the energy. When you have the connection with the community, and appreciate what they want to achieve, you can’t help but get involved. People from all different backgrounds work together for the web and it’s not about profits. Some come because they trust the brand, others are passionate about open source others are looking for peer to peer learning, someone to mentor them. It’s all about the connections, the community spirit. Together we are stronger and that is what drives my passion.
What are your MozFest highlights?
The volunteers are amazing and are so dedicated. We host regular volunteer meetups and learn about how they spend their time with |Mozilla, all the great things they do and their passion is just incredible.
Seeing young people from Coder Dojos I delivered come to MozFest to lead sessions is amazing. There was a nine year old there, talking about their passion.
Age is not seen as a disability at MozFest which is very powerful.
Last year for the first time we wanted to bring together wranglers and others to look at where we’ve been and where we want to go. We picked a dream team to build the festival, including those who would bring the best out of the group. Some of the group brought their kids along and they helped us out. Initially they were there to help us, and their voice was really important. Six months later, at the festival, the young people joined us again and did an amazing piece about their first connection with technology. They built games and talked about their experiences. Listening to them talk about the open web, feeling like they had the confidence and agency to get on stage was a really precious moment.
Why should people come to MozFest?
MozFest is not about Mozilla, which is important. It’s about the network.
The community drives it, they submit sessions on topics or issues, or tools or resources. Mozilla just facilitates it. The audience comes together to collectively achieve things.
There are so many things I’ve watched grow over time. Listening to the community and seeing everything come together is truly awesome.
Describe the festival in three words
Collaborative. Surprising. Open.
