About
Started because the room didn't exist yet.
There was no vendor-neutral place for Fortinet engineers to compare notes in person. So we built one, then built the model that lets other metros do the same.
It started in the Pacific Northwest. A Fortinet sales engineer and a local practitioner wanted a real peer community for the people running this gear across the region: the kind of technical, off-the-record conversation that did not have a home yet. The first chapter is DiagDebug Puget Sound.
It worked. So instead of keeping it to one city, we turned it into a network any metro can join, with one charter, one set of trust rules, and one bar for recognition. Spokane, Portland, Boise, and Salt Lake City are forming now.
How it's run
Practitioners set the agenda. A vendor does not.
Every chapter is chaired by a working practitioner, never a vendor employee. A steering committee of practitioners picks the topics and the speakers. Where there is a Fortinet-side liaison, that person helps with logistics and has no vote and no veto over content or leadership.
Recognition is earned, not handed out. A chapter applies, runs three events on a real cadence, and then the steering committee votes. That vote is recorded in public, in the network's git history. It is why a DiagDebug badge means something.
Where the line is
What Fortinet funds, and what it never touches.
We are not shy about the fact that Fortinet supports chapters. We are also exact about where that support stops.
Fortinet may fund or provide
- Venue and food for in-person events
- Speakers and access to product and engineering teams
- Roadmap context and early looks, where a chapter wants them
Fortinet never touches
- The attendee list, RSVPs, or any contact data
- The agenda, the topics, or the choice of speakers
- Who chairs a chapter or how it is run
Trust rules
The six rules every chapter signs up to.
These are the same across the whole network. They are conditions of taking part, not aspirations.
What every chapter commits to
- Chatham House Rule at every meeting.
- No attendee data to Fortinet CRM, ever.
- A practitioner chairs every meeting.
- A two-way anonymized feedback log is published.
- An anonymous feedback channel is always open.
- The committee can call vendor-free sessions.
Want this in your metro?
Read the charter, then apply. If you run Fortinet and you would show up, you are probably the person to start one.
Start a chapter