About
Started because the room didn't exist yet.
There wasn't a vendor-neutral place for Fortinet engineers to compare notes in person, so we started one. It worked well enough that we wrote down how, and now other metros can do the same.
It started in the Puget Sound. A local practitioner wanted somewhere to have the technical, off-the-record conversations that weren't happening anywhere else, and started DiagDebug Puget Sound with a hand from the network's Fortinet liaison. That's chapter one.
People kept showing up. So rather than keep it to one city, we wrote the thing down: one charter, one set of trust rules, one bar for recognition, and a way for any metro to use them. Spokane, Portland, Boise, and Salt Lake City are forming now. None of them have a chair yet, which is the honest answer to "how big is this."
How it's run
Practitioners set the agenda.
Every chapter is chaired by a working practitioner, never a vendor employee. A steering committee of practitioners picks the topics and the speakers. There's a Fortinet-side liaison (right now that's Tanner Harrison, a sales engineer at Fortinet) who helps with venues, food, and getting the right people in the room. The liaison has no vote and no veto over content or over who leads anything.
Recognition takes work. A chapter applies, runs three events on a real cadence, and then the steering committee votes. Those votes are recorded in public, in this site's git history, so you can go read one instead of taking our word for it.
Where the line is
What Fortinet funds, and what it never touches.
Fortinet pays for some of this. We'd rather tell you that up front than have you work it out from the catering. Here's exactly where the 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 three rules every chapter signs up to.
The same three across the whole network. They're conditions of taking part, so a chapter that stops following them stops being a chapter.
What every chapter commits to
- Chatham House Rule at every meeting.
- No attendee data to Fortinet CRM, ever.
- A practitioner chairs every meeting.
Want this in your metro?
Read the charter first so you know what you're agreeing to, then apply. It's a form, not an interview panel.
Start a chapter