HUG Leader Guidelines

To maintain consistency and quality across our program, we have outlined some mandatory program requirements below that all HUG leaders are asked to follow. As a HUG Leader you agree to abide by these terms as well as the HUG Program Agreement available here.

You also agree to abide by the terms outlined in our COVID-19 HUG leader guidelines available here for as long as they remain in effect.

HUG Leader Eligibility + Requirements

Maintaining quality and consistency across all leaders.

Because we want all those who attend a HUG event to have an awesome experience, we have certain eligibility criteria and requirements that all HUG Leaders must meet.

To be eligible, HUG Leaders must:

Be an active member of HubSpot's community, either as a Solutions Partner, Community Champion, Academy Professor, Advocate, and/or a direct HubSpot customer.
Have a valid HubSpot Marketing Software, HubSpot Sales Software and HubSpot Service Hub Software certification.
Go through HUG onboarding.
Finally, you must be a HubSpot customer with your account in good standing for at least 6 months (this includes prompt payment of any outstanding sums owed to HubSpot).

Ok, now for some requirements. Your HUG Leader representative must:

Hold the first HUG event within three (3) months of your becoming a HUG Leader. These gatherings should focus on teaching HubSpot customers and users best practices regarding inbound marketing/sales/service strategy as well as the HubSpot products. Organizers should strive to include networking and audience discussion in their events.
Hold one meetup per quarter that is free of charge to all attendees and is focused only on HUG activities (this means you can’t charge for admission to the event, or hold a meetup as part of a larger marketing event). If there’s a reason that a meetup can’t be held in any given quarter, or has to be rescheduled, please email hugs@hubspot.com.
Use exclusively the software solution as designated by us to conduct all marketing activity for your HUG. This includes promoting your event, collecting registrations, performing check-in, and emailing attendees. Your personal portal should not be used to manage ANY HUG data.
Use the HUG collateral that we provide you in accordance with the HUG collateral Do’s and Don’ts section below.

Maintaining a Great Customer Experience

Your HUG should maintain a focus on helping HubSpot’s user base. HubSpot reserves the right to suspend or terminate any HUG that, upon our discretion, is not focusing efforts around HubSpot customers and users. This can include, promoting user groups towards audiences outside of HubSpot’s customer base, selecting content that is not deemed appropriate for customers, or actively promoting events to people who are not HubSpot customers. To further protect our customer's experience we ask that you use the contact information of your HUG attendees for HUG-related activities only, and comply with all opt-out requests and applicable laws and regulations (whether received from us or from the individual on the list). Contact data should not be exported or used for any personal or promotional activities.

HUG Collateral Dos and Don'ts

Design and branding guidelines. Plus, a note about event sponsorship.

Do:

Make your HUG website and other promotional assets neutral in representation. This means that these shouldn’t be designed in a way that looks like they are affiliated with organizations other than HubSpot. This includes but is not limited to designing assets that reflect your company’s branding or that promote your company’s services. Deck template with designated space for self-promotion to be provided.
Follow all the guidelines on how to use our trademark (see the ‘HUG Branding Guidelines’ in section 3 below).
Use the provided official HUG logo template for your city on all printed, online, and other collateral. See section 3 below.
Use your approved official city name when creating your logo. For example, a HUG in Boston, would not use the name “BOS HUG”, they would use the phrase “Boston HUG”.

Don’t:

Use HUG collateral to promote your business, products or services outside of the pre-approved locations as specified by HubSpot.
Use any material that infringes the intellectual property rights of others.
Partner with “sponsors” for events, or use any imagery or language that promotes “sponsors” or companies who are not directly affiliated with the HUG and approved by HubSpot, EXCEPT for the exclusive purpose of providing physical space (and needs for the physical space i.e. sound, security, etc.) and/or food/refreshments and/or swag for in-person events. Sponsors are not permitted access to any event materials (including, but not limited to, attendee data). If you wish to use these types of sponsors, please be sure to follow the ‘HUG Sponsor Guidelines’ in section SPONSOR section below.
Use the contact information obtained through the HUG website or check-in form for anything except related to HUG-related activities. This means, for example, you can’t use this contact information to send general “marketing news” about your business.
Use the ‘HUG’ name or branding (which includes, but is not limited to, the names ‘HubSpot’, ‘HubSpot Academy’ and ‘HubSpot User Group’) without our written consent. Any use of our marks or brand must be solely for the purpose of promoting your HUG. For more details, please see the Branding Guidelines in section 3 below.

HUG Branding Guidelines

Making sure your HUG has the right look and feel.

As a HUG we ask that your logo and naming conventions remain consistent with the guidelines outline below:

Refer to our digital assets and branding guidelines here. HubSpot owns the font license, so it can only be used for marketing HUGs and no other uses.

We will provide you with an editable Canva link to create your HUG logo when accepted into the program.

Depending on the name of your city, you may need to extend or reduce the length and/or height of the artboard. Using the grid, ensure that there is one square of padding all around the logo.

If the name of your city is particularly long or short, please be conscientious about which wordmarks you use. For example, if the name is quite long, please avoid these layouts:

When using your HUG logo in copy, simply write out "New York HubSpot User Group" not "HubSpot User Group - New York" or in conjunction with any other separating characters.

First instance:

Atlanta HubSpot User Group (HUG)
Atlanta HubSpot User Group
Education HubSpot User Group
Women in Tech HubSpot User Group

Second instance:

Atlanta HUG
Education HUG
Women in Tech HUG

HUG Speaker and Sponsor Guidelines

How to use speakers and sponsors for HUG events.

You may use sponsors to help support your HUG events by providing event space, food/refreshments or SWAG, and you may invite speakers from HubSpot or other companies to participate in your HUG events. While these arrangements are up to you, we ask that you please be sure to follow these guidelines.

Excluded Speakers and Sponsors:
Please do not use any major competitor of HubSpot as a speaker or sponsors for HUG events or any other sponsors that we determine may negatively reflect on or affect us, our prospects, or our customers. When in doubt, reach out to the program team for guidance.

What to Look for in a Speaker or Sponsor:
We encourage you to seek speakers and sponsors who have a similar ideology as you and the HUG program. They should be excited about community-building and providing opportunities for networking and learning.

Displaying Sponsor Logos:
You are responsible for making sure it’s clear that HubSpot is not affiliated with sponsors and does not endorse their products or services.

Do:

Share sponsors’ logos on Bevy under the "Sponsorship" tab and at the beginning/end of any slides utilized during the event.
Display sponsors’ logos at in person events only in appropriate places (i.e., if a sponsor is providing SWAG, please limit their logo to SWAG items)

Don’t:

State that the sponsor is an official partner of HubSpot or has any business with HubSpot.
Brand the event around the sponsor’s branding in a way that looks like the event is affiliated with this organization.

HubSpot Support for HUG Leaders

How HubSpot helps you make your events exceptional.

We appreciate our HUG Leaders and provide the support we describe below, which we hope will help make our HUG Leaders successful.

We will try to raise awareness for your HUG via promotional emails provided you submit information in a timely manner.
We will compile a library of product updates and content for you to share at your event.
We will provide you with a third-party software solution with which you can build your HUG community and drive registration for events.

While we appreciate your participation in the HUG program, due to the primarily virtual nature of HUGs in 2023, we won’t provide financial stipends or otherwise compensate you for your HUG Leader representative’s time, travel, or any other expenses you incur in connection with your participation as a HUG Leader.

Performance Reviews + Disconnection from the Program

Requirement to stay in our HUG community.

We will review your performance at the end of each calendar year. Here’s what we’re looking for:

You will have held at least 1 meetup per quarter throughout the year.
You will have achieved an average minimum attendance of at least twenty (20) individuals at each meetup.
You will have achieved an average event NPS of 60.
You will have maintained all of the certifications listed in the eligibility criteria set out above, and
You will have abided by all the guidelines outlined above and in our HUG Program Agreement.

If you haven’t met these criteria, we may choose to suspend or terminate your participation in the program as described in the HUG Program Agreement.

HUG Leader Program Guidelines