Thanks to @peteduncanson at @offroadcode, we finally have a some-what regular Up North meetup to get together and talk about all things Umbraco. Unfortunatley, of the 3 meetups so far, the numbers haven't really been that great.
Rather than kill off the meetups, I'd like to see what people would like from a meetup and what would make you come along and join us?
The 3 events so far have been held in Huddersfield, which is bang in the middle between Manchester and Leeds, so should be ideal to get a large group together. Is this too far for people to travel? would you prefer multiple smaller meetups in each location? Is there a best day of the week for events?
Would you be more tempted to come if there were specific topics? and presentations? or would you just like an informal meetup where you can get together and chat?
Are you (like me) a freebie whore? and are just after all the Umbraco freebies to brand your laptop to the max?
What can I do to make you want me? Oh...wait...thats a cheesy love song.
that's a real good question. Although not specific to your meetup, I've attended a few, non-Umbraco related meetups here in Sweden in the past, and here are a few ideas on what have made them good for me as an attendee.
First off, any development related seminars are good, but with a twist, connecting them to Umbraco. A good parallell is Aarons session from codegarden, about TDD (although it wasn't really about TDD), and how it relates to Umbraco development. So I guess that answers your first question, about specific topics. Offering free, and available seminars at a meetup, would definetly make me want to come. Cover a few topics on each meetup, and get different speakers. Not everything needs to be about Umbraco specifically, but should be applicable to Umbraco development. Like, for instance, a session about Security on the web, and how devs can secure their sites, then talk about specific Umbraco cases as it relates to that.
If a meetup has a topic about something unrelated to Umbraco, that might get other people interested, and I doubt that they'll leave after they've seen that one talk, they'll stay and get hooked, just like the rest of us.
As devs we need to get better at a lot of stuff, and I think that a meetup is a great way to spread the word, not only about Umbraco, but also how we as a community can improve our skillset.
And whilst my question is geared specifically to the up north crew in the UK, by all means chip in if you have any general ideas of how to make a meetup successfull.
The London meetup is more of a social get together for a chat and food/drink/beer. And isnt really Umbraco demos and talks, apart from us all using it day today. But obviously if anyone wants to come along and have a chat about Umbraco then we are all there. We have had some prospective new users and also some potential clients etc. Its worked pretty well so far and we've had a decent turnout most months.
Its just a good way of keeping the Umbraco community together, even if its only a few of us.
Whereas the Birthday or the summer event last year in London was more of a day event with talks and demo's with a mix of end users, devs and other interested parties.
So depends if you want to do a once a month night time beer/meal or a more formal day event.
Give me/Ismail a shout if you want to chat some more about this as we are both keen to get something going as well to keep the communtiy momentum we have in London growing. We need stuff outside the 'Big Smoke' as well :)
I'm up for meeting up, think I can persuade some of the devs at the shop I'm freelancing at to come along too.
I'm thinking the availability of beer would be a big incentive!
:P
It'd be quite cool to do a bit of hacking at the sessions maybe? So come up with a problem we want to solve (possibly in advance) and then spend some of the time trying to solve it with our combined skills.
@Ismail, Manchester is doable, it'd probably want to be a weekend job though, otherwise its about an hour on the train at peak time from here.
I think to have regular meetups like the London gang, I think you will find it hard to have lots of fresh content and talks every month and think a less more informal get together is a better thing. Then say maybe once or twice a year organise a more formal meetup/day with talks, like the London 5th Birthday for example, then you are likely to get a bigger crowd and more quality content.
I'm always worried about burning out "general umbraco" chat if you have it monthly, there are enough devs in London I guess to over come that but up here we are looking at a handful of dev prepared to make the trek to the pub. Beer is a great incentive and does get the tongue flowing a bit more freely given time ;)
After our last meet up I think laptops are going to be a must so each of us can do some hackery. As for going up to that next step of presentations/slides/etc. that brings its own problems of venue, directions, accessibiliy (your happy to use my office but we are in the sticks and hard to find) we choose the pub by the train station for the Up North meets because its hard to get lost for those travelling in and cuts down on travel time all round.
Slide shows can be good, the 20/20 format (20 slides, 20 seconds per slide) is a nice way to keep it lean and interesting with Q&A after for more info.
We have about 13 people on our email list for the Up North meetup but so few can normally make it. After a few of these I agree that maybe we should look to expanding the format but numbers are the main thing, more folk means more ideas/problems/solutions/hacks/developments to discuss which would be self fueling I think.
I would like to see a bit more promotion of meetups on the Umbraco site, maybe working out someone's location from their browser settings and showing the next few up coming meets ups in the events area for them on certain pages. Might help with sign up and numbers. Numbers are the key and I think that is why you are asking about what to include to make a good event as you want to make the event more tempting therefore more numbers!
I'll back the Huddersfield middle ground idea too, we are slap bang in between Leeds/Manchester so have a nice catchment area. If people won't travel though we can't keep the meets going. Got to get off your bum to keep meets going.
Talking of which, probably need another one soon Matt ;)
Nice idea about trageted promotions. I was wondering, would it be handy to have just an "Umbraco Users" register which users can sign up on to show there support for umbraco, but also allows communitcations from approved sources (by HQ)? That way we could send out emails to people when new events are planned. As you say, it's dificuilt to get the message out somtimes.
I agree, I think it's definatley "bring your own laptop" next time.
@pete - If we did go the presentation route, could always try the media centre, again not far from train station, and already setup with everything we'd need. Just dunno the costs. I'd definatley be happy to present something. I think as Warren said, something twice a year should be achievable, then just hacking sessions or chit chat on a more regular basis?
Checking the map aswell, Huds is also ideally placed for the Sheffield croud if they are willing to make the treck. I don't think any are more than 40 minutes a way.
For us the South West (formerly Bristol) meet-ups have been a very casual/social event - where the chat isn't always about Umbraco, but covers all sorts of everyday web-dev conversations. I was concerned that the chat would turn stale, but so far it's been a really positive experience!
We've been quite lucky with that each meet-up (the next will be our fourth), we've had new people attend - which has been brilliant for extending the community!
Personally I prefer the meet-ups to be informal - without slideshows and presentations - more of a getting to know your fellow Umbracian, building relationships, not just a knowledge share. With that said, the 5th Birthday event was a brilliant day - and there is definitely a need for similar events! (to bridge the gap between CodeGardens)
What would you like to see at a meetup?
Hey Guys,
Thanks to @peteduncanson at @offroadcode, we finally have a some-what regular Up North meetup to get together and talk about all things Umbraco. Unfortunatley, of the 3 meetups so far, the numbers haven't really been that great.
Rather than kill off the meetups, I'd like to see what people would like from a meetup and what would make you come along and join us?
The 3 events so far have been held in Huddersfield, which is bang in the middle between Manchester and Leeds, so should be ideal to get a large group together. Is this too far for people to travel? would you prefer multiple smaller meetups in each location? Is there a best day of the week for events?
Would you be more tempted to come if there were specific topics? and presentations? or would you just like an informal meetup where you can get together and chat?
Are you (like me) a freebie whore? and are just after all the Umbraco freebies to brand your laptop to the max?
What can I do to make you want me? Oh...wait...thats a cheesy love song.
Anywho, all suggestions and feedback welcome.
Get involved.
Matt
Hey Matt,
that's a real good question. Although not specific to your meetup, I've attended a few, non-Umbraco related meetups here in Sweden in the past, and here are a few ideas on what have made them good for me as an attendee.
First off, any development related seminars are good, but with a twist, connecting them to Umbraco. A good parallell is Aarons session from codegarden, about TDD (although it wasn't really about TDD), and how it relates to Umbraco development. So I guess that answers your first question, about specific topics. Offering free, and available seminars at a meetup, would definetly make me want to come. Cover a few topics on each meetup, and get different speakers. Not everything needs to be about Umbraco specifically, but should be applicable to Umbraco development. Like, for instance, a session about Security on the web, and how devs can secure their sites, then talk about specific Umbraco cases as it relates to that.
If a meetup has a topic about something unrelated to Umbraco, that might get other people interested, and I doubt that they'll leave after they've seen that one talk, they'll stay and get hooked, just like the rest of us.
As devs we need to get better at a lot of stuff, and I think that a meetup is a great way to spread the word, not only about Umbraco, but also how we as a community can improve our skillset.
Stephan
Great suggestions Stephan,
And whilst my question is geared specifically to the up north crew in the UK, by all means chip in if you have any general ideas of how to make a meetup successfull.
Cheers
Matt
Guys,
Would people be more aminiable to Manchester as location for meetup? Think there are a few bods in manchester?
Regards
Ismail
I want to see dancing girls, but then again that's why I'm not invited :P
Hi Matt
It depends what you mean by meetup.
The London meetup is more of a social get together for a chat and food/drink/beer. And isnt really Umbraco demos and talks, apart from us all using it day today. But obviously if anyone wants to come along and have a chat about Umbraco then we are all there. We have had some prospective new users and also some potential clients etc. Its worked pretty well so far and we've had a decent turnout most months.
Its just a good way of keeping the Umbraco community together, even if its only a few of us.
Whereas the Birthday or the summer event last year in London was more of a day event with talks and demo's with a mix of end users, devs and other interested parties.
So depends if you want to do a once a month night time beer/meal or a more formal day event.
Give me/Ismail a shout if you want to chat some more about this as we are both keen to get something going as well to keep the communtiy momentum we have in London growing. We need stuff outside the 'Big Smoke' as well :)
Cheers
I'm up for meeting up, think I can persuade some of the devs at the shop I'm freelancing at to come along too.
I'm thinking the availability of beer would be a big incentive!
:P
It'd be quite cool to do a bit of hacking at the sessions maybe? So come up with a problem we want to solve (possibly in advance) and then spend some of the time trying to solve it with our combined skills.
@Ismail, Manchester is doable, it'd probably want to be a weekend job though, otherwise its about an hour on the train at peak time from here.
OK I am going to throw my 2cents worth in.
I think to have regular meetups like the London gang, I think you will find it hard to have lots of fresh content and talks every month and think a less more informal get together is a better thing. Then say maybe once or twice a year organise a more formal meetup/day with talks, like the London 5th Birthday for example, then you are likely to get a bigger crowd and more quality content.
Just my thoughts.
Warren :)
I'm always worried about burning out "general umbraco" chat if you have it monthly, there are enough devs in London I guess to over come that but up here we are looking at a handful of dev prepared to make the trek to the pub. Beer is a great incentive and does get the tongue flowing a bit more freely given time ;)
After our last meet up I think laptops are going to be a must so each of us can do some hackery. As for going up to that next step of presentations/slides/etc. that brings its own problems of venue, directions, accessibiliy (your happy to use my office but we are in the sticks and hard to find) we choose the pub by the train station for the Up North meets because its hard to get lost for those travelling in and cuts down on travel time all round.
Slide shows can be good, the 20/20 format (20 slides, 20 seconds per slide) is a nice way to keep it lean and interesting with Q&A after for more info.
We have about 13 people on our email list for the Up North meetup but so few can normally make it. After a few of these I agree that maybe we should look to expanding the format but numbers are the main thing, more folk means more ideas/problems/solutions/hacks/developments to discuss which would be self fueling I think.
I would like to see a bit more promotion of meetups on the Umbraco site, maybe working out someone's location from their browser settings and showing the next few up coming meets ups in the events area for them on certain pages. Might help with sign up and numbers. Numbers are the key and I think that is why you are asking about what to include to make a good event as you want to make the event more tempting therefore more numbers!
I'll back the Huddersfield middle ground idea too, we are slap bang in between Leeds/Manchester so have a nice catchment area. If people won't travel though we can't keep the meets going. Got to get off your bum to keep meets going.
Talking of which, probably need another one soon Matt ;)
Haha, you know i'll be there =)
Nice idea about trageted promotions. I was wondering, would it be handy to have just an "Umbraco Users" register which users can sign up on to show there support for umbraco, but also allows communitcations from approved sources (by HQ)? That way we could send out emails to people when new events are planned. As you say, it's dificuilt to get the message out somtimes.
I agree, I think it's definatley "bring your own laptop" next time.
@pete - If we did go the presentation route, could always try the media centre, again not far from train station, and already setup with everything we'd need. Just dunno the costs. I'd definatley be happy to present something. I think as Warren said, something twice a year should be achievable, then just hacking sessions or chit chat on a more regular basis?
Checking the map aswell, Huds is also ideally placed for the Sheffield croud if they are willing to make the treck. I don't think any are more than 40 minutes a way.
Matt
Oh, one other thing (up north specific), does anybody know any companies that would be willing to sponsor such events?
Matt
yes...us :)
Give me/Ismail a shout at some point
Cheers
Ok, I've setup an event so we can get together and discuss how to improve the meetups. All welcome.
http://our.umbraco.org/events/umbraco-up-north-curry-night!
Matt
The curry night sounds great - shame I can't be Up North on that date - plus we've got our own South West meet-up on the 30th!
For us the South West (formerly Bristol) meet-ups have been a very casual/social event - where the chat isn't always about Umbraco, but covers all sorts of everyday web-dev conversations. I was concerned that the chat would turn stale, but so far it's been a really positive experience!
We've been quite lucky with that each meet-up (the next will be our fourth), we've had new people attend - which has been brilliant for extending the community!
Personally I prefer the meet-ups to be informal - without slideshows and presentations - more of a getting to know your fellow Umbracian, building relationships, not just a knowledge share. With that said, the 5th Birthday event was a brilliant day - and there is definitely a need for similar events! (to bridge the gap between CodeGardens)
Cheers, Lee.
are there anyone live in singapore, we can meet-ups there, i have a lot of confusions about umbraco ^^! i need some to directly guide me :P
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