With the launch of the new forum, I felt I should bring this topic to life over here to be sure and keep it visible. If it has already been migrated, I apologize for duplicating it, but I had no luck finding it.
Umbraco NA Seminar
At present, I have had the following facilities/locations offered to me.
Tulsa, OK - Banquet facilities for around 100 at the building where Stonehenge Partners are located. The area has an airport that is near by, and the hotel would provide discounted rates and shuttle services to and from the airport. The hotel is located across the street from the banquet facilities, and is near to several restaurants and the downtown Tulsa area. There is a chance that we can schedule the event around the Tulsa Techfest and/or the Tulsa Oktoberfest. Tentative Dates: October 20th and 21st.
If this location is chosen, approximately 20 (maybe more) people will attend from the Tulsa area.
Indianapolis, IN - Butler University has offered up space to accommodate a large group. In mid-October, Butler has a fall break in which campus is void of many students and staff. This gives us a lot of flexibility. There is also the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis during these dates. There are several hotels nearby, and some cheaper options a bit further away. Tentative Dates: October 15th and 16th.
If held at this location, approximately 10 to 15 (perhaps more) from the Indianapolis area will attend.
Atlanta, GA - Definition 6 has offered to find a facility to host the event in the Atlanta area. Atlanta offers airport access that is a little more convenient for many travelers. Atlanta is also within driving distance for much of the east coast. No word on local events during October.
If held at this location, we could expect to see a decent turn out from the Atlanta area, as there is a decent following of Umbraco there.
West Coast Interest
There has been a small amount of interest shown from the west coast for an event to occur around there. I would like to consider setting up an event for early next year (April perhaps). With enough interest, we could spin out an East and West Coast Seminar each year. This is totally dependent upon interest levels and feedback.
Contact information
If you are interested in doing a presentation, sponsoring, or assisting in getting this seminar off the ground, please feel free to email me at casey (at) best case tech (dot) com. You may also call me at +1-304-553-0000.
Also, feel free to leave your comments and suggestions in this thread.
Just want to raise awareness for the US meetup/seminar again and see if there is any more interest. It looks like a majority of people are showing an interest in indy. Again, if you are interested in attending the US meetup please email casey (at) best case tech (dot) com or myself @ sdunn (at) butler.edu so we can move forward with planning the event. If you are interested in leading a discussion or presentation, or have a specific topic to propose please indicate that as well.
I would still really like to see this in Tulsa. We have been emailing the TechFest organizer to find out when TechFest will be this year, but there are apparently some difficulties that they are still working out, and cannot commit to a timeframe yet.
I think Tulsa would be a great choice. They have nailed down Tulsa Tech Fest to November 7th. More info here: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">www.tulsatechfest.com
Casey, the Tulsa Umbraco Users Group just met (nine members attended today) and I spoke briefly about this event - everyone in attendance was happy to hear that Tulsa was in the running for where to meet, and was excited at the possibility of the meetup being here in Tulsa.
I deamed interest, while positive, to be splintered. Most interest was location specific, and would have resulted in a very small gathering again. Second reason I dropped it was due to a lack of interest from some of the main umbraco players in the US and abroad. While I know something could have been pulled together, travel costs were going to be too high to have a single large gathering for a one or two day gathering.
I also don't feel the US/NA market is regarded as it should be, and as such, I gave up the fight.
Our market and community is rather different from the communities in Europe and UK (not to say that UK isn't Europe but has its own strong community) in that, among other characteristics, we currently have a culture of traveling as little as possible. Perhaps due to the size of our geography or to the lingering economic conditions, traveling cross-country is not something most people in our community are willing to do in order to make a meetup happen.
I think we just haven't figured out yet how to make this work to our advantage. I know first-hand that the N.A. Umbraco community is quite large and well-dispersed. Every time I do a training event, or talk at a .Net User Group there are always folks I didn't previously know about in attendance - and all use Umbraco.
If we want a meetup to happen here, and we do (right?), I belive we need to start planning it now (right now) and one or two folks need to step up and take on the organization tasks. Its unglorified work, but its for the better of all. Any takers?
I've been in touch with Neils on this a number of times, and much like you, I don't have a good cross-cut view of how large this community really is. It seems that a lot of it is out in the Mid-West and/or the West coast. I am, as you can tell, on the East coast and would LOVE to start seeing some action on the meetup front for the NA Umbraco community.
If there is any interest in doing this on the East Coast (and there are enough people for it), I would love to spearhead an event over here. Hey, Providence, RI has been crowned the Silicone Valley of the East for it's fast growing tech community. Come on over and see what it's all about!
I think you're exactly right there. Here in Tulsa I've had between eight and ten people attend the umbraco user group meetings, and all of them would come to a meeting, but I would venture a guess that none of them would travel outside of an hour or two away to go to a conference, let alone a meetup. This isn't because of a lack of desire to travel either... none of us have the budget for it.
Through my employer I have floorspace capable of holding a conference for at least fifty available here in our building for very little cost, people that could handle the event organization, an "international" airport, and quality hotels within two blocks... walking distance. But again, if the people that attend my users group meetings won't drive more than two hours to get to a meeting, then why would anyone else drive over two hours (let alone incur expenses to fly) to get to Tulsa?
For a fully fledged conference to be launched, my view is that you would need to charge for attendance. To make a paid conference a good value proposition you would need core team members to commit to speak on several different topics. Additionally, at that point It is my view that this conference would be in direct competition to Code Garden for some people who wouldn't be able to attend both conferences, but had the option for one.
I am all for a conference here in the USA, and I'm willing to do whatever work (however unglamorous) needed to make it happen. But like everyone else ... I can only go if it is in my back yard, not by choice, but by situation.
I'm open to travel if there is enough lead time to plan it into the schedule. The Mid-west seems like it would be a good central location for both east coast and west coast Umbracans. I'm open.
Umbraco US/North America Seminar?
Hello Umbracians,
With the launch of the new forum, I felt I should bring this topic to life over here to be sure and keep it visible. If it has already been migrated, I apologize for duplicating it, but I had no luck finding it.
Umbraco NA Seminar
At present, I have had the following facilities/locations offered to me.
Tulsa, OK - Banquet facilities for around 100 at the building where Stonehenge Partners are located. The area has an airport that is near by, and the hotel would provide discounted rates and shuttle services to and from the airport. The hotel is located across the street from the banquet facilities, and is near to several restaurants and the downtown Tulsa area. There is a chance that we can schedule the event around the Tulsa Techfest and/or the Tulsa Oktoberfest. Tentative Dates: October 20th and 21st.
If this location is chosen, approximately 20 (maybe more) people will attend from the Tulsa area.
Indianapolis, IN - Butler University has offered up space to accommodate a large group. In mid-October, Butler has a fall break in which campus is void of many students and staff. This gives us a lot of flexibility. There is also the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis during these dates. There are several hotels nearby, and some cheaper options a bit further away. Tentative Dates: October 15th and 16th.
If held at this location, approximately 10 to 15 (perhaps more) from the Indianapolis area will attend.
Atlanta, GA - Definition 6 has offered to find a facility to host the event in the Atlanta area. Atlanta offers airport access that is a little more convenient for many travelers. Atlanta is also within driving distance for much of the east coast. No word on local events during October.
If held at this location, we could expect to see a decent turn out from the Atlanta area, as there is a decent following of Umbraco there.
West Coast Interest
There has been a small amount of interest shown from the west coast for an event to occur around there. I would like to consider setting up an event for early next year (April perhaps). With enough interest, we could spin out an East and West Coast Seminar each year. This is totally dependent upon interest levels and feedback.
Contact information
If you are interested in doing a presentation, sponsoring, or assisting in getting this seminar off the ground, please feel free to email me at casey (at) best case tech (dot) com. You may also call me at +1-304-553-0000.
Also, feel free to leave your comments and suggestions in this thread.
Case
i vote for indy!
I'm up for Indy as well.
I cast my vote for Indy as well!
I vote Indy/Butler
Indy sounds great!
Just want to raise awareness for the US meetup/seminar again and see if there is any more interest. It looks like a majority of people are showing an interest in indy. Again, if you are interested in attending the US meetup please email casey (at) best case tech (dot) com or myself @ sdunn (at) butler.edu so we can move forward with planning the event. If you are interested in leading a discussion or presentation, or have a specific topic to propose please indicate that as well.
Thanks,
Chris
I would still really like to see this in Tulsa. We have been emailing the TechFest organizer to find out when TechFest will be this year, but there are apparently some difficulties that they are still working out, and cannot commit to a timeframe yet.
I think Tulsa would be a great choice. They have nailed down Tulsa Tech Fest to November 7th. More info here: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">www.tulsatechfest.com
Casey, the Tulsa Umbraco Users Group just met (nine members attended today) and I spoke briefly about this event - everyone in attendance was happy to hear that Tulsa was in the running for where to meet, and was excited at the possibility of the meetup being here in Tulsa.
Any word on what the latest is since we reported that Tulsa Tech Fest (http://techfests.com/Tulsa/2009/default.aspx) would be on November 7th?
I vote for Indy as well
Tulsa - for the selfish reason that I live here :-P
Did this already happen?
I don't think so, though I haven't heard from Casey in quite a while about it.
I deamed interest, while positive, to be splintered. Most interest was location specific, and would have resulted in a very small gathering again. Second reason I dropped it was due to a lack of interest from some of the main umbraco players in the US and abroad. While I know something could have been pulled together, travel costs were going to be too high to have a single large gathering for a one or two day gathering.
I also don't feel the US/NA market is regarded as it should be, and as such, I gave up the fight.
Hey all North American Umbricians -
Our market and community is rather different from the communities in Europe and UK (not to say that UK isn't Europe but has its own strong community) in that, among other characteristics, we currently have a culture of traveling as little as possible. Perhaps due to the size of our geography or to the lingering economic conditions, traveling cross-country is not something most people in our community are willing to do in order to make a meetup happen.
I think we just haven't figured out yet how to make this work to our advantage. I know first-hand that the N.A. Umbraco community is quite large and well-dispersed. Every time I do a training event, or talk at a .Net User Group there are always folks I didn't previously know about in attendance - and all use Umbraco.
If we want a meetup to happen here, and we do (right?), I belive we need to start planning it now (right now) and one or two folks need to step up and take on the organization tasks. Its unglorified work, but its for the better of all. Any takers?
-Paul
Hi Paul,
I've been in touch with Neils on this a number of times, and much like you, I don't have a good cross-cut view of how large this community really is. It seems that a lot of it is out in the Mid-West and/or the West coast. I am, as you can tell, on the East coast and would LOVE to start seeing some action on the meetup front for the NA Umbraco community.
If there is any interest in doing this on the East Coast (and there are enough people for it), I would love to spearhead an event over here. Hey, Providence, RI has been crowned the Silicone Valley of the East for it's fast growing tech community. Come on over and see what it's all about!
Cheers folks!
-- Nik
Paul,
I think you're exactly right there. Here in Tulsa I've had between eight and ten people attend the umbraco user group meetings, and all of them would come to a meeting, but I would venture a guess that none of them would travel outside of an hour or two away to go to a conference, let alone a meetup. This isn't because of a lack of desire to travel either... none of us have the budget for it.
Through my employer I have floorspace capable of holding a conference for at least fifty available here in our building for very little cost, people that could handle the event organization, an "international" airport, and quality hotels within two blocks... walking distance. But again, if the people that attend my users group meetings won't drive more than two hours to get to a meeting, then why would anyone else drive over two hours (let alone incur expenses to fly) to get to Tulsa?
For a fully fledged conference to be launched, my view is that you would need to charge for attendance. To make a paid conference a good value proposition you would need core team members to commit to speak on several different topics. Additionally, at that point It is my view that this conference would be in direct competition to Code Garden for some people who wouldn't be able to attend both conferences, but had the option for one.
I am all for a conference here in the USA, and I'm willing to do whatever work (however unglamorous) needed to make it happen. But like everyone else ... I can only go if it is in my back yard, not by choice, but by situation.
Great to hear from you guys,
Scott
I'm open to travel if there is enough lead time to plan it into the schedule. The Mid-west seems like it would be a good central location for both east coast and west coast Umbracans. I'm open.
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