The most popular venue for a meetup is London with 38% of the votes, Midlands/Birmingham was 2nd with 15% of the votes. The other options covered 6% or less of the votes. We can conclude that there is definitely demand for a London meetup and possibly one in Birmingham also.
Most people want the meetup to be ASAP or in August.
Most people don't care which day of the week the meetup happens on though Mon-Thurs is preferred to Friday.
Most people are prepared to contribute up to £20 to the cost of a venue - though obviously it should be kept free if at all possible.
A high majority of people want an all day meetup.
At the meetup people would most like: Demonstrations, Beers/Socialising, General Networking, Presentations and Guest stars from the Umbraco core.
Some interesting answers in the other/please specify boxes:
Meetup shouldn't start too early so those travelling from a long way away don't have to get up stupidly early.
Building an app during the meetup.
I also noticed that some people want formal conf/format and some people don't feel that will suit.
What next?
Bearing in mind all of the above.
I propose a London meetup on Thursday 6th August 2009. There may be a demand for other meetups elsewhere, but someone else will have to take the lead on that one.
We'll run it from 11.30am until 4.30pm - moving to a pub/bar after 4.30 for informal drinks networking. you can just attend the drinks if you don't want to do a whole day.
We'll need a venue. Let's try and get one for 20 people. If you can help please post here or drop me an email. I do have one lead from the survey so I'll get in touch with the individual concerned.
The venue needs: (good) WIFI, projector, seating. I say we don't bother with refreshments people can arrange themselves.
Sample Agenda
The following is off the top of my head (I really want input/suggestions on this). I'm trying to have the morning more formal and the afternoon/evening less so. Any suggestions how to collaborate on the agenda?
11.30am - Arrive - Introductions (around the table who you are, who you work for, what you are working on).
11.45am - Codegarden 09 recap
12.15am - Presentation slot
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Presentation Slot
2.30pm - Presentation Slot
3pm - Group activity -
Open Space (maybe just 1 or 2 sessions depending on the number of people - might not work I dunno).
3.45pm Group activity -
Open Q&A (what do you need to know about Umbraco, what could be improved).
OR package show off.
4.15pm - Closing comments.
4.30pm - Pub/Networking event.
In order for the event to go ahead
This week
We'll need some people to present (including the codegarden recap). Please volunteer here (or mail me) within the next week and try and suggest something cool with a bit of a wow factor. If we get more presenters than slots then I'll open another online poll so people can vote for the presentations they want to see.
Next week
Once a more solid agenda is posted we'll look to get some commitment from atendees. We'll need to know whether people plan to attend morning, afternoon, evening or the whole meetup. I guess we should aim for 10-15 people who want to spend a day at the meetup if we don't get that commitment I guess we revert to an informal evening session in the pub. A few people have said the whole idea of a structured meetup is way too formal and this might prove to be the case.
Its not just geeks
It would be great if any of you could persuade your end users/project managers to come along for the drinks.
Finally
This isn't my meetup! If no-one feeds back on the stuff above then nothing will happen. I'm not running this, just trying to get the ball rolling and make sure any meetup is what people really want. I'm happy to act as a co-ordinator/facilitator but please get your creative juices flowing and start suggesting ways to make the meetup fun! Help with the agenda is paticularly important.
Finally Finally
if you read this, please tweet/email it to other people who may be interested. From the survey traffic I can tell that core/MVP tweets bring in the most traffic.
Thanks for the info/Ideas! I think this will help get the ball rolling as intended.
As it stands, my line manager and I will be able to attend. We have had the go ahead from the higher ups. So we can confirm 2 atendees.
As for the presentation I could give a first steps in umbraco presentation, I dont think it has much of a wow factor your looking for but its the best i can offer at the moment in time.
The sample agenda sounds just about right to me Darren, I'm definitely up for the whole day event and am happy to help, although as a relative new comer to Umbraco I'm not sure how much I'd be able to contribute to the whole process.
I don't think I'm going to be able to make that one either but I'll pass the details on. I didn't see the survey otherwise I'd have voted for the Midlands ;)
I can confirm another two attendees (bar any unforeseen crises nearer the time...). We're also both relative newcomers to Umbraco, looking to pick up some good tips...
I can definitely attend, perhaps with one other colleague. Fairly new to Umbraco, been tinkering for a few months but not used in anger yet so looking to learn a bit and meet other devs
sure this is the wrong forum but can't find a better place - just created an account here and my avatar is always this pink thing even if I select twitter or gravatar as the source. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
I'm not sure I'd be able to make it either Darren :P
I think this is some great work you've done to get this far, congrats for the effort. I'll be very interested to see how it goes as I think it's a similar model I'd go with for any Australia one we'd try and do. Keep up the good work :)
I'd be happy to give a presentation on one of my recent projects (migration of Savant International to Umbraco 4). It's might be a bit interesting because it's multilingual, using SIFR extensively (again multilingual) and integrates with some legacy flash applets.
I've not seen whether Doug will be attending, but if not then I'd be happy to run his "Things I wish I knew in my first 30 days" presentation that he gave in session 1 at CG09. It's a great into to Umbraco and I've shamelessly stolen the pdf and used it as training collateral for my intern this week.
The 6th should be fine for me, I'm up for the whole day event.
I "might" be able to give a quick presentation on a couple of things I am currently working on, I'll have to let you know in a week or two if they will be ready to demo.
UK Meetup survey results
The results of the UK meetup survey that we recently conducted are available in an Excel workbook: http://www.darren-ferguson.com/media/78173/survey.xls
In Summary:
The most popular venue for a meetup is London with 38% of the votes, Midlands/Birmingham was 2nd with 15% of the votes. The other options covered 6% or less of the votes. We can conclude that there is definitely demand for a London meetup and possibly one in Birmingham also.
Most people want the meetup to be ASAP or in August.
Most people don't care which day of the week the meetup happens on though Mon-Thurs is preferred to Friday.
Most people are prepared to contribute up to £20 to the cost of a venue - though obviously it should be kept free if at all possible.
A high majority of people want an all day meetup.
At the meetup people would most like: Demonstrations, Beers/Socialising, General Networking, Presentations and Guest stars from the Umbraco core.
Some interesting answers in the other/please specify boxes:
Meetup shouldn't start too early so those travelling from a long way away don't have to get up stupidly early.
Building an app during the meetup.
I also noticed that some people want formal conf/format and some people don't feel that will suit.
What next?
Bearing in mind all of the above.
I propose a London meetup on Thursday 6th August 2009. There may be a demand for other meetups elsewhere, but someone else will have to take the lead on that one.
We'll run it from 11.30am until 4.30pm - moving to a pub/bar after 4.30 for informal drinks networking. you can just attend the drinks if you don't want to do a whole day.
We'll need a venue. Let's try and get one for 20 people. If you can help please post here or drop me an email. I do have one lead from the survey so I'll get in touch with the individual concerned.
The venue needs: (good) WIFI, projector, seating. I say we don't bother with refreshments people can arrange themselves.
Sample Agenda
The following is off the top of my head (I really want input/suggestions on this). I'm trying to have the morning more formal and the afternoon/evening less so. Any suggestions how to collaborate on the agenda?
11.30am - Arrive - Introductions (around the table who you are, who you work for, what you are working on).
11.45am - Codegarden 09 recap
12.15am - Presentation slot
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Presentation Slot
2.30pm - Presentation Slot
3pm - Group activity -
Open Space (maybe just 1 or 2 sessions depending on the number of people - might not work I dunno).
3.45pm Group activity -
Open Q&A (what do you need to know about Umbraco, what could be improved).
OR package show off.
4.15pm - Closing comments.
4.30pm - Pub/Networking event.
In order for the event to go ahead
This week
We'll need some people to present (including the codegarden recap). Please volunteer here (or mail me) within the next week and try and suggest something cool with a bit of a wow factor. If we get more presenters than slots then I'll open another online poll so people can vote for the presentations they want to see.
Next week
Once a more solid agenda is posted we'll look to get some commitment from atendees. We'll need to know whether people plan to attend morning, afternoon, evening or the whole meetup. I guess we should aim for 10-15 people who want to spend a day at the meetup if we don't get that commitment I guess we revert to an informal evening session in the pub. A few people have said the whole idea of a structured meetup is way too formal and this might prove to be the case.
Its not just geeks
It would be great if any of you could persuade your end users/project managers to come along for the drinks.
Finally
This isn't my meetup! If no-one feeds back on the stuff above then nothing will happen. I'm not running this, just trying to get the ball rolling and make sure any meetup is what people really want. I'm happy to act as a co-ordinator/facilitator but please get your creative juices flowing and start suggesting ways to make the meetup fun! Help with the agenda is paticularly important.
Finally Finally
if you read this, please tweet/email it to other people who may be interested. From the survey traffic I can tell that core/MVP tweets bring in the most traffic.
Hi Darren,
Thanks for the info/Ideas! I think this will help get the ball rolling as intended.
As it stands, my line manager and I will be able to attend. We have had the go ahead from the higher ups. So we can confirm 2 atendees.
As for the presentation I could give a first steps in umbraco presentation, I dont think it has much of a wow factor your looking for but its the best i can offer at the moment in time.
Cheers
Alec
Alec - good news! I'll add you to the presentations list!
I will be out of the country, but thats not a problem I will attend the next one :)
The sample agenda sounds just about right to me Darren, I'm definitely up for the whole day event and am happy to help, although as a relative new comer to Umbraco I'm not sure how much I'd be able to contribute to the whole process.
I don't think I'm going to be able to make that one either but I'll pass the details on. I didn't see the survey otherwise I'd have voted for the Midlands ;)
Here's to next time...
I can confirm another two attendees (bar any unforeseen crises nearer the time...). We're also both relative newcomers to Umbraco, looking to pick up some good tips...
Mike
Tim, there is nothing to stop someone organising a midlands meetup too! It got a fair proportion of votes.
I can definitely attend, perhaps with one other colleague. Fairly new to Umbraco, been tinkering for a few months but not used in anger yet so looking to learn a bit and meet other devs
sure this is the wrong forum but can't find a better place - just created an account here and my avatar is always this pink thing even if I select twitter or gravatar as the source. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
I'm out of the country as well.
But am happy to help in any way I can (in the lead up).
However some other people from The Cogworks will probably be coming in my stead.
I'm not sure I'd be able to make it either Darren :P
I think this is some great work you've done to get this far, congrats for the effort. I'll be very interested to see how it goes as I think it's a similar model I'd go with for any Australia one we'd try and do. Keep up the good work :)
Kudos to Darren for taking the initiative on a UK meet-up!
Unfortuately I can't make the date - working "Up North" on the 6th. Hopefully we'll have regular UK meet-ups, I'll be at the next one.
Looks like we have a venue - I'm going to check it out on Thursday.
Added a Wiki page to keep track of the details.
http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/codegarden-2009/umbraco-uk-meetup
Good stuff, put me down for a space!
Hi,
Unfortunately i am also out of the country on that date, hopefully next time...
great, i'lolbe there
Thanks - I'll be there!
I'd be happy to give a presentation on one of my recent projects (migration of Savant International to Umbraco 4). It's might be a bit interesting because it's multilingual, using SIFR extensively (again multilingual) and integrates with some legacy flash applets.
I've not seen whether Doug will be attending, but if not then I'd be happy to run his "Things I wish I knew in my first 30 days" presentation that he gave in session 1 at CG09. It's a great into to Umbraco and I've shamelessly stolen the pdf and used it as training collateral for my intern this week.
What do people think on either of these?
Stewart, Anthony, Lee - Please put yourself on the wiki page of atendees http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/codegarden-2009/umbraco-uk-meetup/atendees
I'm in :-)
(Sorry to be pendantic, but I tried changing the title of the wiki page to spell attendees with two Ts, but it didn't save. Is this a wiki issue?)
Yes, wiki titles cannot be changed for some reason. Someone has reported that already!
Hi Darren,
The 6th should be fine for me, I'm up for the whole day event.
I "might" be able to give a quick presentation on a couple of things I am currently working on, I'll have to let you know
in a week or two if they will be ready to demo.
Cheers,
Chris
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