A New Format for Small, SharePoint User Groups
I’ve been kicking this idea around in my head for a while and thought I’d run it by the SharePoint User Groups.
Those of us who live in New York City or any of the large metropolitan areas have a great pool of talent to draw from when it comes to presenters for our monthly meetings. But what about the smaller groups, the ones with 5 or 6 members who want to get together and discuss SharePoint over a beer and pizza?
I want to put together a group of presenters who are willing to do live, online presentations for SharePoint User Groups, in the evening, the typical time for a User Group meeting. I’ll provide the platform for presentation and help you get setup. What you’d have to do is plan on a 30 to 40 minute presentation with 10 to 15 minute Q&A at the end.
What I am expecting from the User Groups is that they will promote the session as part of their monthly agenda. We’ll broadcast live so that attendees can ask questions, give input, participate in the discussion. Instead of a meeting of 5 people, you can join live online with a group of 50 to 100 and get a real dynamic going. Everyone still gets beer and pizza, it’s just not all in one place.
That’s the short form. Have I got something here or this not needed? Looking for immediate feedback to get the ball rolling. If you run a SharePoint User Group, would this be useful to you? For you presenters, how about? Any interest?
Mark
Update: If you are responding as a User Group, please provide your location so I can start sticking pins in a map.
This is a great idea! I know our UG would definitely be interested.
excellent idea – interaction is one of the keys to a good UG
Cool, this would be just like what we did in Birmingham at our SPUG when Joel Oleson couldn’t be there in person.
Laura
I think this is a great idea!
I haven’t connected in person yet with the local SPUG here in Austin, but I will forward your note to contacts there and request feedback.
Look at virtualaltnet.com for execution of this exact idea…obviously the topics will differ, but they’re doing exactly what you describe. It’s a good idea.
Incidentally the next VAN meeting is tonight.
I’m from Fredericton Canada. I like to get in on this. Do you have the platform determined yet?
Please let me know the night of your premiere… I would like a front seat.
I think this a great idea and hope to be contacted by other SharePoint Admins or Endusers in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Great idea, Mark! I would expect members of the hrssug would be interested but I’ll let Susan speak to that. I would connect as part of the local group or from my home. I love your idea of conducting them in the evening. As a contractor (and I’m new to this role) it is hard to take time away from client business to participate in webinars during the work day. THANKS!
Sign me up Mark – I would be happy to present. It’s like having satellite campuses. The only catch is that every group has to agree to do it on the same date/time.
Dux,
I think the timezone issue can easily be overcome. I’d do one for Asia/Pacific at 1:00am in the morning here just to prove a point.
The process would be to get confirmation from a number of User Groups in the same time zone, +- 3 hours, to confirm there is enough interest. Once that happens, I think it would be easy to fill the “room”.
With my contacts in Shanghai, Singapore and Australia plus all of yours in Asia/Pacific, it seems like a no-brainer.
Mark
Awesome! Let’s chat and plan this out! It would be cool to have North + South America, Europe, Asia join in.
Mark,
You’ve figured out my ploy behind the launching of SharePint DC – essentially mini-UGs that meet up every week or so to chat about technology and sample some fine ale :)
-Usher
I think this is a great idea. What sort of tech will be required for the user groups to be able to participate?
Kevin – A data projector and a set of speakers… unless you want a bunch of geeks gathering around a laptop. Possibly a microphone if you want to talk instead of text chat. — Mark
I would be interested in helping with this, I am one of the leaders for the Orange County Sharepoint User Group in CA, and we have access to a large pool of presenters.
GREAT idea Mark. We’re still working on establishing a local SPUG in Rochester, NY but having an established method for remote presentations would be outstanding. It opens up the pool of presenters tremendously. I would also be happy to present.
Rick Black
I live in a pretty rural part of the world, If I started a SPUG there would be only me in it! I like the idea of being able to join in and listen to a presentation.
This is a great idea for two reasons.
1. It allows user groups to be effective in places that they just couldn’t get their feet under them (such as many cities and towns outside of Toronto in Canada as an example).
2. It also promotes the idea that any user group DOING a presentation should also record it, or do a live/online webcast at the same time. Lot’s of times I cannot make it to local user group meetings in person because of many different obligations. With a live/online option I would be able to attend and share much more often.
This is great Mark!
Richard Harbridge
Great idea – advertise and the people will come.
I think this would be a great idea. My usergroup isn’t real small but it is isolated primarily to people within our company and primarily driven by my own SharePoint knowledge (which is relatively limited). Many of my users aren’t local or they are spread across different campuses here in town so I offer the option to attend the meeting in person or online.
I think my group would be interested in participating in other groups or allowing others to join ours.
I’m in New Jersey, there really isn’t a UG presence that is convenient so this works for me. Let me know when and I’ll be there.
Agree with most that this is a great idea. I was unaware that there could be a local UG. How can you find this information? How can you become part of this? I am interested in participating and presenting.
Mark,
Great idea! Thanks! Our group would love to participate and I’ll volunteer to be a speaker if you need me.
For the person asking about how to find a local UG, check out the list of UGs on ISPA (International SharePoint Professionals Association): http://www.sharepointpros.org/Pages/SharePointUserGroups.aspx
This sounds interesting and we are interested in participating in your remote SharePoint User Group meeting approach. We are in the Chicago area and would like to host a UG, but we do not have enough room to host a Chicago wide meeting. So hosting a smaller group from the Chicago suburbs as part of a larger e-meeting would be a great approach.
Mark, I am trying to put together a user group at 3M for SharePoint users. It would be during the day. I am very interested in what you are offering and wonder if I can incorporate it into a corporate environment?
I think this would be a great idea also. I am trying to start up a UG in Vermont and being able to promote these and include in the agenda might be the best thing to finally kicking the group off!
Tammy – The problem might be the timeframe in which these events need to occur. If we start at 7:00am EST, then yes, those on the West Coast could participate while at work.
That’s the most difficult thing about this entire process, but it’s not going to stop me from trying. We might just do multiple presentations, based around a global timeline.
Mark
Mark,
I joined the Birmingham User Group but haven’t been able to attend yet as I live/work 1 hour’s drive from either Birmingham or Atlanta. Something like this would work well for me… especially on week nights where I could just stay in my office, participate in the meeting over high speed connection (no beer for me… but I can eat pizza and drink a diet Coke!) Being the SharePoint “guru” at my organization (with a year’s exposure to SharePoint)… I need to meet with all the great minds I can. Virtual meetings are the way to go. We are in the 21st century aren’t we?
Tammy, I lead the UG at Walmart. We have monthly UG meetings that are a hybrid of in person and web conference. They include associates in the home office, in the field and international business segments. We also include interested members of our vendor community and others as special guests. Your user group is welcome to join in on any of the walmart meetings. Email me for an invite: [email protected]
I’m working with the Kansas City Heartland User Group (HUG KC) SharePoint SIG and I think we would very much enjoy this. Stick a pin in the map for us and we can work out details.