As D'Arcy shared on his
blog last night,
Will Craddock and
Rodney Buike hosted a Community Connection event sponsored by CIPS and Microsoft in Regina, Sask, Canada.
We had a great turn out, expected 175 people, I would assume 100+ attended although I did not get the final numbers.
This event type was certainly new to our market; it followed the idea of
Open Spaces that has been all the rage in the community.
What I was most impressed with, is the fact that Microsoft made an effort to enforce community and bring new ideas to market.
Our learning circle topics where
1) Impact of virtualization on the IT industry
2) Application lifecycle
3) Importance of security – Data, management, privacy
4) ICT skills shortage and declining interest in ICT careers.
5) Software plus services and the impact on the industry.
For each topic we had a host that gave each topic some guidance.
4 principals are a part of open spaces
- Whoever comes are the right people
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
- Whenever it starts is the right time
- When it's over, it's over
D'Arcy hosted the 'software plus service', or SOA (
Service Oriented Architecture), track which I attended.
Our group had about 10 attendees with mixed experienced with SOA; a couple attendees had no experience.
At first we attempted what SOA means to us by defining it.
They we talked about the benefits, challenges and how to implement an SOA.
My only caveat is each group needs to have at least 1 individual with some knowledge or experience to give the conversation some credibility; which may challenge 'whoever comes are the right people' principal.
In technology, there is often no silver bullet, and often no less than a dozen ways to complete the same task; which is why I agree with this principal.
As a user group leader, I plan on offering similar events to my local user group because of this positive experience.
For all my readers, I highly recommend that you can attend the
community connection event, or similar events in your area.
You do not have to be an expert to attend, all you need is interest in the topic and you qualify.
I wanted to give special thanks to
D'Arcy Lussier for attending our event and hosting one of the learning circles; even though he is from Winnipeg; the home of the
Grey Cup champions, and
Ridernation, welcomed even a lowly 'pegger.
D'Arcy, in my opinion, has gone out of his way time and time again to build and assist user communities.
Mad props D.
Takeaways;
- Always bring a camera to user group events (for user group leaders)
- Pilsner beer is king on the prairies
- Should I fear or embrace
the igloo of love? TBA