Well after agreeing to take over managing my local user group I've managed to have 2 meetings in the past couple of months and interest seems to be building back up. On Wednesday it was my turn to present on some of the new T-SQL features found in SQL Server 2008. It felt good to be up front and presenting again as it has been a while for me. I was a bit rushed for time since I was the second of two presenters but that was fine with me. I simply cut out some demos.
I know I made some mental notes about my presentation style that I want to work on for next time. First is to S-L-O-W down. I can speak a mile a minute when I'm uber excited about a topic. Second is to really work practice my presentation. My next one will be in Jan so I have some time again and I want to truely knowledgeable about my subject. At work I bounce around from one technology to another so quickly I don't get a great chance of becoming an "expert" but I want to be able to answer questions and not just read a canned script.
I think I'm going to be lucky with the user group as the word is getting out and registrations are increasing (50 percent turn out of those that pre-registered for this week's meeting). Next I need to keep looking at increasing the membership and finding some local sponsors. At least I've got a good list of people who have offered to be speakers, but I still want to develop some more local talent in this area.
I knew it would take a fair bit of my personal time to get things going again and I'm happy with the progress. I just hope that the attendees are finding the meetings useful. A few people have stepped up to offer their help with the UG which has been great for me as I know I can't do this all by myself.
Here's to seeing big growth for
F.NUG in the new year.