It’s already the first day of TechEd as I write this. It’s actually 7am and I’m sitting in the convention center in front of one of the Hands-On Labs (a SharePoint lab). I wanted to save the actual TechEd day one notes for a separate blog entry, so I’m going to focus on the INETA User Group Leadership Summit which took up the entire day Sunday.
Brendon and I, always the eager beavers, started out volunteering to help out with organizing and checking in attendees. We met with Sara Faatz (now one of the INETA Vice Presidents) and Samantha Spears (Atlanta’s own INETA head honcho). They rapidly realized we were just going to pester them until they let us do something so we started carrying boxes full of books, nametags, t-shirts, etc up to the checkin table. Then Brendon, Sara, and I checked everyone in and made sure the people had nametags, t-shirts, books, and more.
The morning was filled with keynotes and introductions from the Microsoft INETA and Culminis liaisons, the VP of the Exchange team, and a really cool demo from Ari Bixhorn, part the Indigo team. Lots of great information was flowing around the room, most important in that was the actual introduction to INETA (the International .NET Association – an entirely volunteer organization with a single paid executive director (Samanatha Spears)) and Culminis (equivalent to INETA but for the IT Pro side of the technology workforce as opposed to the developer side). Brendon and I came away with a great impression of the guys from Culminis and a resolve to try to meet with them and wrap them into the collective mind-share that has been happening with the developer community. It’s great to share the leadership experience amongst the group and have the other people as resources to lean on.
Lunch was provided by the hotel, and was one of the best conference meals I’ve ever had. If you feel like throwing a convention in Orlando and the JW Marriott is in your price range, I heartily endorse it based on the quality of the meals alone! After lunch a group of us took off to go through early registration at the Convention Center (a huge place comparable in size to the Georgia World Congress convention center).
The second half of the day was filled with user group leadership workshops. Lots of different topics including financing your UG, maintaining members, writing effective newsletters, developing an online presence, etc. Each of the sessions that I attended began with fantastic information and usually ended with the various UG leaders talking about their own various successes and problems. Everyone present was a fount of information and experience, and I took three pages of notes based solely on what’s worked at other UGs. I’ll be typing up these notes and sharing them with the rest of the Atlanta UG leadership team (Doug W, Doug M, Jim, and Keith – and of course Michael E in his role as the INETA liaison and general advisor).
After all the workshops ended, INETA threw us a party (open bar) where anyone who didn’t have a chance to meet and mingle from before got to sit down and swap stories. Mark Dunn even managed to show up (why did he only make it to the part with the open bar, I wonder?). Once we finished eating and drinking our fill, my crew and I (Brendon, Caleb, Chris, D’Arcy, and Rob) all took the bus back to the convention center to play some Xbox games and relax for a bit. Rob and Brendon quit playing Xbox with me after I beat them too badly at Halo 2. Quitters! We hung out a bit more and then all got back on the bus to head back to the hotel. The trip back was filled with really bad jokes (I broke out my library of Guys with No Arms and No Legs jokes) and general good humor. Everyone is excited.
We all have had a great time and I really want to thank the folks at INETA who managed to make this event possible and of course our omnipresent sponsor Microsoft. Thanks for everyone’s hard work and participation!
— Matt Ranlett
posted with BlogJet