Organised speaking – Throw 1
Not quite part of being organised at speaking, but bundled up in part of my scheduling constraints for speaking is when I’m throwing user group events. Here’s the details of the user groups I’m planning on throwing to meet my goal of 1 user group event a month (not including lunch time sessions!)
SQL Server
I run the SQL Server user group in Cardiff and have done a few years – I’m not giving it up any time soon. We’re currently at a bi-monthly event and a weekly lunchtime event. As it’s only happening every other month, I’ve got a slot for a bi-monthly meeting of some other sort of user group.
R
I’ve been using R for two years now and it’s truly a fantastic language once you’re over the initial learning curve. There is/was an R user group run within Cardiff Uni but it happened infrequently and during the day. This isn’t enough for me, particularly given the breadth of topics that can be covered so I’ve kicked off an R user group.
The plan will be to run evening talks in the months between the SQL Server events, meeting the Throw 1 part of my goal, and of course get some lunch time workshops going if possible.
I’ve put more detail about the R user group in the post Starting the Cardiff R User Group.
.Net
I recently polled folks about what user groups they’d most like to see and the results were overwhelmingly in the favour of a .Net UG. I don’t do anything with .Net – I can’t even deploy a Lightswitch app!
Mike Hole, a la Windows App user group fame, will hopefully be able to spearhead this group and I can assist in the organisation – I may over-achieve slightly on the Throw 1 as a consequence but it’s an opportunity to continue growing and supporting the tech scene in Wales whilst also learning about stuff I really should know.