A new year for a new user group
The new year of 2015 will soon be upon us. I am thinking about creating a new developer's group for the Central Ohio area.
Why?
- I live in a part of Central Ohio (Grove City) where there aren't any nearby user groups (that I know of). Most user groups are in Dublin, Easton, or Polaris area, with the occasional group near OSU Campus or Downtown. I'd like to have one closer to those of us in the south/southwest/west area.
- Most user groups focus on a specific technology or technology stack: .NET, Java, cloud, Windows, JavaScript. I'd like to have a group where no topic is off the table: whether it be broad enough to apply to every developer, or narrow enough to introduce us to something outside our comfort zone. For instance, a meeting on 'git' could apply to everyone, but I'd also like to see meetings introducing languages, tools, and/or frameworks.
So what now?
I have a venue, and the above idea.
What I want now is:
- Feedback. Is this a good idea? Why or why not? What's missing?
- People. Will you come to this?
- Schedule. I'm thinking monthly. A weekday, after work hours. Probably 5:30pm or 6pm. Which day would be best? I don't want to be on the same night as one of the other excellent user groups in Central Ohio.
- Speakers and/or topics. We could do fish bowls, labs, traditional speaker sessions, lightning talks, etc.
- Name. Something that conveys the general location & broad selection of topics.
Please feel free to leave comments below, or contact me if you would like to provide more candid feedback.
