Posts Tagged ‘community’

A User Group Leaders Guide to the INETA Community Speakers Program

Posted on February 16th, 2011 by Kevin

As an INETA mentor, I’ve received a lot of feedback from my community about different things that INETA has done. The Community Speakers program was started last year in an effort to help promote community speakers and assist user groups with bringing in fresh, exciting new faces.

A Little History

Before the Community Speakers programs, there was the National Speakers Bureau. This group consisted of several familiar faces in the .NET community from across the world. As a user group member of INETA, you could request one of this speakers to come talk at your user group with all expenses paid by INETA.

However, you did have abuse of the system. For example, I’ve heard stories about speakers on the west coast who’d only speak to user groups on the east coast. Why? So they could get maximum number of frequent flyer miles. A bit abusive, huh? They would turn down a user group on the same side of the country just because they wanted to wait out for a more lucrative offer.

Changes

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on flights and hotels for national speakers, INETA decided to abandon that program and focus more on the local communities.

As a community speaker, you’re interested in a couple things:
- Getting your name out in the public
- Teaching the skills you have to offer
- Free pizza (or tacos)
Notice I didn’t say: racking up frequent flyer miles. A community speaker doesn’t worry about that sort of thing. They speak for the benefit of the community. Speaking at a user group is a bit of a commitment. Not only do you have the time involved with preparing the talk, but you have to worry about taking the time away from work, gas to get to the venue, and maybe even a hotel to spend the night. These things cost money.

So INETA thought: instead of paying a single person $1000 (I’m rounding here…) for one talk. Let’s pay several people a maximum of $200 to go out into their local communities and speak. That’s usually enough to cover a tank of gas, and a night in a hotel.

The Community Speakers program was born.

There are currently a couple hundred speakers registered with INETA on a variety of topics. A user group leader can request anyone, and there is a defined workflow between the group leader and the speaker (with INETA as a mediator).

Tweaking the System

User feedback has been very much appreciated by the INETA board. The process is being tweaked based off our feedback, and it’s only getting better. However, the one complaint I’ve heard is that leaders don’t know how to use the Community Speaker request application.

In the rest of this post, I’m going show you step-by-step how to request a speaker.

STEP 1 – Log in to INETA

Go to http://www.ineta.org, and log in to your account (the only your user group is registered under). If you’re unable to do this, please contact your INETA mentor (feel free to contact me if you don’t know who that is).

STEP 2 – Find the Community Speakers area

Find the SPEAKERS menu, and select ‘”Search for and Request a Speaker”.

STEP 3 – Filter your search

Maybe you want someone to talk about ASP.NET or Silverlight. Here is the place to do it. Also, the state dropdown will show you states the speakers have agreed to travel to. If your user group is in Virginia, I’d recommend selecting Virginia. Press search!

STEP 4 – Find a Speaker

Now you’ll see a list of speakers who are registered with INETA, and are willing to travel to your state.

Additionally, you’ll see links to the person’s website and blog. Also, MVPs are designated by their MVP logo.

If you want more information, click the Details link. This will show you more information about a particular speaker, such as the topics they’ll speak on.

If you want to continue straight to the invitation, select Invite.

STEP 5 – Invitation

For this example, I’m going to invite my friend Joel Cochran to my user group (Note, Joel is scheduled to come to HRNUG anyway, so it’s perfect timing).

On the invitation screen, I see a list of what Joel will talk about, and I can select from that list. Also, I need to provide 3 dates that are open for Joel. In case Joel can’t make the first date, he can choose another.

When you’re all done, press Submit Request.

STEP 6 – Success

At this time, emails are automatically being sent. If the speaker accepts or denies the request, you’ll receive an email. You can also monitor the request by going to the “Community Speaker Requests” section of INETA. It’s located underneath the Search option in the menu.

STEP 7 – After The Talk

When the talk is over, you’ll be asked to confirm that the speaker showed up and also to rate them. This is the most important step, since it completes the workflow and the speaker will get paid. Please don’t forget to do this.

Conclusion

I really hope this has been helpful for you in learning how to request speakers for your user’s group. The whole process really only takes 5 minutes (if even that), and most of it is automated.

As a tip, talk to the speakers before going through the INETA process. Make sure they are available and discuss options for the talk. Not only will you build a better relationship with the speaker, but they’ll be more likely to work with you.

Finally, I am registered as a Community Speaker and I’m available to speak at user groups in the VA, NC, MD area. I’m booked out from now to June 2011, but if you’d like for me to come to your group, just head to my INETA page here and request me. The link is also available on the right side of my blog.
Speaking at DC .NET on Jan 18th

Posted on January 13th, 2011 by Kevin

If you’re in the DC Metro area, then I invite you to come out to the DC .NET User Group and listen to me present a new talk entitled “jQuery On The Go” on January 18th.

This talk is meant to promote the new jQuery Mobile framework for touch based devices. If you’re already a jQuery developer, than the information in this talk should help provide you a little bit of insight in how we’ll be able to use jQuery to build better mobile applications.

Go to http://www.dcdnug.org/dnn/default.aspx for location and time information!

I hope to see you all there!
Speaking at NoVA Code Camp

Posted on December 6th, 2010 by Kevin

If you’re in the DC area on December 11h, join me at the Northern Virginia Code Camp! This event happens twice a year, and it’s a great resource if you’re trying to be active in the developer community.

I’m going to be presenting my first “soft” talk entitled “Getting Starting in Community Speaking”. It’s designed to take you from an attendee to a speaker, deal with any nightmares you might have about it, and answer any questions that are aching to be asked.

I hope to see you all there! Register today:

http://www.novacodecamp.org
Azure Boot Camp – Virginia Beach

Posted on May 3rd, 2010 by Kevin

Tell your friends! On July 7th and 8th, the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group is hosting it’s first major event. We’re lucky to have David Makogon leading us in a 2-day Azure Boot Camp. If you’ve been looking at Azure as an option for developing next generation web application, then this event is not to be missed!

And this event is 100% FREE OF CHARGE! All you have to do is show up!

Event registration for Azure Boot Camp – Virginia Beach, VA
If You Reach Just One Person

Posted on March 29th, 2010 by Kevin

After giving a talk, it’s really difficult to judge if you reached any of the attendee’s. Normally, you get the occasional “good job” or “thanks, that was a big help.” Today I got a small mention by Johnathan Bracken, who was sitting in my jQuery From The Ground Up talk at Roanoke Code Camp. This means a lot, because it shows that my talk stayed in Johnathan’s head past the end of the talk.

He just started blogging, and mentioned me in his entry I Will Not Run from JavaScript No More. This is very cool to see. I wish Johnathan the best of luck in his jQuery adventures! And I expect him to give a jQuery talk at next year’s code camp.
Join the Mid Atlantic Developer List!

Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Kevin

Are you a developer in the Mid Atlantic?

Are you interested in the the goings on in the Mid Atlantic?

If you answered YES to either question, then you might want to join the Mid Atlantic Developer group! This group is free to join, and you’ll be in direct contact with other developers in the Mid Atlantic region.

If you’re a user group leader, use the list to look for speakers. If you’re a community speaker, use the group to look for speaking opportunities. Interested in speaking, but not sure how to get started? Use the group as a resource to get started in your community involvement.

We’re here to support each other!

Join Today!
http://midatlanticdevs.groups.live.com/

Also, if you’re interested in the Southern Developer community, I would recommend you also join the Southern Developer Community started by Keith Elder. And yes, I totally ripped this idea from Keith. Thanks Keith!
Listen to Me on the Community Megaphone Podcast

Posted on January 14th, 2010 by Kevin

I’ve been waiting for this announcement for a little while, but I’m finally pleased to announce that I had the pleasure of being the first guest on the new Community Megaphone Podcast.

In this episode, I talked with Dane Morgridge (@danemorgridge) and Andrew Duthie (@devhammer) about general stuff I’m interested in. Topics included Windows 7 for developers, jQuery, and the developer community.

Please take an hour and listen to the show. Let me know your thoughts! Also, please send a note to Dane and Andrew. Let them know if you enjoyed the show.

Listen Here (http://www.communitymegaphonepodcast.com/Show/1/Kevin-Griffin)
Philly Code Camp THIS WEEKEND!

Posted on October 15th, 2009 by Kevin

I have the pleasure of being about to present at Philly Code Camp this weekend (October 17th). This is my first time attending Philly, and I’m looking forward to the experience. I’m told by several people that Philly is one of the top code camps in the country.

Here’s what they’re boasting:
- Lots of code, just say no to slides!
- 8 hours
- 60 sessions (8:30, 10:00, 12:30, 2:00, 3:30)
- 12 tracks including two hands-on Beginner rooms and the Bonus Track
- 600 seats with tables (laptops welcome)
- Free breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack (expanded menu!)
- Raffles and prizes at 5:00
- Easy parking
- After hours party in Ambler (network with speakers and attendees)
While I break the slide rule (ha… get it?), I do have tons of code to go through. I will be giving my jQuery From The Ground Up talk (probably for the last time this year). I’m scheduled at 3:30 in room 110. Come join me!

For more information, visit http://www.phillydotnet.org.
Listen to me on Deep Fried Bytes

Posted on September 9th, 2009 by Kevin

Back in August, I attended DevLink, and I had the pleasure of sitting in on a group discussion that was recorded for Deep Fried Bytes.

Our discussion was about why do we do what we do, and it was a great opportunity to sit in with people I have nothing but respect for and learn from them. I think this discussion was a great way to explain what it means to be involved in the developer community, and that’s coming from the people that are leaders in the community. Sit back and enjoy. I would love to discuss anything talked about in the podcast with anyone willing to chat. Although I only got to get a few words in, the talk turned into more of a therapy session for Leon.

http://deepfriedbytes.com/podcast/episode-36-what-happens-in-the-speaker-rsquo-s-lounge-is-supposed-to-stay-in-the-speaker-rsquo-s-lounge/
Getting Ready for #NoVaCC

Posted on May 20th, 2009 by Kevin

NoVa Code Camp (http://www.novacodecamp.org) is this weekend. I’m going to be presenting my “What is this WPF?!” presentation again. I’m limited to an hour, so I’m probably going to cut out my demo on Expression Blend. I’ll have it just in case, but I doubt I’ll have time for it. If you were looking forward to that, go to Joel Cochran’s talk. He’s the Blend master!

I think I’m going to retire this presentation. It was good for my first presentation ever, but I’d like to move on to a few more subjects that interest me. Some stuff I have planned include jQuery, Win7 development, Azure, and more WPF stuff.

I enjoy doing entry level presentations. While doing a 200-300 level talk is great, you’re really narrowing your audience. Also, I don’t think I’m capable for such a high level talk yet.

See you all Saturday!