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735 User Groups Worldwide serving 360,000 User Group Members
260 NORAM (US & Cananda) Groups serving 106,000 User Groups Members
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In This Issue
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Birds Of A Feather
Bridging the Knowledge Gap
Community Events
Deeper in .NET Event Re-Cap
DotNetNuke
Microsoft WebCasts
Pre-Meeting Power Points
Upcoming Conferences
Who Is My D.E.?
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Find A User Group Near You!
Click Here...
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 INETA UG Leader Summit at TechEd·2005
Tech Ed 2005Make Plans to Attend the North American User Group Leader Summit on June 4th

Planning for the North American User Group Leader Summit (UGLS) is in full swing and this year’s event promises to be chock full of useful information. Produced in conjunction with Culminis, the UGLS is a full day of interactive sessions, networking with peers and more at the JW Marriott in Orlando, FL.

All user group leaders and active members of groups are invited to attend at no cost. To register for the event, please email teched@ineta.org. For more information about the event and a detailed agenda, please click here...
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 Birds Of A Feather Sessions at Tech·Ed
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A conference can only cover a fixed set of topics, but what about the other topics you find important or interesting? At Tech·Ed 2005 you'll be among thousands of your peers: how do you find the group of folks who share your questions or passions on some particular technology or concern? That's what Birds of a Feather sessions are for!

A Birds of a Feather session is a one-hour open discussion on any topic that concerns you. It is not a talk or presentation; there are no slides or projectors. It is not scary. It is just you and your fellow professionals seizing the opportunity to have a discussion and meet one another.

The Birds of a Feather sessions at Tech·Ed 2005 are directed by the premier user group community organizations, INETA for the developers and Culminis for the IT professionals. These sessions are of, by, and for the community. So attend a Birds of a Feather session and connect with your community

Birds of a feather really do flock together!
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User Group Pre-Meeting Power Points
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Groupe d'usagersGUVSM, in Montreal, has a very innovative way of sharing news and events with user group members at their meetings.

User Group Leaders, Guy Barrette and Eric Cote create a PowerPoint slide show of all the information about the current meeting, upcoming events in their area, notable .NET News etc.

While attendees are arriving and getting settled, the slide show is running on the screen. At the start of the meeting, one of the leaders then uses the deck as talking points to make sure they don't forget to mention anything of importance to their members. 

Julie Lerman, of Vermont.NET saw this great idea when attending a GUVSM meeting and is proud to say that she stole the idea from their neighbors to the north! We invite you to steal this idea, too!

Here are examples of User Group pre-Meeting Powerpoints.
Vermont.NET's March 2005 Meeting 
Connecticut.NET's March 2005 Meeting
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Going Deeper in .NET
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Four hundred hungry .NET developers packed the local Radisson Hotel early on a Saturday morning Milwaukee, WI, all gathered for the annual day-long "Deeper in .NET" produced by the WI .NET Users Group. This event included some of the communities most knowledgeable speakers:

Deeper in .NET Speakers
Right To Left:
  • Scott Guthrie, Rob Howard, Rocky Lhotka, Jason Beres , Chris Mayo
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    These amazing speakers also enabled the WI .NET UG to attract 14 sponsors that let the event afford a great hotel,     		Deeper in .NETand provide breakfast, beverages, and lunch for all attendees.  On top of that, the sponsors made it possible to raffle a thousand dollars worth of prizes!


    In the end, all aspects of this event exceeded the expectations of speakers, sponsors, attendees, and everyone involved. That's a big reason to invest the 9+ months required for planning this type of event. It shows the entire developer community what is so exciting about the .NET community.

    With large user group events flourishing, the most exciting thing about doing these events is that the old saying, "if you build it, they will come", has never seemed to be so true.
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    Bridging the Knowledge Gap in Your User Group
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    Are you finding the range of .NET knowledge is widening in your user group, with people interested in intro and advanced topics? The Boston .NET User Group, noticed this too, and here’s how their Executive Committee set out to solve it.

    About two years ago they implemented the following multi-session meeting format to cover both audiences.

    5:00-6:15 Technology Study Group
    6:15-6:30 Break
    6:30-6:50 Announcements, Book Reviews, etc.
    6:50-8:30 Main Presentation

    The Technology Study Group is an informal discussion oriented session that focuses on "how-to" or practical issues. Each meeting usually has a theme, e.g., Exception Handling, DotNetNuke, Unit Testing, Data Access, etc. Members are recruited to show short demos, and the organizing team serves as moderators to provide a comfort factor for the presenter since many are not experienced speakers.

    After a short break, there’s announcements, book    		 reviews, etc. and then it dives into the Main Presentation which is usually by a guest speaker and is always on a leading edge or strategic topic. This approach serves both the less experienced and advanced developers because it gets everyone thinking, even if it may be at different levels.

    The Boston .NET User Group took this approach because they believe that the Main Presentation alone would not be enough to keep the less experienced members motivated over the long haul, and that the experienced members would not get enough new information out of the Technology Study Group alone to hold their interest.. But together, they do a great job of meeting the needs of this diverse community.

    So far, this has worked in Boston, but if you have other ways of solving this issue, please feel free to share.

    Boston .NET

    The Boston .NET User Group Team info@bostondotnet.org
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    INETA Welcomes DotNetNuke back to top
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    DotNetNukeDotNetNuke is powerful, full-featured, and FREE open source software for community building.

    In keeping with INETA's own charter services, DotNetNuke meets the needs of .net user groups on a variety of fronts. User group leaders and staff will appreciate user friendly design that supports multiple languages, newsletter publishing, integrated site search, and user registration with opt-in or opt-out member services.

    A sophisticated architecture, a rich array of free and commercial modules and one of the most active forum communities on the internet combine to showcase DotNetNuke as a best practices platform for educational and professional interests.

    Join 137,000 registered users of DotNetNuke who range from .Net hungry students to business savvy Fortune 500 technology leaders.

    Recently released version 3.0 opens the door for a wealth of opportunities for INETA members and speakers. Two books currently in publication and more to follow; DotNetNuke User Groups sprouting internationally; a focal point of Microsoft .Net marketing; magazine articles, webcasts and radio shows; DotNetNuke makes sophisticated internet technology achievable for anyone... on .Net technology... for free.

    Visit DotNetNuke today to see what all the excitement is about!
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    Microsoft WebCasts
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    TabletPC WebCastsCheck out the MSDN Tablet PC Webcast page for updated offerings of webcasts in the continuing series for Tablet and Mobile PC Applications Development.
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    Upcoming Conferences
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    Tech Ed 2005, June 5 - 10 Register Now!  Save $300
    June 5 - 10, 2005 in Orlando, FL
    Dev Teach, June 18-22 Register today!
    June 18 - 22, 2005 Montreal
    VS Live, Boston

    Register by April 27! Save $300
    Devscovery May 3-5 Register Today!

    May 3 - 5, 2005
    Washington DC
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    Community Events
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    SoCal Technical Summit Register Here...
    May 7th in Long Beach, CA

    Code Camps!
    Greater Pennsylvania - April 23 - 24
    Mid Atlantic District - May 7
    Atlanta - May 14
    Code Camp OZ (Australia!) - April 24 - 25
    Day of .NET (Chicago, IL) - April 30
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    Who is My D.E.? back to top
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    The Microsoft Developer Evangelist is your best personal connection to Microsoft. These are the folks who work with a particular region of the country and really want to be involved with the developer community. They can introduce you to other community members, assist you with coordinating events and maybe even find you some illusory swag! But who is your D.E.? Below is a list of the current D.E.s in the U.S. and Canada. Also you can visit the Canada MSDN Team page and the US Offices page where you can drill into each districts' detailed information page.

    You can also check out the weblogs of these D.E.s. Click on their names to go to their blogs.

    DE Name District* States Covered email (@microsoft.com) blog
    Jason Mauer PacWest AK, ID, OR, WA jmauer http://www.jasonmauer.com/
    Ashwin Karuhatty Rocky CO, MT, UT, WY AshwinKa http://www.mscoloradoevents.com/Default.aspx?tabid=77&BlogID=1
    Keen Browne NorCal North CA Keen
    Tim Heuer Southwest AZ, NM, NV TimHeuer http://timheuer.com/blog/
    TBA SoCal South CA & HI  ---
    Steve Loethen Mid America KS, MO, TN sloethen
    Brian Moore South Central AR, OK, Northern TX brimoore http://www.elysiumsystems.com/
    Jeff Brand North Central IA, MN, NE, ND, SD jbrand
    J Sawyer Gulf Coast LA, Southern TX jsawyer http://blogs.msdn.com/jsawyer/
    Drew Robbins Great Lakes KY, MI, OH drobbins http://www.geekswithblogs.com/drewby
    Chris Mayo Midwest IL, IN, WI cmayo http://blogs.msdn.com/cmayo/
    Joe Healy Gulfstates AL, FL, MS jhealy
    Thom Robbins New England CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT trobbins http://blogs.msdn.com/trobbins/
    TBA NY/NJ NY, Northern NJ  ---
    Stan Spotts GPD DE, Southern NJ, PA sspotts http://blogs.msdn.com/sspotts/
    G. Andrew Duthie Mid Atlantic DC, MD, VA, WV gduthie http://blogs.msdn.com/gduthie
    Doug Turnure Southeast GA, NC, SC dougturn http://blogs.msdn.com/dougturn/
    Canada
    Adam Gallant Eastern Canada Ontario and East msdnteam http://blogs.msdn.com/adamga/
    Dan Sellers Western Canada Manitoba and West msdnteam http://blogs.msdn.com/dansellers/
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    Editor: Julia Lerman [INETA Board Member, Vermont .NET User Group Leader, .NET MVP]

    Designer: Sheri Nawrocki [INETA Marketing Committee, .NET Developer, Graphic Designer]

    Thanks to Scott Swigart, Sara Faatz and Shaun Walker  for their contributions to this newsletter.

    Archived newsletters are available on the INETA website at www.ineta.org/newsletters.

    Please send news (and pictures) from your user group so we can include it in a future newsletter! Contact us at:
    newsletter@ineta.org.

    We welcome your feedback on this newsletter. Please contact newsletter@ineta.org.
    International .NET Association 2005 
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