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Happenings Around INETA North America (NorAm) |
TechEd 2006 in Boston from June 11-16 is fast approaching and INETA NorAm has several excting events planned, organized once again by our great volunteers. The week will kick off with the New England Regional User Group Leadership Summit on Sunday 6/11. If you help organize and lead a user group in some capacity this will be a great opportunity to meet and learn from fellow user group leaders in New England and around the United States and Canada. The INETA booth opens Monday at 11:30 a.m. and will showcase some new services including a new individual membership, INETA Live, and more! It wouldn't be an INETA booth without some fun as well. You'll have to stop by to see what we have in store. On Tuesday from 6:00-10:00 p.m. the INETA organized Birds of a Feather sessions start and then continue during the day the rest of the week. This year INETA is working with the local Boston area user groups to organize a Mega User Group Meeting on Monday evening 6/12 from 7-9 pm with a great panel of experts.
It should be another exciting week at TechEd with lots of INETA activities. Stop by the INETA booth and say hello while you're there. Boston here we come!
Chris Pels, President, INETA NorAm chris.pels@ineta.org
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So You Want to Start a User Group |
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This webcast happens TODAY, May 31st, 2006 at 3:30 EST
Are you looking to start a user group but not really sure where to begin? Maybe you are part of a user group now but want to
get more involved in its leadership. If so then be sure to check out our next INETA Live! webcast focused directly on the
things you need to know to get a user group up and running or give your existing group a boost. This webcast will be a
panel-based discussion featuring some of our organization's most experienced user group leaders -
Jason Beres, Julie Lerman and Dave Noderer.
Register now for this webcast.
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Mega User Group Meeting at TechEd |
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In cooperation with the New England INETA user groups we have organized an exciting and informative
Mega User Group Meeting
on Monday 6/12 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at TechEd. There will be a lively panel discussion on Developing with .NET in 2006 -
What's Hot and What's Not! featuring an outstanding group of experts including Bob Beauchemin, Sam Guckenheimer, Patrick Hynds,
Fritz Onion, and Jeff Prosise. Bring your questions for the panelists! Check out the details and
register now!
We anticipate this event will fill up quickly.
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Create the future in trusted web services with Cryptoflex .NET smart cards.
Enter this developers contest with prizes totaling over $30,000 USD. This contest aims at proposing and developing innovative applications in the field of secure Web Services. For more information on how to enter, please visit http://www.securetheweb.axalto.com/
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Northeast Regional User Group Leadership Summit |
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You're invited to join us at the at the Northeast Regional User Group Leadership Summit on Sunday 6/11/2006 at the Microsoft Waltham, MA office.
User Group Leaders today face many challenges such as promoting your group, financing, engaging existing members, recruiting speakers, finding new sources of content, leveraging local Microsoft relationships; etc. The New England INETA user groups along with INETA, in hopes of building a more close knit community, invites you all to join us on Sunday June 11th, prior to the start of TechEd 2006 in Boston.
The agenda for the summit will includes peer to peer sessions to address some of the key concerns and issues related to running a user group. As a follow-up to last year's hugely successful INETA User Group Leadership Summit, the New England INETA User Groups will host this event in the hope of that we can all learn from one another to improve the user group experience for our attendees as well as ourselves. The sessions are open to all leaders, both local and afar.
If you are currently involved with a user group, in a leadership role, want to get involved, or even looking to start one then you will get powerful direction in the course of the sessions. If you read this far, you know this is for you.
To reserve your seat please visit: http://www.wedevelop.net/leadershipsummit.aspx
| Schedule | Activities |
| 8:30 AM | Registration |
| 9:00 AM | Welcome From INETA |
| 9:30 AM | Panel Discussion: Marketing Your User Group |
| 10:30 AM | Break |
| 10:45 AM | Involving Your Group In The Community | Handling Financial Structure of Your Group |
| 11:45 AM | Lunch |
| 1:00 PM | Establishing A Local Speakers Pool Through Special Events: Guest Speakers, Code Camps. Local Speaker Nights | Group Promotion: Stop Preaching to the Choir and Reach Audiences Outside Your Membership |
| 2:00 PM | Break |
| 2:15 PM | Effective Communications: Writing Appealing Newsletters, Emails, Group Communications | Making The Most Of Vender/Sponsor Relationships |
| 3:15 PM | Break |
| 3:30 PM | Working With Microsoft Resources: Who You Should Know | How To Build A Leadership Team |
For more information please contact LeadershipSummit@Ineta.org
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Speaker's Corner with Phil Weber |
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INETA Speaker Phil Weber
gets hit with some hard-hitting questions by Julia Lerman.
Q. At what point in your life did you awaken to the geek calling?
A. While perhaps not as hardcore as some readers of this newsletter, I've
had geekish tendencies for as long as I can remember: I watched first-run
"Lost in Space" episodes in black-and-white, I played with a chemistry set
and those 200-in-1 electronics kits as a child, and I was the co-founder and
Admiral of the Star Trek Club in junior high school. (Entrance exam: How
many tribbles did Mr. Spock say fell out of the overhead compartment in
"The Trouble with Tribbles?")
Q. What is your earliest computer-related memory?
A. I was 13 years old when Radio Shack released the
TRS-80 personal
computer. I begged my parents for one but we couldn't afford it, so I spent
hours writing programs at the local Radio Shack and demoing the machine to
potential customers. That's how I learned BASIC.
Q. What are your biggest passions with regard to programming?
A. I'm passionate about usability. I'm a faithful disciple of Alan Cooper,
and I'm on a crusade to eliminate the use of the message box. I think people
enjoy my presentation, "Create Great .NET User Interfaces" because they can
sense my passion on the subject.
Q: What do you do at Corillian?
A. I started with Corillian's tech support department in 2004, maintaining
and troubleshooting our customers' online banking implementations. About a
year ago, I moved to the training organization. Today, I'm responsible for
bringing new hires up to speed on our code-generated, contract-first method
for developing service-oriented Web applications.
Q. You've been involved with some computer science training with High School
students. How did that come about and how did it pan out?
A. The AP computer science teacher at a local high school approached
Corillian's CTO, Chris Brooks, and asked if
any of Corillian's employees would be willing to come talk to his students.
Three developers -- Patrick Cauldwell,
Scott
Hanselman and I -- gave presentations, and several female employees
participated in a "Women in Technology" forum designed to encourage young
women to consider careers in technology.
I talked about how to create a "skinnable" Windows Forms UI and the kids
seemed to enjoy it. But I only had about 45 minutes, so there was no time
for them to participate. The teacher has asked us to come back next year and
help him integrate our content into his lesson plan, so we can do a kickoff
presentation, then the students can do some hands-on work in class, and
finally we can come back and review their work. I'm looking forward to it!
Through the INETA Speakers Bureau, you can have Phil speak at YOUR user group!
Request your speaker today.
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Day of .NET - A Powerful Force! |
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A powerful force -- that is the result of joining three INETA user groups from Southeast Michigan and Northwest Ohio into a "Day of .NET" conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. User group leaders and volunteers coordinated and presented this free event focused on a wide variety of .NET topics to benefit their user group members.
Quick facts:
- Over 140 members attended
- 20 sessions in 4 separate tracks chocked full of .NET related topics
- 25 corporate sponsors provided funding and swag
- Over $40,000 in books and software offered as door prizes
- 16 speakers comprised of area user group leaders, MVP's, RD's, INETA speakers, Authors, and a Microsoft Developer Evangelist
The organizers, Josh Holmes, John Hopkins, and Jason Follas -- all INETA user group leaders, and their support team arrived early to unload the many carloads of supplies and set up the venue. The event kicked off at 8:00 a.m. with a continental breakfast. The sessions began at 9:00 a.m. and lasted until 5:15 p.m., with a pizza lunch break.
To help connect attendees with one of the eight nearby INETA user groups for follow-up membership, a user group booth provided a sign-up application.
Throughout the day, the event staff enaged in ad-hoc interviews with attendees and received very positive feedback, such as:
- "I'm definitely coming again next year!"
- "This is way better than what I was expecting!"
- "I can't believe that this is a free event!"
"A huge success" - the only way to describe the day. It was great to see the level of commitment from volunteers, the interest of corporate sponsors, and the great turnout from the community.
If you are interested in holding a Day of .NET, "best practices" will soon be available through your INETA Membership Manager. Please visit the DayofDotNet.org web site to learn more about this event and those involved.
Greg Huber, Northwest Ohio .NET User Group Chairman, MVP, INETA Membership Manager - Great Lakes; and
Jason Follas, Northwest Ohio .NET User Group President
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April Winners Announced - INETA Membership Survey Sweepstakes |
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$100 to Iowa .NET User Group, Des Moines, IA, USA
and $50 to Nick Parker
$100 to Lethbridge Dot Net User Group, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
and $50 to Fred Gravel
$100 to New England Visual Basic Professional User Group, Waltham, MA, USA
and $50 to Andrew Novick
plus to INETA Membership Manager - New England,
Territory: CT, NJ, NY, MA, RI, ME, NH, VT
$50 to Andy Beaulieu
Once again we are very excited to bring you the second awards in our INETA monthly membership survey sweepstakes. Congratulations to each of the above winners who won a $100 or a $50 USD gift card each.
Your INETA user group is automatically entered when your INETA User Group Leader or Representative submits your INETA monthly user group survey.
Your INETA user group can't win unless your INETA User Group Leader or Representative plays! Make sure your INETA monthly user group survey is submitted - it's easy and just takes a minute! Don't loose your chance at winning!
These surveys are vital for our continued support from Microsoft and our other sponsors. We read each survey, including your comments, so please submit yours monthly.
For questions or comments, our Membership Managers are always there to assist you with any INETA membership questions!
Watch for future announcements to see if your user group is a sweepstakes winner!
Chris Wallace, Vice President - Membership, INETA NorAm chris.wallace@ineta.org
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Birds of a Feather Flock to Boston for TechEd |
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INETA is co-chairing the Birds of a Feather track at TechEd 2006, sharing the duties with our sister organization, Culminis, on the IT Professional side of the house. As the two premier user group associations for Microsoft technologies, we bring the community face to TechEd. And you can get involved, help us, and help INETA in four different ways!
If you haven't been to one, a Birds of a Feather session is an open discussion lead by a moderator. They are not presentations, there are no projectors. Unlike the keynotes and breakout session, unlike everything else at TechEd, Birds of a Feather sessions are about people talking with people - connecting, sharing, networking, and creating community. It's that simple, and that's what we do best.
The BoFs are of, by, and for the community, which is a critical part of their success. Together the INETA and Culminis BoF chairs solicit session proposals - the public votes on sessions they want to attend - and then we select, schedule, publicize and run the Birds of a Feather sessions. From beginning to end, the BoFs belong to the community.
Building on our success of the past several years, conference sponsor Microsoft has decided to dramatically increase the visibility and integration of the Birds of a Feather session into the TechEd conference. First, Tuesday evening, June 13, is an All-BoF Night from 6:00 to 10:00 PM, complete with pizza, wings, and your favorite beverages. The evening will feature eight concurrent sessions in each of three timeslots. With two dozen topics to choose from, you are bound to find several that interest you. Come early, stay late. Make an evening of it.
Second, by popular request, Birds of a Feather sessions will also run during the daytime, Tuesday through Friday, June 13 - 16, parallel with the conference breakout sessions. We are delighted to see Microsoft conference directors experimenting with the form of BoFs, and we're excited to see how these two innovations work. This represents a substantial increase in investment of time, money, and space in the BoFs, and that reflects well on the quality job that we've done at past conferences.
Okay, so I said there are four ways you can get involved and help make the Birds of a Feather sessions a success at TechEd. Here they are.
1. Get the word out. Blog about the BoFs, post about them in forums, tell all your friends, shout it to the world. You can find the complete list of BoF sessions in the TechEd Session Catalogz, select "Birds of a Feather" for session type.
2. Volunteer. You can lend a hand. As a BoF host, you keep the session on time, make some introductions, and fetch help in case something isn't just right. It's a simple job, particularly for a session you already plan to attend, and I can't overstate the value of having a host. And we have some general assistance positions to help keep everything running smoothly. Contact our volunteer coordinator, Nancy Mesquita, to sign up today.
3. Participate. We've got a stellar lineup of BoF sessions this year. If you've never managed to fit a BoF into your conference schedule in past years, you'll find new opportunities with our this year's schedule. And when you get to the BoFs, join in the conversation. It's amazing what happens when someone asks an interesting question.
4. Feedback. Past feedback has gone a long way to shape this year's Birds of a Feather sessions, so make your voice heard this time around. We are eager to hear what you think of the innovations, the sessions, the moderators, the facilities, whatever is on your mind. Let us know what was good, what was not, and how it can be better. We're all ears.
Birds of a feather really do flock together! See you in Boston!
Stuart Celarier
Birds of a Feather track co-chair, TechEd 2006
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Get the 2007 Microsoft Office System Beta! |
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Preview the 2007 Microsoft Office System Beta to experience the new features and functionality and to position yourself to drive IT decision making.
Click here to get the 2007 Microsoft Office System Beta.
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From the Editor |
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The New INETA Logo and Slogan
On June 1st INETA North America will officially launch our new logo found in the header of this newsletter and the slogan, "The Face of .NET" as part of a broad marketing effort which is a companion to our new Sponsorship Program. The new INETA logo and slogan encompass our core ideal and focus of bringing software developers together in person, face-to-face, in user group meetings as well as other regional, national, and worldwide events.
You will see the logo incorporated into new specialized Speakers Bureau logos and a new slide template for INETA speaker presentations. Each INETA sponsor will be provided with a logo package representing their level of sponsorship. In addition, user groups will have a new logo to display on their web sites which Chris Wallace, VP Membership, will announce along with additional information on Membership in the July newsletter.
So watch for the INETA logo and remember it represents your peers in the community volunteering time to benefit us all!
The New INETA North America Sponsorship Program
Also on June 1st INETA North America is launching an extensive new Sponsorship Program aimed at raising funds to expand and improve services for our members. Over the past six months the INETA NorAm Sponsorship Team, led by Sponsorship Director Pat Tormey, has designed a great program with many options for sponsorship at a variety of levels. In the four years since our founding, INETA has grown tremendously and to deliver programs and services to our members requires substantial funding and volunteer time. During the past year the INETA NorAm Board of Directors has targeted key areas for expansion and growth to better serve our members. As part of that strategic analysis it became evident we needed to establish a substantial and diverse sponsor base.
The new Sponsorship Program consists of four main levels of sponsorship (Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze) and a wide range of services from which a custom sponsorship program is designed for each sponsor. The services available to sponsors focus on INETA's key strength of providing the opportunity to reach a targeted audience of software developers focused on Microsoft technologies.
If you, or someone you know, would like more details please contact us. Stop by the INETA booth at TechEd to see the new Sponsor Packet with all the details.
A Call for Volunteers
Are you involved in your local user group? Do you enjoy working with other volunteers? INETA needs you! Send an email to
Nancy Mesquita
and tell her you want to get involved!
Scott Spradlin, Vice President - Marketing, INETA NorAm scott.spradlin@ineta.org
Archived newsletters are available on the INETA website at
www.ineta.org/newsletters.
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President's Note
