User Group Resources
Following Dave L’s blog about providing useful resources for the community I thought I would add some resources and comments that I think should help:
Firstly in the show Athena mentions the Microsoft Australia site that lists the user groups. I hadn’t been to the site for a while so I was pleasantly surprised when I went there and saw that it has a Windows Live Local map indicating the location of the user groups - very cool!
I don’t know where this will go, but the APAC sub of INETA has had a revamp (see http://apac.ineta.org). If you are running a user group make sure you are registered with INETA. In particular they are looking to do a community launch (which will hopefully tie in with what Microsoft Australia are doing this time around) for Vista/Office2007/.NETv3/Exchange.
Some other comments about getting started with a user group. One of the biggest difficulties we have experienced in Perth is the location of the events. Before you start a group, make sure you have a venue that can accommodate your needs and book it well in advance! Once sorted, the venue becomes one of the easiest things to deal with, but if not organised properly can be a continual headache.
As Athena mentions in her comments back to Dave it is vital to have a good working relationship with the local member of the DPE team at Microsoft. If you need an introduction, please feel free to contact an existing user group leader. In fact, I would highly recommend touching base with a couple of other group leaders as they are always more than happy to help out or even present if the opportunity arises.