Growing a .NET Meetup Group with Blake Helms and Robb Schiefer
Are user groups obsolete? Carl and Richard talk to Blake Helms and Robb Schiefer about their experiences starting and growing a .NET Meetup Group in Birmingham, Alabama. Modernizing on the user group with Meetup doesn't change the fundamentals - it takes dedicated volunteers, a good location, great speakers and consistency to make a group grow. Are meetups still worth your time? Definitely! The conversation turns to the power of networking: Not TCP/IP, but actually meeting and talking with people that share a common interest. If there's a Meetup group in your area, go to it! If not, start one - Blake and Robb have great suggestions on getting started!
Guests:
Blake Helms
Blake Helms is an Agile Development Manager for EBSCO Industries, a global company with businesses in a range of industries including Information Services, Publishing and Digital Media, Outdoor Products, Real Estate, Manufacturing and Distribution, and Business Services, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. There he is responsible for several core business applications and has been a driver for software craftsmanship and creating a culture that promotes mentorship and continuous improvement. Blake is incredibly passionate about technology in all areas from writing code for work, to audio/video production for his church to automating his home.
Robb Schiefer
Robb Schiefer has been learning and using .NET since 2002. He has worked for small and large companies in various roles ranging from junior developer to architect to director of engineering. He is also a Microsoft MVP, blogger, speaker and co-founder of the Birmingham .NET Meetup. He loves building great team culture, championing Devops, delivering value to customers and helping others learn.
Links:
- Alexa Prize http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2016/09/alexa-fund-conversational-ai.html
- .NET Meetups http://www.meetup.com/topics/dotnet/
- .NET Community https://www.microsoft.com/net/community
- Humanitarian Toolbox http://www.htbox.org/
- dotnetConf http://www.dotnetconf.net/
- LiveCoding.tv https://www.livecoding.tv/