So who's heard of Andy Sernovitz? Here is as good a place as any to find out more about him - http://andysernovitz.com/. Andy is one of the key movers and shakers in the hot area of social media, and he will be hosting a "Fireside chat" later this month (the 26th of January) on "Word of Mouth" marketing.
MARKETING??????
Well, if you run a user group, how do you attract new members, tell people about your group, make your members feel that they are doing something that is appreciated? If you are deeply technical and spend your time working on the hard technical challenges of the next "game-changing" technology, how do you get from "guy with a cool idea" to "guy with a cool 300ft yacht"? If you are one of the unfortunate 10% without a job, how do you make sure you aren't going to be one of the 5% when the economy recovers eventually?
To sign up for this or any of the other chats in the series (or to watch previously recorded ones), go to http://chats.msugss.com. Oh, and there are other chats this month as well -
When I was at TechEd Berlin in November I sat down with Tomislav Bronzin from INETA and Marcos Nogueira from GITCA (Culminis) to talk about their user group associations, as well as taking part in a discussion on what motivates people to become user group leaders. You can find videos of each of these online: -
We recently started running a series of Live Meeting sessions where senior Microsoft executives talk about the areas they are working on and where you get the opportunity to pose questions to them. You can pre-submit your questions when you register or ask them live during the chat. The chats are specifically designed with the user group leader and members in mind, together with other technical community experts. Each is an hour in length, repeated at different times of day so you don’t need to attend at 3:00am just because you don't happen to live in Redmond. Upcoming events include Microsoft executives from Windows, Office, Developer Tools, Exchange/OCS, Microsoft Research, Microsoft IT and more. In addition, we'd love to hear from you with suggestions as to who you would to hear from.
If you would like to register for any fire side chat, please go to http://ug.gitca.org/sites/FireSideChats and click on the register link. You can also find the up to date list of Fire Side Chats at the site, as well as a link to a survey so you can give us feedback.
Here are the Fire Side Chats we have scheduled for the remainder of 2009: -
You can find more details on each of these (and register) at http://ug.gitca.org/sites/FireSideChats - I hope you will join us!
We've just started shipping "User Group Leader Assistance Kits" to user group leaders in the USA. We will be offering these kits to user group leaders in the rest of world starting 1st December. Any user group leader who is registered with UGSS (http://www.usergroupsupportservices.com or http://www.msugss.com) will be able to order a kit. There is quite a lot of stuff in these kits, and we hope that you will find them to be useful. If you order one - they are free by the way- we would love to know what you think and what we can do to make them better in the future. Here is a list of some of the things in the kit: -
A few things about the way these kits are provided -
We are going to be working on a number of global programs over the year in support of the User Group community, and it’s very important that we get as much input as possible from you as to the right way to approach each program. To this end, we have set up a number of “steering groups” including Microsoft, Culminis, INETA, PASS representatives, together with anyone else the group thinks can contribute. And we are looking for volunteers…..
A SharePoint site has been set up at http://ug.culminis.com/sites/microsoft (Yes, it’s a Culminis hosted SharePoint site). The first time you go to the site, you will see a list of projects and a “Volunteer to join a working party….” link. Just click on the link, tell us what you would like to get involved with, and unless we are already swamped with volunteers you’ll get access to the appropriate sub-sites.
Here are the projects currently running or in plan: -
1) Country Community Councils. Country Community Councils are an idea which started earlier in 2009 with the first council being in India. They have had tremendous success, including significant successes at Tech Ed India and with a “Tech Ed on the road” event which lasted a whole month, visiting 21 user groups across India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Several other CCCs have also started, and the aim is to ensure that there is the best possible connection and interaction between the different community groups within a region.
2) User Group Leader Kits. We are planning to send a kit to every user group leader who registers with UGSS each year. These kits will contain anything we can identify as being of value to the user group leaders (that we can afford and is reasonable to ship worldwide!). It’s likely that some Microsoft subsidiaries may want to add local content to the kits as they go out, there may be the possibility of localizing some of the content, and there is certainly the opportunity to include content from other sources, for example INETA, Culminis, PASS, perhaps Microsoft Partners etc. As each leader will only get one kit a year, we will also need to think about how to “add” content part way through the year. In most cases, this will be as online content that can be downloaded. The current state of this project is that we are building a list of potential content to put in the kits, and your input would be very much appreciated.
3) UGSS web site review and development. A separate email has already been sent to selected groups and individuals, but the purpose of this steering group is to provide input into the design of the UGSS web site as changes and improvements are made over the year. It will be focusing on identified and new pain points, feature prioritization, design review and system testing. There is a significant workload here, but if you didn’t get a direct invitation and want to participate, please volunteer as soon as possible.
4) Communications. We want to get a consistent process for communications to take place between Microsoft, the User Group organizations and the community. Some of the things we will be looking at here include (a) A mechanism for the User Group organizations to submit items for possible inclusion in TechNet and MSDN flash, (b) a way for Microsoft to “offer” items to the User Group organizations which they can take (or not!) and use in their newsletters etc. (c) a way of providing metrics on both of these, so everyone knows what is being published, how much it’s being read, and if it’s the right content or not.
5) Recognition. There are a number of different programs out there already, some working very well. Some are global, some are local. This working group will map the significant programs, build a framework where these can work together to everyone’s best advantage, and possibly promote the best of the best with global cross organization recognition.
6) “Virtual Events”. This actually covers several programs each of which are based on video and conference calls.
a. Technical Videos – A set of “How to” videos covering technical topics of value to User Group Leaders – for example, how to make the best possible use of LiveMeeting.
b. Community Videos – A set of “By the Community for the Community” videos, where we identify the best user group leader at recruiting members, for example, and get them to explain their best practice so that other leaders can learn from them.
c. Professional Videos – We intend to identify the world class leaders in areas of value to User Group leaders and produce videos on topics such as “Extending your user group through social media”.
d. Fireside Chats – These will be occasional virtual meetings with key Microsoft leaders which will be invite only for user group leaders. There won’t be much of an agenda, it’s more an opportunity for the leaders to ask questions. Recordings and transcripts will then be made available to the leaders for use in their meetings.
7) Content. During the year we will be producing content specifically for user groups. Rather than us producing the content we think you want, we’d like you to get involved all the way through the content production cycle – from prioritizing what we create, through reviews as the content is developed and through to feedback as it gets published.
8) Web Site and tool development. We will be helping Culminis develop the next version of their web site, hopefully using some cool new technology and hopefully pushing the boundaries of community a little. Of course, this is the Culminis web site, and ownership will be with Culminis, but there are obvious opportunities for others to help here and for everyone to benefit.
9) And more … During the year, additional opportunities to work together will come up – hopefully some of them will be because of ideas these steering groups will have.
Just to repeat – if you are interested in taking part in steering committees on any of the above, just go to http://ug.culminis.com/sites/microsoft, click on the “Volunteer to join a working party….” And then when you get access go to the sub-site(s) for that committee and contribute away!
Many Thanks,
Graham
I’m happy to announce that we’ve just launched 4 brand new learning tracks on Ramp Up* (www.MyRampUp.com):
1. Web Development with ASP.NET
2. Move from ASP to ASP.NET
3. Move from PHP to ASP.NET
4. Develop Windows Mobile 6 Applications
User Group Support Services has posted new Developer and IT Pro content for you to use at your user group events! Below are the new titles for the month of May:
Developer Content:
IT Pro Content:
Please visit the Event Content tab at www.ugss.codezone.com for more details. Our content library is growing… check in monthly to see what’s new!
Microsoft is on track to release the first Technology Preview for Project “Madison” in H2 2009. A select group of customers will deploy a prototype MPP data warehouse on Madison. Download the first Project "Madison" data sheet from here, and view the on demand webinar, "An Early Look at Kilimanjaro and Madison” here.
In tough times, the good will survive, but only the best will Thrive! Are you thriving? Visit the Thrive site and learn how to enhance your technical skills, advance your career, and elevate IT as the business leader. These strategies and skills will not only help you succeed now, but place you in a position to excel during the brighter times ahead. Now is the ideal time to rise to the top. Seize the moment - find out how YOU can Thrive at the Thrive site!
There is now a new IT Management Community area on TechNet which IT Managers should find really useful. Amongst many other things, you can find: -
.
Join the TechNet Events team for an interop roadshow that will help you integrate your heterogeneous IT environment. This 4 hour FREE event will include sessions on: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Interop with Linux and OS X, Running OSS on Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 and PHP Web Application Infrastructure. For a more detailed agenda and to register visit www.technetevents.com/interop.
Location City
Event Start Date/Time
Event End Date/Time
Alpharetta
28-Apr-2009 08:30 AM
28-Apr-2009 12:30 PM
New York
30-Apr-2009 08:30 AM
30-Apr-2009 12:30 PM
Waltham,
05-May-2009 08:30 AM
05-May-2009 12:30 PM
Downers Grove
06-May-2009 08:30 AM
06-May-2009 12:30 PM
Chicago
07-May-2009 08:30 AM
07-May-2009 12:30 PM
Mountain View
04-Jun-2009 08:30 AM
04-Jun-2009 12:30 PM
Phoenix
09-Jun-2009 08:30 AM
09-Jun-2009 12:30 PM
Bellevue
11-Jun-2009 08:30 AM
11-Jun-2009 12:30 PM
IT professionals and developers who utilize EPM solutions and Project are invited to attend the Microsoft Project 2009 conference. We've extended our early bird rate to Culminis & INETA – register now for just $699. Visit http://www.msprojectconference.com/ and use code CnIPC09mL, limited time offer through June 15th. (You must be a member of a Culminis or INETA user group to use this code)
Our new IT Strategy and Business Alignment track is specially designed to help IT Managers find efficiencies in productivity and cost from Microsoft experts and industry analysts like Art Wittmann, Managing Director of Information Week Analytics. Dive deep into product roadmaps for Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Infrastructure Management and more. Register by April 12 using the URL below, and save $100 on the full conference fee.
Tech-Ed NA 2009
NEW! Career Assist Package - up to 90% off the usual price for one Microsoft Official E-Learning Collection, when you register for Second Shot!
In the real world, you might need more than one chance at certification. With Second Shot, if you do not pass a Microsoft IT, Developer or Dynamics certification exam on your first try, you can retake the exam for free. Academic exams are still only $60! New! Until June 30th 2009, if you register for Second Shot, you get any Microsoft E-Learning Collection for just US$35 (typically priced up to US$349) - up to 90% off!
There's a limit of one discounted E-Learning Collection per customer, and once you've activated yours, it will only be available for 90 days.
Whether you're looking to start or accelerate your career, become indispensible in your current role, or build your skills to get into the technical workforce, this is a great way to maximize your certification and training budget.
Sign up for the Second Shot offer today.
Have you ever considered taking a certification exam? Here's your chance to practice, in a very fun way. Choose an avatar, select your expertise, and pit yourself against a worldwide community in a quest for Tech IQ supremacy, a top spot on the leaderboard-and ultimate bragging rights! "Are You Certifiable?!?" Find out today at: http://www.areyoucertifiable.com/
SQL Server 2008 has launched the new Migration Solution Center. This site provides customers with prescriptive guidance and a clear process for executing successful migrations or upsizing your existing databases to SQL Server.
On this site, the freely downloadable SQL Server Migration Assistants (SSMAs) reduce the efforts required to move databases from Access, Oracle, and Sybase to SQL Server. Download these tools now and use them to perform assessments, move data and schema, and automate the process of database migrations to SQL Server.
Ramp Up (www.MyRampUp.com) has just launched SharePoint for Developers - Part 2I! The easy-to-access content (provided by subject-matter gurus) teaches the important skills in a guided path, making the learning process easier and more efficient.
Are you going to Tech.Ed Los Angeles in May?
Together with the Microsoft team, Culminis and INETA have been putting in massive amounts of work to make sure that there are useful and exciting things for you to do at the event as user group members. If you are going, there are meetings, parties, competitions, sessions, events and more for you to take part in and to build and renew your user group contents. If you aren't attending, there are still going to be all sorts of ways you can take part in Tech.Ed virtually. Here are just some examples of the things going on this year: -
Birds of a Feather
Birds of a Feather sessions are open discussions on developer and IT topics of mutual interest to Tech·Ed attendees. They give you the opportunity to meet with other attendees with similar interests and challenges and to have useful dialog with them about the issues that really affect you in your daily life. These sessions are managed by your user group organizations and run by third party experts. They aren't PowerPoint or even demo driven; they are intended to encourage everyone there to fully contribute. These 36 sessions are picked from suggestions made by the Tech.Ed attendees and are chosen by the Culminis and INETA team. Last year they received really excellent review scores, so attending some of the Birds of a Feather sessions is likely to be a great use of your time.
Community Lounge
Culminis and INETA both have booths in the community lounge, and although I can't tell you everything that they are planning (got to keep a few surprises!) here are few examples: -
Social Media
We know that in these tough economic times it's not possible for everyone to go to Tech.Ed. So we are going to do what we can to bring Tech.Ed to you. We will be blogging, twittering, posting pictures and videos, basically doing all we can to bring you as much of the flavor of Tech.Ed as we can. We will let you know where to go for the user group connection next month, but I'm hoping that this will be almost as good as actually being there. For the overall Tech.Ed event, you can go to:-
http://twitter.com/teched09
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=35686357121
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TechEd-North-America/52931888483%23
Community Night
The main social event of Tech.Ed is completely community focused. There will be so much going on during the community party it's hard to know where to start, but:-
User Group Meeting
Although we can't announce details yet, we are working with some of the local Los Angeles user groups so that there is a user group meeting close to the center that the Tech.Ed attendees can attend. This will be a great opportunity for people who haven't been part of the user group community to experience a meeting for themselves. If you are going to be at Tech.Ed, please do go along to this meeting and add your support.
Microsoft Press has developed a virtual library for IT professionals, developers and information workers who want to learn about Microsoft products and related technologies. And we want to share it with the INETA user group members. To learn more about the E-Reference Library, please click here (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/books/ereference/ITpro/). You can also watch the demo.
The IT Pro and Developer Libraries
Culminis members are entitled to 25% discount on the 12-month subscription of the IT Professional Library. Follow the link http://www.microsoft.com/learning/books/ereference/ITpro/ to order and apply the discount code EREFPROC.
INETA members are entitled to 25% discount on the 12-month subscription of the Developer Library. Follow the link http://www.microsoft.com/learning/books/ereference/dev/ to order and apply the discount code EREFDEVC.
Are you an active member of the IT systems management community, or want to find out how to become more active?
Are you interested in System Center products and solutions?
Find out more at the System Center Community Lounge at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas April 27th – May 1st 2009, where we will be presenting community programs and resources offered or supported by the Microsoft System Center team, and introducing some important new ones.
The Community Lounge will be located in the registration area. Stop on by and find out what types of resources we are developing to support user groups, influencers, and the community at large.
For more information on the Community Lounge at this year’s MMS—or any of our community initiatives—please contact us at scnetsup@microsoft.com.
The Microsoft System Center team is pleased to announce the creation of the System Center Influencers Program. With this program user group leads and user group members will be able to:
v Access key content: Get access to the latest System Center technical training content to help you enhance your expertise. This also includes exclusive user group session content that you can use/present at your user group sessions.
v Meet experts and peers in the community: Stay connected with System Center -focused events, or let others know about your upcoming events. You can register and find events, as well as request speakers with domain expertise for upcoming meetings.
v Grow in influence: Learn about new opportunities to lead your community on and offline, find out about other opportunities to get more involved with Microsoft.
If you are interested, let us know by sending us a quick email to scnetsup@microsoft.com.
User Group Support Services has posted new Developer and IT Pro content for you to use at your user group events! Below are the new titles for the month of March:
DEVSQL-201 Building Applications with SQL Server 2008DEVMOB-200 Developing for Windows Mobile Devices
ADD-319 Managing Windows Server 2008 Using Server Manager SRV-303 Monitoring Windows Server Systems SRV-304 Managing Windows Server Systems for Midsize Organizations
We just sent out the first 121 free TechNet Plus Direct subscriptions to members in Culminis, INETA and PASS user groups around the world. Each user group that is a member of any of these three associations is eligible for one subscription. This is a tremendous offer from the TechNet team, and I'd love to be able to get every user group to sign up for a free subscription. If you are the leader of a Culminis, INETA or PASS user group, check with your association for the details of how to do this - it's in the latest newsletter in most cases.
TechNet Plus Direct is a premium yearly subscription that offers access to a comprehensive set of resources and tools designed to help IT Professionals evaluate, deploy, and support Microsoft products. During the subscription year, the chosen user will have access to the following TechNet Plus Subscription Benefits: