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Steve McDougall
Steve McDougall

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Running a user group

The tech community is one of the most active communities for meeting outside of the work place, the carry on talking about what we do in the work place. It's crazy! As a group of individuals we look forward to these events, we mark them in our calendars and clear our schedules (sometimes).

This post is to highlight and celebrate those who take the time and make the effort to organise these events. We turn up, drink the beer and await our evenings entertainment. We do this without even thinking of all the work and effort that has been put in to make this event even possible.

As a user group organiser myself, I know how difficult it can be to get one of these simple 3 hour events put together. Not to mention never being the one to enjoy the talk, last one in the queue to get a slice of pizza, getting there early and leaving late. I spend a vast majority of my month begging speakers to do talks for free, and trying to find the best topics that my user group will enjoy. Countless hours each month go into this, all for a 3 hour session I cannot actively enjoy. I post on Twitter trying to get as many people aware of the amazing talks I've managed to get, all in the hopes of more RSVPs to the event.

All the blood, sweat and tears that go into an event to try and entertain as many people as possible, and then the night of the event. As a user group organiser I use the general rule of 20% of people who RSVP will not turn up, which is a hard pill to swallow. Plans change and people have lives, nobody can argue with this fact. However, the next time you RSVP to a meetup you have no real intention of attending, take a moment to think of all the hard work and effort that went into putting it on in the first place.

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