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Reflecting on User Group Meetings

March 9, 2010 by 8 Comments

I am on my way to a user group meeting. I have been to many of these over the years. User groups vary in size and the structure of their meetings. Generally they are structured on the premise of providing information and training to their user base. Some user groups do a better job at this than other do. Does this picture look familiar.? Have you ever felt like this during a session or several sessions?

Boring Seminar.jpg

So what is your pan for attending the next user group meeting for one of your agency’s products?

  • Who will attend?
  • What sessions will each person be attending?
  • How will information learned at the meeting be shared with the rest of the agency?

I would like your feed back on how your agency would answer these questions. I would also like to hear what you and your agency expect your user group to do for you.

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  • It is a good question to ask: Why am I going to this event? What can I give and what can I get?
    — Charles Wasilewski

    My recent post On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan, Episode 15: Moore’s Law on Steroids

  • Michael Trouillon

    Pat: I agree with you. Part of the problem is that the decision makers at the agency get the announcement and quite often do not know who to send.

    Back when I was with my local UG and responsible for the announcements, I put "who should attend" right on the announcement. This way they at least had a clue who the target audience was.

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  • I agree that there should be a plan for attendees’ investment of time and agency money in attending a User Group meeting. When representing an agency I have always returned and formally shared pertinent information with management and IT staff -many time followed by training for other staff. Most people I talk to who attend return to agencies keeping most new information to themselves-if that! I encourage agency owners to have a plan for how the information will be shared by attendees. It is definitely a great investment-if there’s a plan! See AMS users in a few weeks in Nashville!

    • Alisa, thanks for the great feedback. I find it so dis-heartening when people go to UG meetings and get nothing out of it or do and don't share. Have a great meeting in Nashville.
      My recent post Reflecting on User Group Meetings