Re: Who and/or What Next?

> I would like more of hands on sessions and it need not be Speaker has to
> demonstrate. Rather, more of lab session where we take up some small problem
> in particular technology and do hands on exercise so that we get a feel and
> have better chance to learn over presentation.
>
>
>
> Also, we should be able to get some invitations from local charity groups to
> seek help in java related technology to implement tasks and we help them.
> What do we get? We get a kick to use latest & greatest technologies which we
> don’t get to use at work.
>
>
>
> Thanx & Regards,
>
>
>
> Nag Kakolla
>
> 404-978-8066
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Burr Sutter [mailto:burrsutter@...]
> Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 8:57 AM
> To: General AJUG membership forum (100-200 messages/month)
> Subject: [ajug-members] Who and/or What Next?
>
>
>
> Hello AJUG'ers,
>
> It is about that time of year to ask...who and what.  Who would be a great
> speaker to bring to Atlanta? and/or What topics would you like to see
> covered at our 3rd Tuesday night meetings?
>
> Also, if there is another "style" of event that you think would be helpful
> please let the rest of us know.
>
> Here are some examples of different types of events:
> - DevNexus happens during the working week - during the day time: this
> encourages managers to send their employees and we had many  teams show up
> at DevNexus 2009.  The feedback has been very strong and we made our revenue
> goals (break even) so look for this event to be back in 2010.
> - NFJS happens on weekends - this encourages the contractors/consultants to
> come out so they don't miss billable time
> - Lunches - we have run many lunch bunch type of events inviting the most
> senior techies in the Atlanta area, no specific agenda, just hardcore
> techies discussing best practices, emerging technologies, solutions to
> political problems.  We found that senior architects, team leads, CTOs,
> consultants can normally take a 1.5 to 2 hour lunch (if they are in town and
> not traveling)
> - Open space meetings - we held one of these in Summer of 2007 (Barry
> Hawkins organized) - several of the attendees really enjoyed this type of
> session but it is very different.  I've been asked to bring this back.  The
> basic idea of an open space meeting is that it has no agenda, no speaker, no
> slideshow with LCD projector - it has open areas, poster paper on easels,
> markers and an overall theme, with a coordinator keeping things flowing.
> This is one of the least costly events.
> - Movie theater meetings: Microsoft sometimes has day time (1pm to 5pm)
> meetings at the Regal Hollywood theater off I-85, the "pros" are a really
> large screen & stadium seating with popcorn, the "cons" are rooms are not
> shaped for networking, discussions, lunch is a little more challenging, only
> cost effective when you hit the 200+ attende mark.  We did something like
> this at Atlanta Station where James Gosling came to speak and we watched
> Talladega Nights a three years ago.
> - Bring your laptop Hands-on events: this is often requested but very
> challenging to organize.  A couple of years ago we had a "bring your laptop"
> sub-group but it ran out of gas.  The difficulty is that the instructor must
> spend many more hours preparing to give a hands-on session vs a
> lecture/demonstration.  I would guess that the difference is around 500%
> increase in workload on the instructor (I've been performing both types of
> sessions over the last 17 years).  So this is challenging, with that said,
> we do have some people in the group who are "teachers" and would be willing
> to teach for 1 to 2 hours on JSF, Seam, Spring, Hibernate, Flex, etc.
>
> What else?  Who else?
>
> Burr
>
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