Getting Ramped up for DevDays -- WHY do I do it????

With less than one week to go, DevDays is becoming more of a reality for me. I'm really looking forward to it.

Will I be presenting any sessions? Nope. Will I be attending any sessions? Nope. What the heck am I doing there? I'll be working an exhibition booth all day. Microsoft donated exhibition booths for INETA member user groups. So I have been coordinating an effort between 5 different user groups in Tennessee and Alabama to all come together and represent our groups in the booth.

It's a ton of fun, and it is a great opportunity to hang out with other user group leaders and see what they are doing with the .NET community in their area. Most importantly, it's a great opportunity to meet new people, and promote our groups and INETA. I worked a similar booth back in October at the Office Launch event in Nashville, TN. I met a great guy there who had not heard of INETA, and was interested in starting a .NET user group in his area. Since then he has started his group and he will be joining us in the booth next week. That makes it ALL worth the hard work. THAT is why I do it.

Some people can't understand why I would want to take a day off from work to pack up my car with TONS of stuff, leave out at 5:00 a.m., drive for 2 hours to unpack it all, and stand at a table all day. Then I get to pack it all back up, sit in rush hour traffic for about 1 1/2 hours, then finally get to the interstate and make the 2 hour drive home. Do we get paid for this? Nope. It's all for the love of our user groups. It's all about community building.