Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Let the games begin....

Well I guess this has been a long time coming. And thanks to everyone for the warm welcome.

As Jonathan mentioned, one of my main responsibilities is overseeing the Adobe User Group Program. If you are not hooked into your local user group, you really should be. They are a tremendous resource for learning new skills, honing existing skills and keeping current on the latest and greatest from Adobe. If you are unsure if there is an Adobe UG in your area, please check out our handy UG locator at: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/usergroups/. If there is no UG in your immediate area, maybe it is time for you to start one!? If so, please feel free to drop me a line.

As also mentioned by Jonathan, I will be on the AIR Bus Tour all of next week, so if you are in DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia or Boston, plan on popping in to say hello. Early feedback from previous tour dates has been positively glowing! Additionally, I will be attending MAX in Chicago and will most likely be providing live updates from the conference via the blog for those of you unable to attend.

So, what can you expect to see from me in this space? A lot of the information that I make available to my user group managers would also be plenty valuable to the communities they serve, so expect to see that type of info frequently. Everything and anything as it pertains to the Adobe user communities will be fair game...information on user group events and meetings, special initiatives, technical content, as well as updates from adobe.com and Adobe Labs that folks may not have time to seek out on their own.

One great example of the type of info I will be surfacing is the fact that Adobe ColdFusion user groups worldwide are holding CF8 launch events in the month of August in support of our recent announcement regarding the immediate availability of CF8. Check the UG locator posted above to see if a CFUG near you is participating. These meetings will be a great resource for learning more about the latest CF release as well as provide an opportunity to meet and network with local like-minded professionals, win one of a kind CF schwag and maybe even walk away with a complimentary copy of CF8 Standard!

So thanks again to everyone for the hearty welcome and feel free to let me know via the comments section what type of information you would find valuable in this space.

One thing I can state in no uncertain terms is that the Adobe community absolutely rocks and it is a pleasure to work the leaders of these communities on a daily basis.

Thanks for listening (err, reading)...Ed

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great stuff Ed! I've managed the Connecticut ColdFusion group in Norwalk, CT for 2 years now, and it's been a great experience.

We've given away TONNES of goodies:
4 copies of Adobe Software Suites
1 copy of FlexBuilder 2 (w/ charting)
2 copies of CF8
Countless numbers of:
T-Shirts, Baseball caps, Water Bottles, USB fans, portable USB cell phone chargers, SIM card backup keychains, Mousepads, Travel Optical Mouse, Backpack, ColdFusion Books, Coffee Travel Mugs, and iPod mini

All sponsored by Adobe/MacroMedia.

For managers, there are other benefits - discounts to MAX, the Managers Summit, lots of pre-release information (NDA of course) and other goodies :-)

Regardless of whether you're a manager or a member of a user group, the greatest benefit is the knowledge sharing and listening to some really great speakers. "No man is an island", so they say, and for the measly sum of 1 hour a month, you will get a great benefit out of attending a User Group.

Want to start a group, and feel totally clueless about where to start? Not to worry, we have a secret weapon in Ed Sullivan!

The community of managers will help also, with presentations and advice.

Cheers,

David (www.cfugitives.com)

macwebdiva said...

Ed rocks!