Last night was simply fantastic on a number of different levels.
Lots of new faces. Lots of familiar faces. Thank you all for coming out.
Just lots of faces. Wow did we get packed last night. One “Dark Side” moment, but we’ll talk about that in a minute.
How…convenient…that a brewery debuting a new beer and breaking into the SE Michigan market was right there, too.
Loved that. Definitely going to hook up with those folks for a future event.
But let’s talk about everything else for a moment…
First off, the Dark Side moment…because let’s just go ahead and get that out of the way.
In case you missed the memo, a while back we published Don’t Be That Guy: Creepy Guy over at http://www.ITinTheD.com/93/creepy-guy/
I’m only gonna say this once: friggin’ read it. Learn it. Live it. Love it. We do not tolerate Creepy Guy. At all.
Ever.
Under any circumstances.
Because I had to explain this last night, I will go ahead and explain the rules of dealing with Creepy Guy in an open manner:
You are free to deal with Creepy Guy in any manner you see fit. If you want to slap Creepy Guy upside the head, do so. If you want to have some bizarre localized epileptic seizure and knee Creepy Guy in the junk, then we’ll all vouch for you and cover for you. If you want to pull Bob, Jeff or me aside and say “Creepy Guy – right there“, then we are more than happy to handle the situation for you.
You are empowered to deal with the situation any way that you see fit. This group has always been a safe harbor on many fronts – I’m a geek, and geeks (by and large) are not social creatures…and so this is a “safe” place for us to be social with each other. This group is supposed to be that for all that show up. That’s why it’s free and safe from sales pitches, agendas, and all the other nonsense that we ban from our group.
And we do ban people from our group, too. So let’s not let this happen again. This is your official “anonymous” call out, given that we’ve had a lot of new folks out there that may not know how we roll here.
There. Done with that topic. Let’s move on to brighter items.
Packed. Packed, packed, packed.
And yes, that’s a banner over there in the corner. Look at us, getting all organized and stuff.
Crazy talk.
Tons of new faces, lots of new companies, plenty of new recruiters…seriously, you would’ve almost thought it was a Pink Slip Party with how many recruiters we had walking around last night.
Which reminds me, as promised, if you’re looking, and you are a mobile developer, have skills with Oracle, or happen to be a .Net dev…drop me a note. There’s a swarm of companies looking to hire you.
Had a really good conversation with someone under the mistaken impression that we’re social media experts. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – we’re not. Everything we’ve done is completely trial and error (sometimes way more “error”…), but yes, we’re always more than happy to share our experiences and lessons learned. Probably ought to be a topic for a blog entry at some point…but later. Not today.
As I made my way around the room, I ran into some folks of a different flavor than we usually see at our events. Yet another step in the evolution of our group, I suppose. We’re starting to see more and more “product” based people show up. Not necessarily folks looking to sell there at the event (because they’ve read enough to know not to), but looking to expand their networks and get to know people in the industry so that at least their name gets out there and they start making connections. Solid. Very happy to help things happen in that manner.
Had quite a few conversations about our conference idea, too. Support is…well, it’s damned near overwhelming, is what it is.
Everyone is being so supportive, helpful, and I must have gotten abotu twenty different requests about “How can I volunteer?” or “How can I help?” or “How can our company help?” that I’m still kind of stunned.
Not stunned enough to not take them up on their offers though, and certainly not stunned enough to not remind you to get yourself over to http://www.ITinTheD.com/2969/poll-it-conference-in-detroit/ and chime in. We still need feedback. We still need your input in order to make this something that’ll be worth doing.
Because we’re going to do it…that much is clear. We have to, it’s needed. Now it’s just a matter of starting to figure out the “where” and “when” while we continue fleshing out the “what”.
We’ve also started hearing from other user groups, and other folks that either have had their own conference in the past, or were thinking about doing one, and would like to join forces (which is great! remember: Voltron) with us to make things happen. Absolutely we want to hear from you as well, and keep those coming in, too.
Okay, I think that’s enough rambling for one morning.
Thanks again to everyone for coming out last night…and we look forward to seeing you at future events!