David Mackies Blue Brain

Why Travel 6.5 hours round trip to hang out with SBSers

Wow last night I explained separately no less than 5 times why I made the trip to the SMBIT Professionals Sydney group well the Sydney SBS User Group which I find easier to remember, but such is life.

So for me it is about 6.5 hours in the Truck for a 3 hour meeting and it seems to surprise folk that I’m happy to do that. So let me explain my motivations for turning up and see if these are motivations for others or if I’m just nerdboi with too much time on my hands.

I have been involved with running In-Person Technical Communities in Canberra since 2004, when Wayne Small and David Allinson conned me into starting the Canberra SBS Users Group. It just happed that TechEd was in Canberra that year and I was all community’ d up. While the group was not a huge success and really only had around 10 punters on a really good month I think we had some fun and in the process learned a thing or two, for me some presenting and the realization that a Zero Hair cut is not a really good look for me.

Wanting to succeed at all costs and numbers seemed to be the measure, I broadened the scope of the group to include anything IT Pro to the ultimate unintentional exclusion of SBS. Well numbers improved and I personally learned a LOT about many technologies but as my family will attest if you want to teach and on really interesting technologies you chase the latest beta and talk about the things you think are cool, and it makes your month look a bit like this:

• Find something shiny
• Read every whitepaper or blog post (from softies) and learn all you can
• Start building VMs for the demos because it really is monthly show and tell
• Throw out all the VMs Friday night and rebuild the whole thing because you now know how crap the first demo’s were
• On Monday night realize you have no slide deck so stay up until 3am making one
• Notice you are shagged from last night and the weekend, take the day off to recover and rehearse
• Ha all fun

So in August last year I quit running the Canberra IT Pro User Group and it was taken over by a friend. They gave it away early this year for their own reasons.

So now I find myself without a group to go along to and have looked hard at what to do? Online….? Other communities

• SMBIT Professionals Sydney – Webcasted?
• Sydney Windows Mobile – Webcasted?
• Soon BIG – Webcasted?
• Canberra Security Interchange Group?? a
• Australian Computer Society Branch Forum?? a
• SMBIT Professionals Sydney in person? a

OK two local (Canberra) ticks but neither of these is really a peer group like the SMBIT Pro groups and I am willing to travel to get the networking component which I would not get from the Webcast. So what is better in person?

In the last year I have met / maintained a relationship with the following people all of whom have taught me something, given me a good idea or made me think I should deepen our focus on an area of practice or will teach me something of value moving forward (no pressure);

• Dean Calvert
• Henry Craven
• Stu Applegate
• Wayne Small
• David Allinson
• Robbie Upcroft
• Robert Crane
• Phil Patelis
• Jeff Alexander
• Ryan Spillane – Fuzzy
• Hilton Travis
• Mark Giles
• Alex Day (Giles)
• THE Susan Bradley
• Dana Epp
• Susanne Dansey – Just Last night
• There are many many more BUT this sample works for my purposes and I can easily explain the things I mean for each one, but I won’t here.

All of these people have been at live events, and the things that resonate the most of all is who they are or what they say. NOT because of a single presentation I have seen them give or anything other than spending short amounts of time with these folk.

There are exceptions to the in person rule and lets just say I’m not sure I want to be an SPF.

Now the International flavour of the SMB communities we participate in have different reach and different touch and where I started with this might not be where I end but…

I wanted to let people know why I have arranged my Tuesdays to accommodate the monthly trip and so I can have a Don’t F#ck With David Tuesday arvo at least twice a month (I’m not really deep and a regular whole Friday would not be productive).

It is about peer interaction and nothing else, I do not come to these events for the education, because it is my responsibility to myself to know all I can about our areas of focus. If we could make it so that we all sat around having a beer I’m sure I would get as much if not more out the group but not sure we would get the numbers for a monthly Beer O’clock (hard for me to sell to Libby too). In my view if you are expecting to be taught in a 1 Hour session at 100 – 200 Level then there will be gaps that you need to fill before selling anything people tell you on Tuesday night.

My other reason to link in with the Sydney group for me is:

1. The partnerships - we used to do quite a bit of local support for members of the Sydney group, and over time we don’t really do too much, I think this is to do with touch. While I want the revenue back because it is pre-sold work done for customers we didn’t need to find, and we get to solve problems and leave. It is kind of a pace change and a way to train our guys to do what we do well and that is be a partner to our clients and a true partner to our partners.
2. We have some clients in Sydney and don’t want to open a full office, we do want to sub some of the service delivery to partners but only to ones I know are good at the thing we want to sub. I already have some idea of who I would get to do what in some areas and the more I participate the better for me from a service delivery perspective.

So what have I stumbled around saying? I see no other single success measure to doing what we do in SMB than to network with folk who do what you do. They will extend your reach if you can be a true partner AND just talking will give you clues to be just like the thought leaders and they may not be who you think.

So actions for tomorrow:

1. Sign up to the SMB Pre-day at TechEd AU;
2. Sign up for the rest of TechEd while you are there. If you listened carefully to Robbie on Tuesday Night most of us are Generalists and TechEd will give you 300 Level sessions on lots of stuff you work with everyday, not to mention if you spend $1749 $1969 (TechEd Ticket Plus Discounted SMB Pre-Day Ticket) you will save $330 so you can say I bought it on sale. Ask your Partner it works for shoes AND golf clubs;
3. Commit to coming to every meeting for the rest of the year, if I can drive to Sydney you can come from the burbs;
4. Participate in my NEW Team New Blood, it is a cross between what I did last year, what Robbie is doing with the AU SBS MVPs and what Chris Rue did last year so here is my plan I’m going to sidle up to as many SBSers as I can in the Australian market and do something like these. The difference is that it will be ordinary SMB IT Pros.

Now why do a NEW Team New blood?? I was more than a little amazed by a brief conversation I had in the car park, about that girl I was chatting with earlier. I didn’t really think that the Community of the Yahoo Groups, SBS Shows and such were so far removed from the local punters experience of the community.

I was really surprised and given a list of the people I consider to be my extended family in differing extents, I think folk would be surprised about how anonymous so many of the SBS rock stars really are.

I want to shine a spot light on my local community and see how that builds a local network, so when I send you a questionnaire for your Dossier and capture a quick happy snap in my Blackjack be ready for some fun questions.