The first community night was held at Microsoft this evening, with multiple user groups hosting their events over two time slots. The obligatory SharePint and SharePizza were served between sessions as usual.

While I must admit I was hesitant at first at this change to the standard IW schedule – I think it actually went down very well! Nice one Ruari.  We got to meet other user group members, including the SQL and gaming communities, where the developer who built the first game for the Windows Mobile 7 phone presented.

My only concern – which is nothing new anyway, so no reflection on the evening’s proceedings – was that there is still no business representation.  In a room full of people, there were 3, including me.  Not good!

To all the developers, IT Pros and couple of IT Managers that were there – I really appeal to you to please bring one business user along each to the next event.  They are crucial to the success of the all the hard work you do, we need them.

The focus tonight was a summary of sessions we attended at TechEd. My slidedeck is on Slideshare.  I’d appreciate any feedback on my speaking skills this evening, capture your anonymous comments on Betterme.

If you have run a user group, or know of one in SA, please ask them to send me the details.  I’m compiling a list on my website so we can have some really cool flyers printed for next year for us all. Lets Collaborate is sponsoring.

See you for the Christmas closing party on 14 Dec!!  Diarise it now. Register on Information Worker to stay informed of the details.

PS : In case you didn’t know, I’m a team lead at IW again. 😉  And remember, in future, IW will be held on a Tuesday night.