What's the best way to get speakers for my Users Group?

Question

We just started a .NET Users Group in Missoula, MT. It seems hard to get members to speak, but many people like to attend. What is the best way to encourage attenders to become speakers?

We usually have two 1-hour presentations per meeting.

Answer 1

Ask people directly. If you know that someone has something interesting they've been working on, or they have some specific or special knowledge that they could share, ask them to give a presentation about it. If someone has given a presentation at a conference recently, ask them to present it to the group. (Groups are also great practice for conferences.) A lot of people who would never volunteer to speak will do so with a bit of gentle nudging.

You can also get external speakers to come in. The same things apply. If someone who lives nearby (or might be traveling in the area) has given a conference presentation, published an interesting article, works on some cool system, etc., ask them to come and present. Offer them a free dinner for their trouble.

Answer 2

We had a series of mini-presentations (5-10 minutes maximum) all given back to back to take up a 2 hour session. The rule was that only people who were presenting were allowed to attend this special session.

It seemed to encourage more people to participate and present (smaller audience, only a very short presentation, audience members were likely to be more forgiving than a real audience).

Answer 3

Instead of 2 1-hour presentations try having a shorter one and a longer one. It makes it easier to get first-time presenters to have a go if they only have to present for 30 minutes. Our user-group also gives away prizes to speakers. A lot of vendors are pretty keen to support the community. Talk to RedGate and JetBrains for instance ;)

Answer 4

People who are afraid to give a longer talk can be convinced to give a very short talk. (Love the mini-presentations suggestion from pauldoo).

Once they've given shorter talks, some people will realise that it's not as scary as they thought and volunteer for more and more talks.

This happened to me. ;-)