What are the ingredients of a great off-line tech group

Question

For a long while i've been toying with the idea of creating a regional tech group. The aim is to create a gathering which will help teach developers about moving from good to great. I intend to have people talk about vendor independent technologies, practice and processes, with a Q&A session etc.

Earlier in the year I ran two events, which were reasonably well attended but didn't quite live up to my vision. In word they weren't the geek feast i envisaged.

So I was wondering what ingredients you think would make up a good off-line tech group?

p.s. we had beer :)

Answer 1

In my experience - as a member of quite active Slovenian Delphi community - the online presence comes before anything else. If you prepare a nice place to spend some time together online (just like Stack Overflow is!), then the people will come.

When they are comfortable with each other online, you may start thinking about real life events. In my experience, only about one tenth of active members visit real life events.

Oh, and in case of the Delphi-SI community, real life events consist of bear (preferably localy-brewn) and pizza.

Answer 2

I run a .Net User Group - this is right up my alley.

I concentrate on these key concepts:

• Membership/Outreach - smart growth, not just growth
• Content - mix it up, keep it interesting, grow your local talent
• Rewards/Comforts - swag, beer, and pizza if possible, but make sure everybody walks away with something tangible after every meeting.
• Venue/Scheduling - this is the toughest for me. Borrow a room that seats enough people, and has a projector/screen, doesn't mind evening hours, and oh yeah - wi-fi would be nice.

We've been active for almost 3 years, and grown from an initial number of 12 to a base of over 100, Microsoft-oriented developers and enthusiasts, in a region of Florida where the largest city isn't even 100K in pop. fulltime.

I wouldn't give it up for anything.