Re: Guest speakers/vendors
Re: Guest speakers/vendors
- Subject: Re: Guest speakers/vendors
- From: Deborah Shadovitz <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 01:03:49 -0700
[If you get this twice, I apologize. I sent from the wrong account.]
On Sunday, June 15, 2003, at 10:09 PM, Trish Huffman wrote:
>
Hey All
>
>
I am curious to to find out from other user groups what Mac-focused guest
>
speaker or companies (vendor reps) you have had present at one of your
>
meetings? How were you able to get them to come to your meeting?
>
>
Thanks!
>
Trish
>
>
Trish Huffman
>
Apple Ambassador, Triangle Macintosh User Group
Hi Trish.
Hi. Since you asked us to say who we are (a great idea), I'm co-meeting
coordinator of SGVMUG <
http://www.sgvmug.org>, founded and ran the Long
Beach, CA group for many years, and was a major director of the Los Angeles
group for 5 years.
I keep an eye out for LA area folks. I look for them at Macworld Expo 2x a
year, check addresses on web sites, ask other vendors I know, etc.
Two companies we're near MacAlly and Epson. MacAlly is always terrific for
us. With Epson it depends on the person in the position; we've have fabulous
support to zero support. When, by going to register Candy Crisis, I
discovered that the distributor was local, I invited him with good success.
When I learned thru a complimentary email to him, that the author of Print
Center Repair (a shareware) was local, I arranged for him to come to a
meeting and everyone learned a lot. Truth is, a vendor being local doesn't
always ensure they can come to our meetings though. Often the rep/employees
must come on his own time, after their 40+ hours a week. They simply can't
always do it.
When I find a contact who'd like to visit our group, I am always careful to
give these people the contact info for the other local groups too, so they
can visit other groups.
When another major event is being held in LA I check out the dates and who
is coming, and sometimes can piggyback a speaker with the event that brings
them to town.
Although here in LA we are very close to many tech companies and not so far
from many, many more, most of the local groups call upon local experts:
authors, ACNs, shop owners, people who use an app such as Quark in daily
work at the local newspaper, etc. As you read a Mac book and the author has
a website, see if it says where she/he is based. You may hit upon a local.
I have the perspective of being on both sides of the situation. As a Mac/Web
book author and columnist, I'm asked to speak at local meetings. (There are
many within a few hours drive here in So Cal.) The first time I was asked to
speak, I was shocked. On the downside, groups expect that my publisher or
someone will pay me to speak. After I make it clear that I'd be doing it on
my own time, paying my own gas, etc, if they're appreciative of that, I'm
happy to make the trip. One group said, "so stay in a hotel" when I
commented that the distance was great. That bugged me so I never came to
that group. But that's just one in many. Another group, not as far away,
offered to put me up overnight in a hotel. That made me feel great and I
happily spent the 2 days at their group. (They have a classroom as well as
meetings.) I love user groups, so I love helping out. I don't have books to
sell, don't make more money if I attend, and don't sell anything. I just do
it because I love sharing what I've had the opportunity to learn. I share
this to encourage you to ask local experts.
If I was asked to give advice, I'd say to keep exploring websites for clues
that a software company or support staffer who are near you. Since many
staffers work remotely, you may find hidden gems in your area even when no
company headquarters are there. Also do the same with the shareware you
like. You might ask your members to join the Look-out. Sometimes you may be
surprised to find out you have a fabulous shareware author right in your own
back yard. Also, try to dialog with groups closest to your area, in case you
can piggyback vendors or share.
On another note, another thing I tried with the Long Beach group was having
the vendor give me a copy of the software, finding a person in the group who
was anxious to learn that software, giving that software to the person with
the agreement that the person would show the software in 2 months or they'd
pay the group for the software so we could purchase it to show it. I guess
that went ok; I ended up having to miss the resulting meetings but was told
they were just ok.
Wow, that became a long response. I hope you don't mind, and that it can
help in some way.
- - - - - - Please cut here when quoting - - - - - -
Deborah Shadovitz, Author, Instructor & Speaker
<
http://www.shadovitz.com> ~ <email@hidden>
MacAddict Contributing Editor, O'Reilly Network author, Mac Design Columnist
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