Daniel Garcia, Leon O'Daniel and Nolan Erck talk about “How to start and run a CFUG (experts panel)” in this episode of the CF Alive Podcast, with host Michaela Light.

Show notes

What is a CFUG?

ColdFusion User Group

CFers gather to learn and share about CF. May have presentations too.

And other related technologies

Learn about opportunities, network

Why is a CFUG important?

CF still relevant

Share tips and tech

Help keep CF alive

Keep up with new tools and ideas

How do you start a CFUG?

Finding a Location is key

Important not to move every month

Free venue, allows food, has a projector and AV

Easy part of town to reach after work (allow for traffic patterns in your town)

Meetup Pro members in major metropolitan areas may have the ability to reserve space at WeWork (a Co-Working Space) for little to no charge.

HackLab - add to their calendar

Meet at User Group Member’s company conference rooms

Zoom Video Conference

Meeting time and frequency

Middle of week - Tues or Wed ideal, Thursday ok

Nth Wed of month

Ask members what day

6pm works if you have food provided or for sale

6:30pm - 8pm

Every month vs every other month

Don’t move the day around

Name badges and go around room intros

Name, company, what hope get out of group

Tips on getting speakers

Ask speakers from CF conferences (CF Summit, Into The Box, CF Camp etc)

Ask CF Vendors (Integral, Foundeo, BlueRiver, Ortus etc)

Tech Recruiters talk on job market

Tech people you know, CFers at your company

Ask related tech vendors and from other conferences

Alternatives to expert speakers

Code show and tell

Help members give mini-talks (5-10 mins)

Show a record preso and talk about it

Backup presenter

Get slides ahead of time

Developer show and tell

Hands-on workshop

Open forum Q&A

Promoting a CFUG

Email list

Several reminders

Website

Great for meeting announcements

Past meeting recording

Bio

Adobe

Forum

CF breakfast event

Free software give away

Extra tickets to speakers and attendees each month

Lucee

Eventbrite

Meetup - people can search for this

Your company

LI friends

CF Slack channel

Instagram - share speaker photo before event, share photos from event after

Promote active members on website

Freebies - Adobe, vendors, Training company such as Linda

At conferences - CFUG T-shirt, postcards

Grab extra swag

FB Live (or YouTube live) of meeting

Believe.tv allows for multiple presenters and screen share

Manager

Co-manager

Burnout

Vision and member guidelines

How do you deal with disruptive members?

Facilitate discussion on topic, keep concise

How do you encourage quiet members to speak up and participate?

CF Alive book - community guidelines

Why are you proud to use CF?

WWIT to make CF more alive this year?

What are you looking forward to at CF Summit West?

Listen to the Audio

Mentioned in this episode

Mike Born CF Popular article 

Bios

Daniel Garcia

Daniel Garcia is the founder and manager of the Chicagoland ColdFusion User Group.  He works for American Access Casualty Company as a Lead Application Developer as well as a part-time freelancer.  Working with ColdFusion since 1999 (CF4), he is passionate about the technology and strives to be a full stack web developer (or as close to one as he can be).

He is a husband, father, wisenheimer, cinefile, regaler of useless knowledge, barbershopper, and has an irreverent sense of humor.  His mantra is "work smarter, not harder" and "KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid)".

Leon O'Daniel

Leon O’Daniel has been designing and developing web sites using ColdFusion since 1997. He splits his time between being a Senior Web Application Developer and Leader of the Boeing ColdFusion Community of Practice for the ...