Community Software Forum Event

Communities BLUG
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For the software folks here, put the following on your calendar :smiley:

Next Thursday, Jan 27 @ 6:30pm
Thursday Feb 24 @ 6:30pm
Third Thursdays after that

Why? Join a virtual, informal, mostly self-organizing Software Forum (collaboration between TAGNW, Bellingham.Codes, and BLUG / LFNW ) meetup with just enough structure and agreement to facilitate parallel small (2-7) group discussion.

This is inspired by something folks have said they miss about conferences (and before/after live <Bellingham.Codes> Talk nights, and LFNW BoaFs), as well as enjoying a microcosm of this effect during weekly TAGNW Discord Happy Hours:
The Hallway Tracks, the Kaffeeklatsches, the Birds of A Feather… call them what you want, the open times that are full of organic discussion with two themes in common: Curiosity and Collaboration

The event will be hosted on wonder.me (see Welcome To Wonder! - YouTube for platform overview)

General topics:
JS/TS | Python | .NET | iOS | C/C++/Rust/Go | DevOps | Demo | Career Dev | Random

The ingredients are pretty simple:
Multiple Co-Hosts: moderation privileges to uphold a full outer join of community CoCs (indicate interest)
Participants: some subset of {professionals, educators, students}
Panelists? - for broadcast sessions on industry cross-topics (like DEI/EDI, Accessibility, job market status, sustainability etc.) or focus topics like other community group promos

Schedule:
6:15pm Co-Host familiarization
6:30 Opening, Co-Host broadcast and intro
6:35 Self-organize into group time
7:15 Panel Discussion (cross-topic)
7:30 Group time
8:15 Open Panel Discussion (community groups)
8:30 Soft Closing, Thanks

Thanks and hope to talk to you there!

Will update this thread with the space link closer to the events.

Best,
Ryan Shupe, multi-hatted TAGNW/BLUG/Codes member and accidental co-organizer

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Update, a Meetup event is now live for this Forum!

If Meetup is not your thing, totally understand. LMK and will get you a link to the event, Thursday Jan 27, 6:30pm

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Did any BLUGers attend this event? What did you think of the format?

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Yes there was at least one!

Was a great format.
About 20 people attended.
Plugged the LFNW link during a mid-way break to highlight community groups.

A central Area or two configured for session broadcasting, and then a custom background image to give some guidance of topics seemed to work pretty well, would know more with more people in attendance. Popping a global chat to join in the ‘Main / Announcements’ Area got folks to gather 'round while letting folks wrap up small group convos at their leisure.

Didn’t use the broadcast feature, since it tends to take up the whole screen, but with some more planning or for a panel discussion, could be useful.

Easy to jump between large and small group chats.

Looking forward to the next Forum on Feb 24th, and also the Wonder format for LFNW community chat session!

Thanks for the recommendation James!

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Forum
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Announcing Software Forum 2 Next Thursday, Feb 24th!

Join a virtual, informal, mostly self-organizing Software Forum (collaboration between TAGNW, Bellingham.Codes, BLUG, and LFNW ) with just enough structure and agreement to facilitate parallel small group discussion.

This is inspired by something folks have said they miss about conferences (and before/after live Talk nights, and LFNW BoaFs), as well as enjoying a microcosm of this effect during weekly TAGNW Discord Happy Hours:
The Hallway Tracks, the Kaffeeklatsches, the Birds of A Feather… call them what you want, the open times that are full of organic discussion with two themes in common: Curiosity and Collaboration

During the event, there will be a couple ‘main’ areas with room for 50:

~Panel / Community group announcements
~Demo / Random (always open; try out / demo mini presentations- there’s probably a community group that would be the perfect audience for a longer polished presentation)

In addition, side ‘rooms’ will be open for topical suggestion:

Group by Language (6:30 - 7:15 | share techniques, resources etc.):
JS/TS | Python | Java | .NET/C# | iOS | C/C++ | Rust | Go | Databases

Group by Topic (7:30 - 8:00+ | talk about what you do with tech):
Education | Career | DevOps | Security | Embedded | Games | Web | Robotics

The ingredients are pretty simple:
Multiple Co-Hosts: moderation privileges to uphold community CoCs
Participants: some subset of {professionals, educators, students}
Panelists? - for broadcast sessions on industry cross-topics and focus topics like other community group announcements

Schedule:
6:15pm Co-Host familiarization (by volunteer/invite - contact organizers)

6:30 Opening, Co-Host broadcast and intro
6:35 Self-organize into group time (Language)
7:15 Panel Discussion (cross-topic, community news)
7:30-8:00+ Group time (Topical)

Folks are welcome to hang out later than 8.

RSVP at Software Forum 2 | Meetup

Look forward to seeing you there!

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I’m excited to see this continue - I’m looking forward to attending this time :smiley:

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Having another forum on Thursday Oct 20, hope to see folks there!

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