I have been using BizTalk in SA for a number of years and thought I was alone .... I have however started noticing more and more BizTalk projects appearing on the ether ~ this must mean that there are other BizTalk developers out there, somewhere!
So how about we meet up and establish a BizTalk User Group in Jhb. If you, or anybody you know, uses BizTalk or has heard about it and wondering how it will change your life why not come join like minded people (we are a different breed afterall ) and discuss, network and share ideas and thoughts on building world class integration and messaging solutions using BizTalk and associated technologies.
The intention at this stage is a "Chalk Talk" type session where the idea is sharing. I'll try organise a variety of interesting discussions / presentations etc.
If you're keen just respond here so I can gauge interest levels and start setting something up.
Yes am interested. Would especially like to see some of the R2 stuff (RFID, WCF and WF features in particular). May also be a good idea to try enlist Paul Somers (BTS MVP) as well. He is an excellent authority on many of BizTalk Server's capabilities.
Looking forward to hearing more
Cool. I will extend an invite to him. The more the merrier. With an already established MVP presence I would've thought that a user group, local community, would already be in place. I guess not. Oh well, let's try get one going.
I already got a venue; now I just need the people to fill the venue!
cool; based on the responses i'm getting it would appear that something like this is long long overdue in the local community.
i dunno about you guys, but i am tired of reading of the cool events that the Sydney group organises, or the cool speakers presenting at the London group ... it's about time we get something local going!
watch this space, i'll post more as soon as i know more. got a session set up with Microsoft and some potential sponsors for next week to discuss.
Awesome!
Eventually someone does something to drive the Biztalk community in SA!
Please run with this Ryan. As far as I know there is no community initiatives around Biztalk or even an MVP. Which is a pity, because the community has been wanting something like this for a while.
Good luck!
Surprisingly there is actually a local MVP, according to the MVP site anyways ....
I have forwarded the invite to him to attend, and perhaps he can contribute in some way to this User Group. My hope is that the local BizTalk community can eventually start benefiting from this kind of collaborative effort.
Let's see ....
Yeah I'm keen.
When I attended the BizTalk Bootcamp last month, Paul mentioned that he was setting-up a local user group. He invited interested attendees to eMail him to join the group (http://blog.paul.somers.com/blog/ - paul@somers.com). I actually forgot about it until I saw this post. I'm sure that these two efforts can be merged to make an outstanding community.
Hi, Paul Somers BizTalk MVP.
I have been working for a while to get this going off my own budget and time, with not enough interest in one country alone, not even in the UK (there were 6 people), to have a dedicated group, the best idea was to combine all of the countries in the GMT+0 to GMT+2 time zone, more or less the same time zone, to ensure a greater participation.
We launched this at the BizTalk Boot Camp, and we are in the process of getting interested people to subscribe. The same or similar message will be presented at the European Teched, and I'll have it on my decks at Teched.
BizTalk EMEA User Group:People from the EMEA region, (SA, UK, Europe… )
Semi Regular Web Casts on hot topics before they become hot topics.
Interaction with, and presentations from top BizTalk experts world wide, not just in your own region. We will try and bring the presentations from the USA (global?) events into this forum for local consumption.
How to get involved: EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
Email: paul@somers.comSubject: Subscribe BizTalkUserGroup
You will be emailed when an event is to occur, you will be able to interact and ask questions about the session, or anything BizTalk related if time permits.
Regards,
Paul Somers
Come see me at Teched SA if you want more info, or would like to present a session. I’ll have goodies to give away this year, and “hot” female models at one of my presentations.
Hi, Ryan CrawCour BizTalk User.
Paul, nice of you to pop in.Good to hear you have influence beyond our borders and something like this would be a great addition to the local community. I do believe it should be that, an extension, and not the only offering. I honestly believe there is enough interest locally to sustain a local community and not have to wait for the international guys. The best way IMHO to get this going is to do something, even if small initially to get the ball rolling, and grow it from there.
The idea with a local group is to do BizTalk related all of the time, not only when time permits. It should be a community driven by the community and not by hot topics out there. That's what MSDN and the Microsoft Marketing machine is for.
I want to setup a website, similar to the fabulous http://dotnet.org.za which is for .NET developers. This will probably an extension of sadeveloper initially where local BizTalkers can blog, post on forums, interact with other local like minded people etc. Perhaps also consider a Google group where members can email each others questions for quick resolutions to difficult issue, or to bounce ideas off of each other. I would love to have small informal and regular get togethers where we can discuss what is currently topical, where we can share ideas, share solutions to tricky problems we may be facing and ultimately learn from each other.
Am I being over ambitious? Should we just sit around and wait for the hot topics to filter down to us from the intl communities?
What say you, the community? From what I can see thus far this is something you guys (and gals) want and I am happy to try co-ordinate to get this off the ground.
Let me know and I will get the porverbial ball rolling ....
Just met up with Microsoft around this ... they are very excited and have been mulling over the idea themselves for quite some time. They've offered the venue for our meets and generously offered to supply the neccessary refreshments ~ read beer & pizza; i mean what else could a BizTalk dev need?
It is important for everyone to understand that although MS have offered the venue and snacks and other sponsors might come on board to sponsor various things the community needs; it will always remain a community initiative! It will stay a community effort driven by you, the community. It won't be a marketing campaign ...
So; how does the first Wednesday of every month sound? With our first event starting on the 5th of December?
I realise it is still "ages" away but with TechEd (there is even a rumor of a BizTalk exclusive party this year .... *shhhhhhhhh* i didn't say a word) and other functions around the corner we're all already overwhelmed and gives us time to prepare something wicked for the first session.
What would work better in terms of time?
Early morning meetings over breakfast?
Afternoon sessions starting at 14:00 / 15:00 / 16:00, or evening sessions after work starting at 17:00 / 18:00 etc.
Let me know and I will set up the very first meeting of the minds.
I can't wait .... it is going to be fun!
Any day of the week suits me (we should just check we not conflicting with other SADev events / sessions). Not too sure whether every month is neccesary. I've heard people say that SA Dev has too many events a month. I guess it may depend on whether we can consistantly get enough interesting content for monthly session.
Well done on making the arrangements.