Martin Widlake's Yet Another Oracle Blog

No Local Oracle User Group? Oh Well, Go to a Bar… April 28, 2015

Is there no local Oracle user group in your area? Do you wish you could share experiences with like-minded people? Is there no opportunity to talk about the technology you work with? Do you feel you would benefit from expanding your network of friends and contacts? But without a local user group it’s really hard to do any of that! – At least face-to-face. And, let’s face it, meeting for real really does beat meeting on-line. I know, you are sad about it.

Well, go to a bar. Have a drink, it might make you feel better. Especially if you go with Dave in your team. Ask your friend across town along who also works with Oracle Tech. And maybe she could bring her friend who is an Oracle DBA too.

Well done! You now have an Oracle User Group!

It really is that simple to start a user group. You do not need an organisation, you do not need membership and you do not need presenters. You just need three of you and a place to meet. I might be saying a bar above (or, in England, it would be a local Pub, my good chap) but it can be a coffee house, a cafe, a wine bar, the local library maybe or anywhere you can meet easily and relax. Obviously increasing from 3 to 4 to 5 etc makes it all more interesting with more stories, tips and experiences to share.

I’m in a user group just like that, it’s called the LOB – London Oracle Beers. We started in around 2009, 2010. Initially it was myself, Neil Chandler and Doug Burns occasionally meeting for a pint or three (and later arguing about who started LOB). Soon Pete Scott was joining us, then Dawn, then Graham {what happened to Graham?} then Martin Bach… It got serious when I put together a mail list. We’ve been going ever since and although the regularity of the meetings fluctuates, as does the size of the group, it seems to keep going at between once a month to once every 3 months. Thinking about it, we are due a get-together.

How to Start a Small, Social User Group

There is one thing that IS needed for a user group like the above, and in fact for the others I am going to mention.

You need someone to regularly say “let’s meet”.

It does not need to be one person, it can be shared between several people. In the current LOB it is mostly myself that sends out a call but Neil does too. Anyone in the group can make the call and occasionally others do (Dawn, Pete) and some ask me to make the call on their behalf, which I do even if I can’t attend. But that’s really all you need, someone to make the call.

The other thing you need to do is, as a group, invite some others along. Not everyone you can think of, for a social user group let it grow at a steady, organic rate. People drop in and out of user groups so you need to constantly keep an eye on things and if the numbers drop, ask a few others. People’s lives and circumstances alter so they can’t come or they just decide they’ve had enough and that’s fine. For this sort of social-centric user group I would suggest you stick to inviting friends and friendly contacts and try not to let it get too large (A nice problem for a user group to have!)

So Just Do it! If you do not have a local user group and you want one, be the person to ask a couple of friends and if there are 3 or more of you, make that call. And a month or two later, make the call again. The worst that will happen is that it won’t take off and, if it does not, you know you tried (and not many people will know you failed 🙂 ). I’d honestly be surprised if it does not at least take off for a while.

The Presenting User Group

Another sort of user group is where you start off by wanting it to be a bit more structured, to have presentations involved. This does take more organisation: a location where you can present (it does not have to be the same place each time), someone to present and it helps if you have a sponsor. As having somewhere to speak may well involve renting a room and it’s nice if you can offer some drinks and snacks. You don’t need a lot of sponsorship (if any). Ask some local Oracle-centric firms, the worst they will say is “no” and the best they will say is “sure, here is enough money for some pizza and Rohan in the Dev team is happy to talk about Blargh at the first meeting”. But work out what you need (say rental on the room and enough for a couple of Samosas for everyone) and only ask for what you need. Your sponsor may well want to put up a banner or have someone say something but that is part of the deal.

I’m involved in two such user groups in the UK at the moment:

Oracle Midlands run by Mike Mckay-Dirden. They are about to have their 8th meeting (Follow the link <- over there), on the 19th May in their usual location in Aston, Birmingham. I managed to get to most of their first meetings, spoke at one and sadly missed the last couple due to timing clashes. Might be true for this next one too :-(. Mike does brilliantly on this, he got a local firm (or part of the firm) Red Stack Technology to sponsor him and he has the gall to ask Oracle Ace Directors and other known people to speak 🙂

Club Oracle London was started by Jonathan Lewis (I think prompted by the LOB and also what Mike was doing – but don’t blame Jonathan if I have my facts wrong) and is sponsored and run by e-DBA but with a very light touch. This will be their 4th or 5th meeting. I’m speaking at this one and I’ve been to all of them. Again, follow the link for more details and to register for the event on Thursday.

If you visit my blog often or follow me on Twitter you will have seen me promote these events. I’m very keen to support smaller, local user groups.

Again, it needs someone to Make The Call and also get at least the first speaker(s), but you can share the load for that. The other difference is that you probably want to spread the call a little wider. Tweet about it, use Facebook and all those other social media things.  Tell all the people you know who might be interested and ask them to spread the word as you want a reasonable crowd for the speaker.

There is more to organising these more formal user groups but nothing that one determined person or a small group of fairly determined people cannot make happen.

Larger User Groups

The next step up are the large user groups where you have membership and paid-for events, like national, regional (or state in the US) user groups. You need a run up to create one of those! However, they are still user groups, they are all part of the “environment” of the total user community.

These user groups can still be created by a small number of people but doing so is a bigger task and I suggest you contact other people who are involved in such things and really plan what you want to achieve – it’s a topic beyond a single blog post like this. But it can be done and it can grow out of the two sorts of user group above.

I would like to highlight that starting your own local, small user group should be no barrier to being part of the large user groups. I attend, promote and present at the small user groups. Heck, you could say I run one with the LOB (along with other people). However, I am an active member of the UKOUG, deputy-chairing a Special Interest Group that meets 3 times a year and I’m involved in organising the content of UKOUG Tech15 (See the banner -> over there -> – at the time of writing the Call for Papers is open ). We can all live together.

Getting Speakers

If you want a speaker at your event (which you can have at the social sort of user group but you need to make sure the speaker is not expecting a projector and can’t user powerpoint!) then you can ask someone in your group to do it, you can do it yourself (we all have knowledge and experience to contribute) or you could try to get a speaker outside your group.

If you are trying to start up the more formal Presenting User Group then a known name will help draw people to your event. But there is the danger that not enough people will turn up for the speaker! You will worry about that. Well, don’t. Just be honest with the speaker about the numbers you expect and be realistic. In many ways I personally like smaller crowds and I know other speakers who do. I’d rather have 5 enthusiastic people than 50 indifferent ones.

Obviously, the more geographically local the speaker is the more likely they will say yes  and asking the stellar stars is likely to get a “no” as they are simply too busy – but if they are Local-local, they may say yes! Remember, potential speakers have to earn a living so are not available at the drop of a hat and some only do conferences. Again, the worst you will get is a “no”.

I’ll make an offer – If you decide to start such a group in the UK and you need a presenter, let me know. I can’t promise but I’ll try to oblige. If you are further afield I’m afraid it is less likely I can help as I have to pay my own travel and expenses. But you never know, the odd jaunt over to Europe does happen.

Also, try looking up local Oracle ACEs and OakTable members. Again,they might say no, they might say yes but Oracle ACEs and OakTable members are generally inclined to help, it’s a large part of why we have those labels.

As the annoying advert says “Just Do It”

So in summary: If you want a user group and there is not one, maybe you can start one. If you want it to be a little more formal with presentations, look for a sponsor and ask some local Oracle Names if they would present.

Good Luck!