Addressing the .NET skills gap in your user group

Julia Lerman wrote about coping with the widening gap between .NET Newbies and .NET Pros. She mentioned the concept of a pre-meeting presentation that was geared for beginners, and the main presentation engaging those interested in more advanced topics. Well, We (The Great Lakes .NET Area User Group) have been doing just that for some time. It’s worked great for us. Thanks to Alex Lowe for originally suggesting it to us.

• The tutorial session starts at 6:00.
• The obligatory pizza is served at 6:45.
• The main session starts at 7:00 (or so, depending on pizza consumption).

We give the right of first refusal on the tutorial session to our main speaker. Quite a few have taken us up on it. In addition, we always try to make the tutorial an introduction to the main talk. Finally, we publicize the two talks as two different sessions, fully expecting some members to arrive after the tutorial.

Here’s what we’ve found:

• We are getting roughly 20 to 30 people attending the tutorials.
• Almost all of them stay for the main session.
• We’ve seen growth in our regular attendance that mirrors the tutorial attendance.
• Evaluations for the tutorials have all been positive.
• The tutorial as introduction to the main talk really helps newbies get more from the main talk.

I would say it’s a great way to make the user groups more accessible to the .NET newbies, yet still contain rich content for the more experienced .NET developer.

Julia's original post
How to handle the gap in .NET skills in your user group
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