[Sigia-l] Chicago Events & some questions (long)

[Samantha Bailey]

> >Non-Chicagoans: What are you doing to promote IA/ID
> & Usability within your
> >organizations and especially, between IAs? How are

The Charlotte IA cocktail hour has proven a fairly
active group for lively discussion and has definitely
been a good networking opportunity. 

The group meets about once a month; a bit less
frequently in the summers. We have tried a variety of
formats (more formal, less formal, alternating formal
topics with socializing/networking events, meeting at
offices vs meeting in pubs) and over time have settled
into a format that has an identified topic that we
cover along with a fair amount of
networking/socializing mixed in. We have taken to
meeting at the same place (a local bar/restaurant with
plenty of space and a low enough noise level that we
can easily talk) and are moving in the direction of
meeting on a schedule (e.g. the second wednesday of
each month). There are typically about 7-9 people who
attend; often a core group of 4-5 who come regularly
and then several folks who are either new or who
attend more sporadically. 

I think that the success of the group has a lot to do
with our location; Charlotte is a small enough city
that we have had a fairly easy time identifying
companies likely to have IAs/IDs and getting the word
out and we're also small enough that there isn't a lot
of competition for events. That said, we're large
enough to have an active IA/ID community (there are 80
people on our mailing list). 

Another part of our success is having someone who
commits to organizing events. People don't tend to be
eager to do the organizing and you have to make
participating as easy as possible but if you provide
it and keep it consistent, they do come and over time
become more participative. I'm still doing much of the
organizing, but am getting more help and no longer
feel like the group would stop meeting if I weren't
doing the legwork. (As an fyi; initially it took me
longer but now that we're established it really only
takes me about 30 minutes per month to schedule our
meeting and deal with all the logistics.)

I really think the key is deciding to form a meeting,
holding it month after month no matter who shows up or
doesn't and being open to tweaking the approach based
on what seems to work best for the group.

Good luck with your efforts!

Samantha Bailey 

=====
Samantha Bailey
samantha at baileysorts.com | http://baileysorts.com

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com