SAPIEN Loves User Groups

 Need support for your technical user group? Contact me at usergroups@sapien.com.


Many of us technical types are loners. We tend to be introverts. We prefer our own space.

However, when you’re learning a completely new skill, like Windows PowerShell, it helps to collaborate. You can read a book and practice on your own. If you hit an obstacle, you can google the problem and copy online solutions. But, it’s so much more efficient to talk to people who have been through the learning process, to hear a clear explanation of a solution, to see a demonstration of a new way to solve a problem.

JuneBAtUserGroup

June Blender at NYPSUG. Photo by @AdilHindistan

And, that’s where technical user groups come in. The people in a user group are like colleagues at work. You can teach and learn from each other, tackle problems together, introduce new ideas, collaborate on a puzzle. They’ll tip you off to a new hackerspace or an upcoming conference. Best of all, they can spot the problem in your script or module and help you to fix it. They can explain that concept that you read about, but didn’t really understand.

SAPIEN Technologies, Inc. is a software company, but we do more than make great software. We also support our community, because they support us. It’s like one big virtual user group. By supporting user groups, we help to develop the community and share knowledge. That’s good for everyone.

What does SAPIEN offer user groups?

Speakers. It’s free. It’s usually me, David Corrales, our lead developer, or Dr. Ferdinand Rios, our CEO. It’s always a technical talk, not a sales talk, unless you specifically request a sales talk. We’ll customize our talk to your user group’s interests.

Pizza. (U.S. only) Dinner is on us. Just send us the name of your local pizza place and an estimated number of attendees. We do the rest. You can’t think on an empty stomach, can you?

Swag. Everyone loves stickers and stuffed monkey slingshots. If that helps your user group, let us know and we’ll send some along. We also have some t-shirts and excellent pens. Occasionally, we have books to share. Can’t hurt to ask.

Software. Our real treasure is the software we make, like PowerShell Studio. In addition to our standard 45-day trial on any SAPIEN product, we can supply license keys for extended trials and possibly even a free subscription to be raffled off as a grand prize. There’s no better gift to a scripter than a professional scripting environment.

Help. User groups administration isn’t easy, so if you’re stuck, let us know. Advice is always free. We’ve been part of the PowerShell community from the start (1.0, really!) and participated in technical user groups for a long time. We might just send you to Teresa Wilson (@ScriptingWife), who is everyone’s user group guru, but if we can help, we’re happy to do it.

How do we get in touch?

To contact us about user group support, use our new alias, usergroups@sapien.com. Let us know what you need and how we can help.

And, if you’re looking for a user group, check out PowershellGroup.org.

 

And, to every person who leads, manages, administers, supports, or participates in a user group, thank you — from all of us.