I meant just in general. An after meeting social gathering is not an easy thing to get people to attend. However, ours has been getting more and more successful.

Most UG meetings consist of people coming to sit. Then they listen to a speaker. Then they leave.  If you think about it, there was no real interaction. That person will likely feel that there was not value for them. Odds are that they will not come back. And they definitely will not recruit other people to come to the next meeting.

I also think the key is to "follow up" a website... which no doubt many user groups will have.

And if if they don't have a site (or even if they do), here is a shameless plug, this month (I hope!) I will be relaunching a website that may help groups get feedback, promote their events and get feedback.

At the moment it's not doing very much at all, but all will change... soon:

http://www.dnncommunity.com

Hi Nishant,

I asked the same questions when I started a user group in Nova Scotia.  I began by hoping that someone already had a group here, then realized it was up to me.  So, went through the wizard and started a group, then realized I needed a certain number of users in that group to be found on the User Group Map... so I called up all my DNN clients and asked them to please support a local user group.  They signed up and soon Nova Scotia was representing and supporting DNN.

I've been running the Nova Scotia User Group now for over two years, and have meetings every Friday.  Lots of people told me I should have them less frequently, but I didn't care if people showed up or not... (it was my excuse to get out of the office).  None of the meeting were formal, no speakers, just hash sessions, where folks could come out, ask their questions.  I have the gift of gab, so whenever there was a lull, I'd start talking about the myriad of applications for DotNetNuke.

When I went to Orlando on business earlier this year, I thought it would be a lot of fun to see if I could meet anyone in Orlando who attends a User Group there.  I Googled, "DNN User Group Orlando" and soon found founder Brian Scarbeau.  I emailed Brian and told him I was founder of the Nova Scotia User Group and asked if he would meet me. (it's a prettly lonely endeavor popularizing DNN in Eastern Canada).  We met and ever since, I've felt more a part of the DNN community than ever before.

I guess my positive feedback is that in addition to hosting my own group, I've found friendly people in the DotNetNuke community who either share or exceed my passion for helping people out via DNN.  In the last few months, I've launched a simple DNN portal for our group... http://dnnns.com, in the attempt to give my group more cohesion and exposure.  We're running over 40 members now, and a few of us plan to attend the http://dayofdnn.com event in Tampa, June 13, 2009.

We are VERY excited in Nova Scotia to represent DotNetNuke here in our little cities... and now we're very excited to represent Nova Scotia at the DNN event in Tampa.

Best of luck and hey, form your own group !!!  Be a champion of something you truly believe in and other people will be inspired !!!

~ giffie.ca