Open-Hardware-Centric Group Forming in the Valley

[Alan Dayley]

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 10:31 PM, der.hans <PLUGd at lufthans.com> wrote:
> Am 10. Jan, 2010 schwätzte Alan Dayley so:
>> The reality is that there are now a great many different groups and
>> events in the Phoenix valley.  Each of them could attract the some of
>> the same sorts of people as the others.  And there are so many it is
>> no longer possible to have a certain evening "reserved" for any one
>> event.
>
> There are lots of days open. This is the second event they've scheduled
> the same night as a nearby event that has now been going for over a
> decade.

No, there are not.

Monday - As the beginning of the work week, no group chooses Monday
because it kills attendance before you even start.  See Friday.
Tuesday-Thursday - These are the much preferred days for an evening
tech gathering.
Friday - As the end of the work week, no group choose Friday because
that's when everyone parties or whatever.  See Monday.
Saturday-Sunday - These usually are for longer events that take several hours.

So, we have three days in the middle of the week to have an evening
meeting.  12 days per month.  Just 12.

A sampling of groups and topics from those meeting regularly in the
Phoenix valley taken from http://meetupstogoto.com:

Refocus Phoenix: Third Wednesday of every month
Social Media Club: Second Thursday of every month
Stealthmode Partners: Second Monday of every month
Creative Coffee: Last Tuesday of every month
Phoenix OpenCoffee: Every Thursday morning
Gangplank: Hacknight on Wednesdays
Creative Connect: Second Tuesday of every month
AIGA Arizona
Radiate Phoenix
Pecha Kucha: Phoenix
Phoenix InDesign User Group
Web Design & Development Group: Third Monday of every month
ASP.NET User Group: Second Tuesday of every month
Arizona SharePoint Professionls Group: Last Thursday of every month
Arizona Security Practitioners Forum: Fourth Monday of every month
Silverlight User Group: First Wednesday of every month
Phoenix Android Developers Meeting: Fourth Thursday of every month
Xcode Phoenix - Cocoa and OSX Developer Group: Second Thursday of every month
SQL Server Users Group: Second Wednesday of every month
Phoenix Rails
Phoenix Ruby User Group: Second Monday of each month
Arizona Flash Platform User Group: Fourth Wednesday of every month
Arizona Coldfusion User Group: Fourth Wednesday of every month
Phoenix Linux User Group: Dev - First Thursday, East - Second
Thursday, West - Fourth Wednesday of every month
Phoenix Java User Group: Second Wednesday of every month
Arizona PHP User Group: Fourth Tuesday of every month
Phoenix Python User Group
Arizona Macintosh User Group
Southeast Valley .NET User Group: Fourth Thursday of the month
Phoenix Linux User Group: Four meetings a month
Phoenix iPhone: First Wednesday of every month
NSCoder Night: Every Tuesday
Startup Drinks: Second Tuesday and last Thursday of every month
TiE Arizona: Second Wednesday of every month, quarterly mixers
Markamp
Tiny Army: First Wednesday of every month
Phoenix SEO Meetup Group
Arizona Media Buzz
American Marketing Association - Phoenix Chapter: Fourth Wednesday of
every month
Enterprise Network: Third Thursday of every month
Phoenix Friday Nights: Every Friday

And that is not all of the groups in Phoenix.  And that's ignoring
more traditional business groups in which some of the PLUG audience
may be involved.  Overlap will happen.  Just have to keep offering
quality stuff and people will come if they are interested.

>> I see this as a good thing.  More choice, more energy, more community.
>
> I see it as annoying. Intentional conflicting times is not community
> building.

Intentional?  You're saying HeatSync Labs researched when PLUG was
meeting and purposefully chose the same day just to conflict with
PLUG.  I don't believe that at all.  They chose a day that worked for
their needs and the venue schedule.

Alan