User Groups Growing Like Crazy

As many of you know, I split my time between the US and UK, supporting both my local user group in Dallas/Fort Worth and the SharePoint UK user group. The UK group is the largest in the world and has just surpassed 4,000 registered members (by way of contrast, the DFW group has almost a 1,000 members and it’s one of the largest groups in the US). That’s an unbelievable number; I have no idea how Nick and Steve keep up with all those people but they do a bang up job keeping everything running. I spoke to the group in London last month and we had a huge turnout. Way to go, guys!

One of the things we’re working on at ISPA is the collection of registration and attendance figures for user groups around the world. We’re not doing it for bragging purposes (I don’t think anyone can come close to the UK) but as a means of measuring what type of support group needs, how closely the Evangelists need to be involved, and when we need to add regional events or additional groups. If you are a UG leader, please touch base with us at ‘contactus [at] sharepointpros [dot] org’ and provide your stats so we can update our worldwide database. If there is no UG in your area, and you’re interested in starting one, we definitely want to hear from you right away. Let’s grow together!