Alternative Meetings

Alternative Meetings
Or: What to do if the vendor doesn’t show
APCUG Spring Conference – 1997

Kevin Wood

Additional comments and suggestions may be sent to Kevin for inclusion = in this document. This document is intended for use as a source of = suggestions and ideas. Inclusion of an idea does not constitute an = endorsement on the part of APCUG.

Outline of Discussion:

Reasons for this Round Table
What this Round Table was/was not
Before you can hold an alternative meeting
A Typical Meeting
- Type Pros and Cons
- Schedule of events
Other types of Meetings
Other types of Meetings Pros and Cons
Other events to hold during meeting
Random thoughts and Memory leaks

Reasons for this Round Table

At times the vendor representative does not arrive (illness, late = plane, accident etc.)
Groups want to try other types of meeting for variety
Smaller groups may not get vendor representatives
At times, vendors may be unavailable (COMDEX, Holiday season = etc.)

What This Round Table was/was not

Not an attack on Vendors or the typical UG meeting.
- These ideas are intended as alternatives, not replacements.
Not a speech by Woody (Kevin Wood)
- Woody did not have all the answers
- Woody was hoping desperately to get some ideasIs a sharing of ideas
Tell us what you have done
- Tell us what you would like to see
Not a time to attack the ideas of others.

Note: these notes/slides will be posted to the Web

Before you can hold an alternative meeting

Get to know your membership
- Who can you depend on?
- What skills already exist in the group that you can draw on?
What type of event is your monthly meeting?
- Sales meeting
- Educational meeting
- Show or Demo
- Entertainment only
- Special Interest or focus
Who is the audience?
- Public
- Members
How do you structure the meeting?

Business before?

Business after?

No business at all

Special events

Vendor Road Shows
Feed-a-Geek picnic
½ day classes
Know your area. One group realizes they will not get a vendor in December, so they always plan for an alternate event.

A Typical Meeting

A Typical Meeting tends to become a Vendor marketing pitch to your user group. This type meeting has its pros and cons:

Pros Cons

Vendor responsibility for Outline/Presentation

Every meeting a marketing pitch

Vendor usually provides prizes for drawings

Get only the plusses of software – not balanced

Other than room, easy for user group to hold

Doesn’t hold to user group premise – Users helping Users

Vendor presents a benefit to the user i.e. member – discount

Lately – quality of presenter lower

Vendor presentations not available elsewhere (Promo, demo of product)

Presenter usually marketing, unable to answer technical question

Pros	Cons
Vendor responsibility for Outline/Presentation
	Every meeting a marketing pitch
Vendor usually provides prizes for drawings
	Get only the plusses of software – not balanced
Other than room, easy for user group to hold
	Doesn’t hold to user group premise – Users helping Users
Vendor presents a benefit to the user i.e. member – discount
	Lately – quality of presenter lower
Vendor presentations not available elsewhere (Promo, demo of product)
	Presenter usually marketing, unable to answer technical question

Typical Sequence of Events

Setup Tables/Room
Q&A
Vendor arrives
Meeting starts
- User Group Business (some groups do business portion after the presentation or not at all)
- Announcements
Vendor portion
Closing/Prizes

Other types of meetings

Computer Trivia Contest
- Two teams square off to answer questions (both from group, or one from outside group)
- Members try to stump a team of experts
Q&A session
- Everyone brings a question in order to get into meeting
- Adhoc Q&A – questions on a topic directed to Group subject matter expert(s) SME
- Have a Computer clinic – users bring in sick computers. The local computer gurus / doctors fix.
Show users how to actually do something / use some software (usually done in SIGs)
- Computer Clinic – users work hands on with own hardware
- Teach users how to use modem to connect to Internet
- Teach users how to use Internet / set up web page
- Computer Strip Tease
  - Take apart a computer, show users how to add RAM, a hard drive, etc.
  - Show/Demonstrate how to tweak computer with/using standard software (windows settings, etc.)
- Local Bank demonstrates Online banking
- ½ day class on some topic (modems, Excel, etc.)
- Hardware/Software Sale
  - Swap Meet
    - Users set up bring their stuff to sell (as an additional item
    - Local retailers can ‘rent’ a table/space to sell their wares as well)
  - Users donate stuff for Group Silent Auction
  - Local vendors bring in/sell stuff
- Dinner/Guest speaker (more costly, need RSVPs)
  - Arrange with a restaurant
  - Get speaker (generally speaker’s meal is paid for by club)
  - Get RSVPs
- Feed-a-geek picnic
  - Picnic in some location<
  - Family event
  - Games
    - Disk-pitch (toss old CDs or diskettes into trash from various distances)
- Professional entertainment troupe (skits)
  - Member talent show (or lack of talent show)
  - Professional entertainers
- Product shoot out between competing products
  - Two vendors of competing software/hardware products compete head to head
  - Benchmark differing hardware setups/spec.
- Bring in columnist/representative from a publishing house to discuss industry trends
  - Could be member of club with writing skills or other skills of interest
  - Discuss writing and getting published
  - Speak as subject matter expert on the topic on which they wrote
  - Could be local celebrity
- SIG recruitment meeting
  - SIG members hold Mini SIG meeting during the main meeting
    - Each SIG leader has XX minutes to present
  - Each SIG holds mini SIG meeting
  - Members learn what SIGS are available
  - Members learn what SIGs are doing
  - Members may have ideas for more/new SIGS
- Tips, tricks and anecdotes on a specific subject
  - One person speaks on topic/responds to questions
  - Round Table
    - Each person brings in a tip, trick, question or anecdote about a topic/software package
    - Go around room
    - Each person shares tip, trick, etc. or answers some else’s question
- Club takes road trip to convention
  1. Decide where to go
  2. Social rather than computer related outing
  3. Computer related convention
    - Combination of 1 and 2 above
    - Families invited
    - Takes lots of prior planning
    - RSVPs essential
- Ask members what they want to see
- Radical idea – isn’t it?

Other types of meetings Pros and Cons

Pros
Cons
Not a marketing pitch
Need trustworthy people to develop plan and run
Users helping users
More resource intensive than vendor-run events
Users actually learn something
If meetings are associated with prizes, where do prizes come from?

Other events to hold during meeting

Q&A
- Beginner
- Advanced
Networking (invite headhunters)
SIG recruitment
- Tell what they are about
- Demo a portion of a meeting
Have a dedicated machine and individual(s) available to answer questions
Guru Den – room where members can ask Subject Matter Experts questions on specific topics.
Local computer enthusiast tells/demonstrates newest toys on market (short enthusiastic gee-whiz)
Announce the latest cool Web sites
SIG / meetings during the day for Seniors, kids, those on other schedules
Ask vendor to send technical person to answer technical questions – rather than a marketing person
How do you get a vendor to attend your meeting?
- Be truthful about meeting size (know how much interest there is in club for this topic)
- Combine more than one group if short on membership
- Coordinate dates – might be willing to visit two smaller groups meeting close (i.e. if one Monday and other next day)
- Get cards from Vendors at COMDEX
- Get info from APCUG vendor database