BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//DevOpsChat//Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:01a1989d-2cc7-7145-a893-f58db222f594@www.devopschat.co DTSTAMP:20261106T135656Z DTSTART:20220215T160000Z DTEND:20220215T170000Z SUMMARY:CloudAustin February Virtual Meetup: The Future of CloudAustin DESCRIPTION:CloudAustin February Meeting: The Future of CloudAustin\n\nThis meeting will be a moderated group discussion about the future of CloudAus tin.\n\nContext (also sent to the group in email):\n\nThe Challenge\n\nThe long virtual spell during the pandemic has definitely taken its toll on e xcitement about user groups. Many of the other user groups in the area hav e gone on hiatus or closed up shop entirely\; we've been plugging along wi th modest attendance and difficulty getting in the kind of speakers (pract itioners sharing their implementations and struggles) that are our lifeblo od. We've tried to punch it up with alternate formats (virtual whiteboardi ng\, openspaces\, lean coffees) but those take additional work from the or ganizers\, and to be honest many of the organizers are tired too - few on the organizer team remain engaged and fewer still have significant time to invest in the meetup. On a personal note as the remaining original organi zer\, I've been running CloudAustin for more than 10 years and while it's been rewarding\, I kinda want to step back and take a break myself.\n\nThe Opportunity\n\nBut the role of CloudAustin and the future of the Austin t ech community are brighter than ever. Tens of thousands of techies are set tling in the Austin area. CloudAustin has always been that umbrella group that's been happy to launch and promote new user groups when a given techn ology or whatnot is hot enough for people to meet on it\, and to be a plac e to hear a little about those topics when their time has run its course. And besides having wide arms for the kinds of technologies we cover\, we'v e also welcomed all kinds of people into the community. We're not beholden to a company or sponsors\, we have been about practitioners talking to pr actitioners\, for developers\, devops\, QA\, managers\, doc folks\, and ma ny more.\n\nThe Austin way has\, in my opinion\, been one of the things th at has accelerated the meteoric rise of tech here in Central Texas. All ou r meetups (not just CloudAustin) have been distinguished by a focus on sha ring\, collaboration\, and respect that is rare and is\, to be blunt\, ver y different from the Silicon Valley tech meetup scene. As we get folks mov ing into town\, it's important to have gatherings that focus on these thin gs to show people *why* they're moving here\, and how great it is to be fo cused on building each other up\, and teach them the Austin way.\n\nSo I p ersonally think CloudAustin is needed now more than ever!\n\nThe Plan\n\nI n the short term\, till we're out of the stage 4-5 range on COVID\, we'll have to go back to virtual meetings\, and because of the general organizer burnout we'd like to move to a quarterly format so we can actually put de cent work into making the meetings engaging and not burning y'all out on y et another zoom meeting.\n\nBut we also want to start building for the fut ure\, which involves searching for a venue\, getting new organizers to rep lace those of us that need to step back\, and get in new ideas of how to g et the CloudAustin word out to more people and recruit practitioner speake rs! We've been doing largely the same thing for a decade and some of that may be dated. We do want to start back to in person meetups as soon as we can\, and have you and people like you come and share what you've been doi ng and how you've been doing it with your fellow community members. We hav e thoughts about leveraging social media and other channels more to inform more folks about CloudAustin's doings\, but we would need help with execu ting on that and also want y'all's ideas!\n\nWe're not really interested i n switching formats to allowing vendor talks\, having remote speakers all the time\, etc. - we've always focused on being a place where Austinites s hare their work with other Austinites not just to educate but to build rel ationships.\n\nWhat Do You Want For the Austin Technologist Community?\n\n But\, we want to hear from you what you want for the future! Several years ago when there were lots of user groups and everything was going gangbust ers we had a similar inflection point and sat down with the community and asked "So should we just close up shop\, that's what we'd propose?" and yo u all gave us a very clear "no" and an explanation of the things that Clou dAustin uniquely provides to the community. The meetup is yours\, we're ju st the people doing the busy work to make it happen! So this February's me eting will be a moderated discussion about the state of the community\, wh at you want in CloudAustin going forward\, and how we can actually make th at happen.\n\nWe will also be looking to recruit some new organizers in th e months to come - the primary requirement there is actual engagement in t he meetings\, and then the passion and time to help!\n\nThanks\,\nErnest M ueller\nCloudAustin Organizer\n\nhttps://www.devopschat.co/meetings/clouda ustin-february-virtual-meetup-the-future-of-cloudaustin URL:https://www.devopschat.co/meetings/cloudaustin-february-virtual-meetup- the-future-of-cloudaustin END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR