Founding C++ User Groups

published at 22.11.2012 16:18 by Jens Weller
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This is about how you get started with your own C++ User Group. I've talked about it at Meeting C++ this year, and I am thinking about doing a similar talk at C++Now 2013. This is a personal issue for me, as I'd like to see more User Groups for C++ beeing founded across europe and maybe elsewhere too. So, as in my talk, I would like to give you some ideas, and also a little history on how I got started.

Lets start with history, once upon a time there was a mobile OS called MeeGo, which got me involved in local community work. This had to do with me being a Qt Ambassador back then, and I wanted to see if I could meet with other interested people from my region. I organized a few local meetings in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Essen. This went on only for a short time, as MeeGos fate was not the best. So in Fall 2011 I decided to quit my commitment to MeeGo, but also wanted to stay active in local community work. This let to the founding of the local NRW C++ User Group, which will be next month one year old. And this would not have happend if I hadn't met some people from the chaosdorf, which is now our place to meet. Also, as I didn't want to start this alone, so my contacts at the chaosdorf have the part which ensures that the room for us is always blocked at the 3rd Wednesday.

If you are from Berlin, Belgium or live in the NRW Region, you might can get easily involved at the already existing User Groups with visiting one of their meetings or maybe giving a talk, as all of us are activly looking for speakers.

But, I guess most of us don't have the luck to be able to visit an already existing User Group. So, I have put together a little receipt, which should help you cooking up your own C++ User Group! All you need is:

• People
• Location
• Ideas, Topics, Talks
• Get started!

Before we start "cooking", a few words, how I could help you. Ofcourse I will answer your questions, but also will give you support through Meeting C++, as I'd like to have all C++ User Groups beeing listed here in the Event kalendar. So interested people might find you over this website, or over our twitter and facebook page, for German C++ User Groups I could also offer and event entry at my Xing Group "modern C++" with 4.450 Members, which I could reach for your cause. I might also be able to organize speakers, if I know any in your region. But lets get back to the receipt!

Lets start with people. That is what you should be interested in, meeting other people, which share our interest in C++. To start a C++ User Group you'll need some people, which also want to get this started, I would not recommend to start alone. So, where to find those starters? First, there is ofcourse your very own network, locally maybe at your company, but also in social networks and maybe local forums you will find interested people, that could help to make this effort succeed. Ideal it is, if you have people from different domains, so that this can spread in many ways, this will help with the variety and increase the knowledge base you have in your C++ User Group.

Next important point is the location. I consider three location types noteworty: Bar/Restaurants, Hackerspaces and Companies. Bar and Restaurants are great for casual meetings, but there is a little problem if you want to do talks. You can find bars with seperate rooms, but not always does this give an accomondated expierence for your guests. Also the bar usually has a certain expectation in consumption of drinks, sometimes you will even need to rent the room. And I'd like to point out, that it is better if you can start this without the need for funding.

So, there are to location types left: Hackerspaces and Companies. Hackerspaces are a great location to start, infact, both our german User Groups have now their home in a hackerspace. Hackersspaces are not well known, and to many people this concept is new. In order to find out if there is a local hackerspace in your city, there is the website hackerspaces.org. They also have a map of active Hackerspaces, which shows that in every major city in Europe there should be at least one hackerspace. The advantage a Hackerspace gives you, is that you automaticly gain a little more reach, as the hackerspace has already probably a few in C++ interested members. Not all Hackerspaces are big enough, to host meetings with talks, not all have a projector, but you should find this out by visiting your local hackerspace. And, as last location, there are companies, which might want to host the meetings of the C++ User Group. The belgian User Group is hosted at Microsoft, which brings the pros and cons directly in a good way to be visible: You can have the advantage that Drinks and maybe Food are paid by your host company, but you also do have the Problem, that from the outside people might think, that this is not totally independent. In fact, people told me at the Meeting C++ conference, that they think the C++ UG in Belgium is a bit more "Microsoft C++ UG". Which, as I know them, is not really the case, but due to the host, maybe only people from the Microsoft Side of C++ feel attracted to those meetings. And this will only change, if people get involved.

With a location for a first meeting, we need to talk about the content. Not to difficult to guess, that it should be C++ related. One of my concerns last year was, that we would run out of talks, that we would not be able to find for each meeting a talk. This can be a problem, but if your User Group has a certain size, you will find enough topics and people which are willing to talk about them.

Once you have all this, it is important to get started! Make a date, and meet with those people who come. For the first evening a talk about what you plan with the user group is a nice starter, also an introduction to C++11 can be a good start. Make sure you try to find the next date on the first meeting, so you have a follow up. Maybe also find a topic.

Now, what is missing from this receipt is funding. As I believe, that you don't have to invest money to get this started. Otherwise you'd had to look first for sponsors, and companies usually have their own agenda, which is rarely well connected to C++. Also I'd like to be all User Groups be independent, because this gives you a much better position once your User Group starts running. As I did my Communitywork for MeeGo I had connections to Intel and Nokia for this, which was nice, but also you get in the agenda involved, are not independent anymore. Also there is often a communications issue with companies, some of your contacts just will not reply to your emails sometimes. And I think as programmers we all know, that having less dependencies is better.

So, last but not least, if you want to get started, go ahead, and if you need help, I might be able to give you the right advice. Just contact me :)

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