Hartford SQL Server User Group

I know what you are thinking. You are sitting there, reading this blog post and saying to yourself “Wait a minute, there *is* no SQL Server user group in Hartford!”

Well, up until about a week ago, you would be right. But come April 7th we will be having the inaugural meeting of a brand new SQL Server user group serving the Greater Hartford/Springfield area. But that’s not the best part. Oh no. Are you ready for the best part? Well, here it comes:

We are going to meet during the day.

That’s right. We are planning our user group to meet during the day, from 12PM-4PM, as opposed to the typical meetings that take place at night. Why during the day? I’m glad you asked. There are two reasons why. The first reason is Rob Walters. It was Rob’s idea to even get a group going. He and I were talking during the recent cloud computing event and he asked me “Tom, do you think we could hold an event like this one, during the day, maybe once a quarter?” I said “yep”, and before I knew it we had the room booked and pizza approved. Now, Rob does not live near Hartford, so having the event during the day was a clear preference for him.

And the same goes for me as well, giving you the second reason. Believe it or not, I would rather be at home at night with my family than having to spend time traveling back and forth from a user group meeting. But that’s me. My children are six and seven years old. I would rather hear more about their day at school than anything you can find in the BOL. So, I agreed with Rob and thought that meeting during the day was a wonderful idea.

What’s that? You say people won’t be able to attend during the day because they are working? Yeah, probably. But I am willing to bet that we can find people that would rather attend during the day, same as I would. And as our group matures I am hoping we can evolve it into more of a “one day mini-conference” held once a quarter. Oh, and I want to stream the meetings, of course, to those that wish they could attend. And I want to hand out free slabs of bacon, but for now that will be the speaker gift to myself and Rob.

So, if you are in the area, leave work a little early and stop by for a visit, we’d love to have you.