Re: [UG-ADMINS] Introduction: PHPJutland in Denmark

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Hey Jesper,=20

Congrats for running the user group for more than a year already!

I feel your pain. Our group in Varna, Bulgaria suffers from pretty much =
the same problems. People were really hesitant to even show up at first =
and most of the =E2=80=9Cregular=E2=80=9D speakers in the country are =
located in the capitol (Sofia) which is a 5-6 hours drive.=20

My observation is that people started offering talks more after I did a =
few. And after a year and a half I continue to speak every third meetup. =
I=E2=80=99ve experimented with other formats like lightning talks with =
mixed results. Also a personal encouragement and offer to help from the =
organizers seems to go a long way with prospective speakers.=20

As for reaching out my personal experience is that word of mouth and =
people bringing their colleagues and friends with them works best. Also =
having a present on all popular platforms in the country. Currently we =
still have more people showing up trough the Facebook events than trough =
meetup.com <http://meetup.com/> because that=E2=80=99s more popular in =
Bulgaria.=20

On the bright side it=E2=80=99s awesome that you have inspired others to =
start similar events.

As long as people show up you can even grab a drink and talk php without =
talks and still have a really productive event and a good time for =
everyone.=20

Keep up the good work and good luck!


On Thu, 17 May 2018 at 3:00, Jesper =C3=98stertoft Jacobsen =
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hello UG-Admins

I am Jesper Jacobsen, I run the Danish PHPJutland group.


We've been up and running for a year and a half now, and are finally =
starting to gain some real traction.

However, developers in Denmark are still very shy, as there has been no =
precedence for meetups or the likes beforehand. Luckily it's contagious, =
and companies that has hosted us has started to do similar events.

What's your best advice for reaching out to new users, and to potential =
speakers?
It's currently quite the challenge to find speakers as they are shy, and =
Denmark is quite split. About 50% of the developers we can use as =
speakers are located in the capitol, Copenhagen, about three hours away. =
We have had speakers from there before, but I don't think we can do that =
every time.
Aarhus, where we're located has a lot of great companies, but they =
aren't very keen on speaking, unfortunately.
I'd be glad to hear anything you can tell me about running a Meetup, as =
I still feel very new to the whole process.


Thank you very much
- Jesper



Boyan Yordanov
[email protected]

Organizer of PHP Varna=C2=A0 <http://phpvarna.com/>
Software Engineer @ ShtrakBG
Find me on Twitter <https://twitter.com/specter_bg>

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