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PHP User Group :: How to start

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:37 pm
by neophyte
Does anybody know what resources are availble to start a PHP Users Group?

Has anybody been a part of a successful one?

The nearest group in my area is 3 hours away. :(

Re: PHP User Group :: How to start

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:44 am
by jmut
neophyte wrote:Does anybody know what resources are availble to start a PHP Users Group?

Has anybody been a part of a successful one?

The nearest group in my area is 3 hours away. :(
so you mean like group....people acutally seeing each other :)
hm...might be fun...never been part of one.

Re: PHP User Group :: How to start

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:12 am
by onion2k
neophyte wrote:Does anybody know what resources are availble to start a PHP Users Group?

Has anybody been a part of a successful one?

The nearest group in my area is 3 hours away. :(
There's a couple of websites that 'help' to organise groupmeets: there's php.net, and there's a PHP section on meetup.com.

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:31 am
by feyd
Just so you're aware, neophyte, if you're the "manager" of a group on meetup, it's not free.* Granted, it is fairly cheap in the end of things, but it's still not free.


* The last time I was reading through there site was probably six months ago, so things may have changed, but I doubt it.

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:58 am
by d3ad1ysp0rk
meetup.com wrote: 6 months for only $12.00/month
(billed in one payment of $72.00)
3 months for only $15.00/month
(billed in one payment of $45.00)
1 months for only $19.00/month
(billed in one payment of $19.00)
I attend BostonPHP meetups. They're real fun, and if you have enough interested people you should definitely start your own!

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:00 am
by neophyte
Here's a real sad admission:

I don't know anybody in my area that does PHP professionally. Although, I'm sure there are plenty.

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:30 am
by onion2k
neophyte wrote:I don't know anybody in my area that does PHP professionally.
Meets aren't just for professionals. In fact, they're an excellent way to network and find out about jobs if you're not a professional but want to be. If I was starting a PHP user group I'd start off by:

1. Put an ad in the local paper's 'events' section. It's usually free.
2. Put a notice up on the events notice boards of any local college/university that teachs IT based stuff.
3. Send an email to the contact email addresses of local web design/development companies.
4. Put a listing up on the phpusergroups.org user groups thing (no idea if this is up-to-date though).
5. Contact the nearest 3 or 4 groups and see if they have members who are travelling from your area already. If there's not enough interest locally maybe you could share travel costs with one or two other people.

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 9:52 am
by neophyte
Thanks for the advice everyone.