MT local meetings

Submitted by Justin
in
General Questions and Comments
Hey all! I was sitting around blogging earlier and thinking about different networks of professionals that meet and provide relevant information to their members. It got me wondering; has anyone considered having a local meeting once a month or so open to the Manager Tools members that are in their area? I live in Raleigh, NC, and I was wondering about the feasability of meeting once monthly to meet up with local MTers to discuss stuff that has been podcast on, etc. From that we could discuss the information and add relevant personal/professional experiences to clarify and sharpen the concepts we deal with here. The reason that this was brought to mind is that, in my opinion, a Manager Tools listeners are naturally inclined to trying to learn more and grow in our careers. What better place to meet and learn from each other? Anyways, just figured I would drop a note and see what the rest of you thought. Perhaps the idea is a bit far fetched, but I wouldn't mind spending a Saturday morning a month cementing this stuff and adding to it. Thoughts? *Note - I did a search and didn't find any more information on this. If its not new, please inform me of that.
Submitted by cincibuckeyenut on Friday September 29th, 2006 5:17 am

I think this is a GREAT idea! Might be tough to coordinate, but well worth the effort, I would think.

Submitted by G.R. Regas on Friday September 29th, 2006 7:42 am

I would love this for the Milwaukee/SE Wisconsin/NE Illinois area. Would be a great way to network and identify other people in the area with whom to discuss business issues and situations.

Submitted by Justin on Friday September 29th, 2006 2:36 pm

Hey guys, thanks for responding to the message. In my area if I can get a few people to say that they would come to a meeting I'd be happy to organize a meeting and work out the details.

I'm not living in the Chicago area any more or I'd work on setting this up with you Regas.

Alright, well lets see if we can get some more responses. I think that giving people the option of a meeting once a month (or quarter?) would be ideal for meeting fellow managers that follow the MT path and would give all a chance to learn and grow. Heck, I wouldn't mind if it were a morning meeting followed by a golf outing or something along those lines. The point is that its totally open to suggestions.

My main concern is that perhaps there aren't enough forum members that we would have enough people in any specific geographical location to make a meeting practical. Determining that is part of what this post was originally about.

Thanks for your responses guys!

Submitted by ITIL Imp on Sunday October 1st, 2006 5:44 pm

I'd certainly be interested in this on a quarterly basis if anyone is interested in the south of England :)

Submitted by dsfsystems on Monday October 2nd, 2006 11:55 pm

Take a look at the bottom left hand corner of the home page ... there is a little frappr map that will tell you if anyone is near by. Of course people have to add themselves to it.

Submitted by steveaz26 on Tuesday October 3rd, 2006 12:38 am

I'd be interested in getting together with anyone in the Phoenix AZ area.

Submitted by Peter Westley on Tuesday October 3rd, 2006 7:03 am

I can see this taking off... I was toying with suggesting something locally myself.... I wonder did M&M forsee this sort of groupie behaviour evolving? :lol:

Submitted by Piergiorgio Grossi on Wednesday October 4th, 2006 5:46 am

If someone is from Italy, give me a shout!
PierG

Submitted by Dan Stratton on Wednesday October 4th, 2006 10:25 pm

Pier, how about I just visit. :-) Seriously, we are thinking about coming to Europe next summer and Italy is on our short list. Mostly for the food. :-)

Submitted by Brandon Teachman on Wednesday October 4th, 2006 10:46 pm

[quote="regas14"]I would love this for the Milwaukee/SE Wisconsin/NE Illinois area. Would be a great way to network and identify other people in the area with whom to discuss business issues and situations.[/quote]

I live in north west Wisconsin (about 90 minutes east of St Paul), but if you organize some thing in the Wisconsin or Illinois area I would try to attend.

Submitted by Wendii Lord on Thursday October 5th, 2006 12:24 am

I'm in for the south of England!!

Wendii

Submitted by Dan Stratton on Thursday October 5th, 2006 9:59 am

I'll visit you too! I could call this the MT World Tour 07! ;-)

Submitted by Mark Horstman on Thursday October 5th, 2006 11:50 am

I come to Milwaukee (for at least 3 more months) and Hartford (for a year) every month, and would be delighted to meet some folks that would like to visit.

Mark

Submitted by Jeff Dotzler on Monday October 9th, 2006 11:15 am

I am in the Chicago area and interested for NE Illinois or SE Wisconsin.

Submitted by Piergiorgio Grossi on Tuesday October 10th, 2006 2:57 am

Dan,
I'll be happy to meet you during your visit in Italy!
PierG

Submitted by Kurt Donath on Thursday November 2nd, 2006 9:17 am

FastCompany had an interesting program called Company of Friends (CoF). They published a very interesting book to go along with it - stylish, spiral bound, workbook - CoF manifesto, provided a list of recommended readings, interviews with business leaders who were good examples of CoF, had a 'cell' coordinator contact directory, power tools (communication tools, career advice,...), etc. Awesome little book. Unfortunately not sold anymore.

I could see a Manager Tools 'CoF' like movement - get people talking to each other - hey, I think I heard a podcast about networking and getting people to talk with each other in a network (!) - and have some tools to help those groups.

BTW: I'm in Syracuse, NY

Submitted by Mark Horstman on Thursday November 2nd, 2006 11:21 am

Kurt-

I love the idea. I think we'll probably keep it somewhat less formal than that, as it would depend on my travel schedule, and when I travel clients do come first.

Nevertheless, I think it would help us build our community of managers. Mike and I are trying to figure out how to get this started.

Mark

Submitted by Lionel Dyck on Thursday November 2nd, 2006 1:18 pm

I'm in Concord California - not far from Oakland and San Francisco and would enjoy getting together with other MT fans.

Submitted by Mark Horstman on Friday November 3rd, 2006 12:07 am

Milwuakee Manager Tools Meet Up is tentatively scheduled for 28 November, 2006, location TBA.

We'll figure out details in the next couple of weeks.

Mark

Submitted by G.R. Regas on Friday November 3rd, 2006 8:06 am

Yet another demonstration of your commitment to this community and to your objective of making others more effective. Thanks for allocating time to this.

I'm excited for the opportunity and I'll definitely be there - probably with a colleague I'm in the process of converting to a M-T follower.

Submitted by jwyckoffXX on Sunday November 5th, 2006 4:05 pm

I'm in far north suburbs of Chicago -- I'll be in for the Nov 28th meeting.

Cheers,
Jason

Submitted by Nigel Robertson on Wednesday November 8th, 2006 7:46 pm

There must be some MT listeners in the Big Smoke. Let's get together!

Nigel Robertson
905-264-2106

Submitted by nduralt on Tuesday November 14th, 2006 7:47 pm

Anyone From Toronto Canada or close to the border is more than welcome to contact me.

Submitted by Steve Holden on Wednesday November 15th, 2006 4:34 pm

If there are any listeners in San Diego County that would like to get together periodically, please let me know.

Steve

Submitted by Andrew Weston on Tuesday May 15th, 2007 3:33 pm

Did this idea die a death or is there a community growing somewhere in small MT meeting rooms?
And what happened to the frappr link, has that gone as well?

Submitted by Mark Horstman on Tuesday May 15th, 2007 5:09 pm

No, it didn't die. A group in Atlant met recently, and does so regularly. There is a group in Pittsburgh that does so also, and it's possible that Milwaukee will do so as well.

We took down the Frappr link.

Mark

Submitted by Asterisk RNTT on Tuesday May 15th, 2007 10:53 pm

Mark and Mike,

I know you have a ton of things on your plate. Is there a simple way to put up some geographical demographics somewhere? Ie, 8% of our listeners come from NYC, 21% from Canada, with X% from Toronto etc? It might spur some localized Manager Tooling if people know there is a bit of critical mass available :idea:

*RNTT

Submitted by Andrew Weston on Wednesday May 16th, 2007 12:37 am

Was there a problem with the Frappr idea?

Submitted by Andrew Weston on Saturday May 19th, 2007 5:36 am

They are both called Manager Tools, are people on both?
Well I added mine anyway, nice to see there are a couple of folks not too far away

Submitted by Chris Donnachie on Monday May 21st, 2007 1:13 pm

Added to the UK as well. Mike - thought you were going to link this from T website?

Chris

Submitted by Michael Auzenne on Monday May 21st, 2007 1:45 pm

*RNTT,

We don't have any plans to publish the demographics ... we'll think more about it, but just can't see it getting very high on the list of priorities right now. As you know, we have a couple of other commitments for "enhancements" that are "pending". ;-)

As for the Frappr map, it's still out there, but we've downplayed it a bit. Never really seemed to gain much momentum and didn't seem to create a lot of value for listeners. And the "graphic" is ugly. :-)

In any case, as Wendii pointed it out, the gig is up ... although we probably won't return it to it's prominence on the home page, feel free to use it. We absolutely don't have any problems with that.

Mike

Submitted by Asterisk RNTT on Monday May 21st, 2007 11:17 pm

Oh my...

I am always up for a good pending :wink:

I guess when the time is right, someone from the GTA (greater toronto area) will step up and suggest some sort of get together :)

Submitted by Dave Fleet on Tuesday May 22nd, 2007 3:55 pm

Hi *RNTT,

Why not let that 'someone from the GTA' be us? :D

I'm definitely interested in a Toronto get-together.

Any other Torontonians out there?

Dave