DevCares: Don't care about Cleveland
MSDN Events: Frequently a non-event, late when it happens
Launch Events: So long after the actual event they've already announced the next version
Why does Microsoft not care enough about the Cleveland market to get events here timely or at all? Is there not a large enough developer base here? Is it that the developers that are here don't participate enough? Does the entire region use LAMP instead of MS solutions?
I don't think any of those explain what the issue is. Josh Holmes and the ArcReady events are here every quarter. Jeff Blankenburg comes to SIGs and is very responsive (scary fast in fact). The last MSDN Event had so many people they were turning them away at the door.
Maybe my perception is wrong but it seems that Cleveland is not only a minor market in MS eyes but even an afterthought. What can we do to change that? If we all bug our evangelists with questions and requests will that raise the chatter level high enough that the corporate types will think there are more of us then there are? I'm not actually saying we should do that, I like that Jeff and Josh are responsive and wouldn't want to annoy them, too much anyway.
Is is possible that the person in charge of our region's MSDN events and DevCares events just doesn't have time for Cleveland? I do happen to know that it is the same person. The company line on why no DevCares events come to Cleveland is that no local partner has stepped up to host them. While I believe that is true, how hard have they tried? For all I know they are trying their collective butts off and still no one from Cleveland will do anything about it. If that's the case then we all need to pressure our employers to play nicely with others. If it's that they only asked one company who said no, then they need to work harder (please).
If anyone reading this rant knows anything more about why Cleveland gets skipped please post it and maybe we can collectively figure out a way to get more attention.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Why Does Cleveland Get The Shaft?
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1 comment:
I haven't heard much about DevCares or MSDN Events - then again, I'm still trying to figure out Cleveland's Microsoft programmers arena. I was stuck wearing various hats in the IT sector here and couldn't focus on programming for the longest time. Now that I'm back to full-time programming, I have to re-establish myself here and learn just what's going on around here.
With our economy not being in that great of a state, and with only programming veterans standing even the slightest chance of thriving up here, I could see why Cleveland gets the shaft. There are other parts of the state - like down by Jeff Blankenburg - that would be better technologically for big events.
If we want Cleveland to get a better rap, we'll probably have to do something phenomenal to get the attention. Or if Microsoft is asking employers about hosting it, maybe they should come to the SIGs, where employees from various fields would most likely be interested in these events, even if our employers would say "no".
Sounds like we would need to rally together the .NET SIGs in the area and other MS SIGs in order to get our voices heard.
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