Meetings are on the last Wednesday of every month!

Via http://www.globalstrategies.com/2009/enterprise-level-search-discussion/...

Thursday, May 7th at 11:00 am Pacific / 2:00 pm Eastern.

Our guest speaker will be Jay Middleton III, Senior Manager of Worldwide Search Marketing at Adobe. Prior to joining the Adobe team and helping to build the Adobe search program from the bottom up, Jay was an award-winning search manager on the marketing agency side. Jay will lead a discussion on enterprise level search and how it can scale for smaller businesses.

Come with your thinking cap on! Jay will be giving away a copy of Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements to the audience member who asks the best question.

What is a Social Media Brunch?

Social Media Brunches are an opportunity for Global Strategies International (GSI) to host seminars on the hottest new media topics in a casual atmosphere. Thought leaders in the areas of search and social media moderate our discussion, often joining us from around the world by video conference, and in person at a local Bend, Oregon meeting place.

Join us for the Social Media Brunch

Social Media Brunches take place on the first Thursday of the month at 11:00 am Pacific / 2:00 pm Eastern.

To join the conversation in person, come down to Poet House, located at 55 Minnesota Ave in Bend, Oregon (map).

Our online viewers can watch a live video of the brunch and join the conversation in our chat room by tuning in to the GSI ustream channel.

Check out our blog to find archived videos, audio and presentation material from past GSI Social Media Brunches.

Labels: announcements

Do you have some time and energy to dedicate to a community group? COWPU needs your help! If you are interested in organizing meetings, posting job listings, or otherwise helping out please contact Jen.

Thanks!

Labels: announcements

Actual meeting in the works, I promise! In the meantime...

Global Strategies International Social Media Brunch

Thursday January 15, 2009 at 11:00am
Jackson's Corner
845 N.W. Delaware Ave.
Bend, Oregon 97701

Global Strategies International is hosting a monthly networking event for social media enthusiasts. Come for the coffee and pastries, stay for great conversation!

This month, Bill Hunt will lead a discussion on the question, "Does Search Still Matter?".

Click here for more information, and to RSVP.

Labels: announcements

O'Reilly Media is conducting research about in-person, live workshops on software and business topics, and we'd really like your opinion. If you live in the United States and work in the tech industry, please consider taking our 19 question survey to help us understand what you look for in a live training course – what motivates you, what you expect to get out of a workshop, what topics you'd like to see, and so forth.

To participate, please click here

To show our appreciation, we'll select 10 people at random to receive a free book of your choice. The drawing will happen on Friday, October 17, so you'll need to complete the survey by that date to enter. The last question on the survey will ask for your e-mail – we'll use that only to contact the randomly selected winners – and your responses will remain anonymous.

Labels: announcements

Location: McMenamins Old St. Francais School (Bend, OR) - Rambler Room
Date: Wednesday, November 12th 2008
Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Cost: $15 for non members
Free for SAO, EDCO, COWPU, COISUG, WoTech and BendTech members!

Bob Chalfin, author of "Selling Your IT Business" will share practical suggestions for leaders to build into their business plan before they consider selling their company.

Click here to find out more, and to register for this event (pre-registration is required).

Labels: announcements

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 5:00pm
Blacksmith Restaurant
211 NW Greenwood
Bend, OR 97701

BendTech Tweet-up with Julio Fernandez

What's a Tweet-up, you might be asking? It's a real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service. (Don't know what Twitter is? Click here to find out.) Not using Twitter yet? Maybe it's time to start! (But you are welcome to attend the Tweet-up, either way!)

From the BendTech Meetup site...

We're planning an impromtu "Meet Up" on Wednesday, requested by Julio Fernandez, via Twitter, who's coming to town to meet with his Bend client, Global Strategies. Julio's flying in from Florida, and it's his first visit to Bend. I figured this is a good excuse for a happy hour event!

Julio is an intersting guy, with experience as Global Marketing Manager at Oracle, and as an Evangelist at Google B2B Technology Council. He also won a Pulitzer while at the Miami Herald.

Specialties:
Metrics, metrics, metrics: Omniture web analytics, SiteCatalyst, Discover, A/B testing, multivariate analysis, behavioral targeting, site auditing, Google Analytics and more.

This will be a casual, no-host get together at the BlackSmith (great happy hour prices on food and drinks!)

Hope to see you there, and feel free to bring friends! Bloggers, Twits, Techies and even marketing people are welcome to attend!

This Event is brought to you by BendTech, in partnership with other great local usergroups!

Central Oregon Information Systems User Group (COISUG)
Central Oregon Web Professionals' Usergroup (COWPU)
Women in Technology (WoTech)
Software Association of Oregon (SAO)

Labels: announcements

COWPU and COISUG got some ink in today's issue of the Bend Bulletin. You can read the article online, here!

Labels: announcements

A big COWPU "thanks!!" to Ryan Stevens for his presentation about Cloud Computing at the last meeting. If you missed the meeting, or want to refresh your memory, Ryan was kind enough to upload his slides here.

We have a couple of options for our next meeting.

Our August date would technically fall on Friday, August 1. Would anyone be interested in organizing a social for that evening? Any suggestions for a location?

Another option is to have a regular meeting on Monday, August 4. Kate has reserved a room at OSU-Cascades. If you are interested in speaking or would like to recommend someone let me know.

Post your opinions in the comments, or feel free to give me a call. Looking forward to seeing everyone again, soon!

Labels: announcements

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 6:00pm

Topic: Amazon Web Services - Is "Cloud Computing" the answer?
Location: McKay Cottage

Learn more about the topic here. If you are interested in attending please contact Jen, or visit the page for this event at upcoming.org and click "I'm Going".

Hungry? Bring food for yourself... or better yet bring something yummy to share. Thirsty? Beverages are welcome too... as usual! Let us know what you're bringing in the comments or on the upcoming.org page.

Agenda:
6:00pm - Doors open, networking
6:15pm - Announcements and door prizes
6:30pm - Presentation

Labels: announcements, meetings

JOIN US FOR A LIVELY TECH DOUBLE HITTER!

Keynote Speaker: Dave Hersh, Jive Software
As CEO of Jive Software, Dave Hersh is responsible for overseeing the company's strategic direction, planning and implementation. In six short years, Dave has led Jive Software from a small open source project to an Inc. 500 company with 100 percent annual growth rates.

Previously, Dave held the roles of CFO and product strategist at 4charity. Prior to that, he was a management consultant to Hewlett Packard, focused on HP's Worldwide Information Management Strategy. Dave began his career as a strategy and change management consultant at VIA International in Chicago and London.

Dave has gained a reputation for his deep industry knowledge of collaboration, knowledge management and open source, and he is frequently tapped to present at industry events and serve as a media reference. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from DePauw University.

Early Stage Presentation: Lloyd Fassett, Azteria
Lloyd Fassett is CEO and co-founder of Azteria, a Bend-based company specializing in national recruiting and career management for the health care industry. Azteria takes an open database approach to common recruiting problems, making it easier for employer and candidate to connect. Fassett and co-founder Jim Smith bring real world experience to their solution with backgrounds in travel nursing, and software development for enterprise supply chain management and the Internet.

Get ahead of the game and reserve your spot today. Fast forward to valuable networking and save time at the door.

Sign up online, or
Call EDCO offices at 541-388-3236.
Economic Development For Central Oregon
109 NW Greenwood Ave., Suite 102, Bend, OR 97701
(541) 388-3236 or (800) 342-4135

Labels: announcements

The O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) is returning to Portland, Oregon. Once again we're offering a special discount to the locals--User Group members in Oregon and Washington. With this "locals only" discount, you get 20% off the registration price for OSCON. Use code "os08pdxug" when you register.

To register, go to: https://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/register

Join the OSCON Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11018041402

Or Contribute to the OSCON 2008 Wiki: http://wiki.oreillynet.com/oscon2008/index.cgi?HomePage

Hope to see you there!

Labels: announcements, conferences

The Software Association of Oregon has a meeting coming up! COWPU members are welcome to attend. You must register in advance in order to receive webinar access information.

The QA Process for Medical Products: Something in it for You, Too?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
12:00pm-1:00pm
Cost: Free
Register

Because of their intended use, the quality of medical products must be high when they are released for sale. Sue will speak to the approaches typically taken in the regulated medical products business when bringing new products to market vs. those commonly taken in a more typical hi-tech business. Many of these approaches can be used by anyone to improve processes, including how verification & validation (testing) are done, which any QA or development team might consider in working to improve their product quality.

Speaker:
Susan R. Hart, Welch-Allyn
Sue has been in the design and development of electronic monitoring and diagnostic medical products for over 18 years. She also has hi-tech development experience outside the medical-products industry. Her roles have included Director of R&D, Program Director, Project Manager, Product Architect, and Engineer in the R&D and Quality departments.

Labels: announcements

The Project Management Roundtable has a meeting scheduled, which COWPU members are also welcome to attend.

When: Wednesday, March 19th, 5pm
Where: COCC - Boyle Education Center, room 155

Presenter: Jeff Oltmann
Topic: The Art and Science of Innovation and Development

Luck is not enough to create the repeated project successes that companies need to survive in a brutally competitive marketplace. Fortunately, savvy leaders can add science to the luck by creating a structured development framework that melds five proven management disciplines: Project Management; Program Management; Portfolio Management; Platform Management; and Market and Strategic Planning. This presentation uses research results and the experiences of an example company to show how these disciplines fit into a single, cohesive framework, creating a bridge from strategic direction to clean execution.

Jeff is a first rate speaker and this topic should be on the money for a lot of Bend businesses and organizations.

Please RSVP to Ed Sea if you plan to attend.

Labels: announcements

Are you ready for PU.Camp? I sure hope so!

It's not too late to sign up to present... in fact it will only be too late when the last person leaves and we turn off the lights at McKay Cottage. So if you get there and get inspired (maybe by the other speakers, or maybe by the beer^*) there is still time to come up with a topic! Any topic "of interest" to the web developer audience is welcome; submissions are not limited to technical topics.

Even if you just come to watch... you don't want to miss this event! This will be an exciting and dynamic event for all!

Come to PU.Camp!
Saturday, March 1st ~ 5pm 'til we are done
McKay Cottage, Bend, OR
Food and beverages will be provided
Feel free to bring something to share!
Please RSVP at Upcoming, thanks!

^*Previous karaoke experience is not required. :P

The first rule of PU.Camp is tell everyone you know about PU.Camp!

Labels: announcements, meetings

Central Oregon Blogger Meet-up
Feb 21, 5:30ish at the Blacksmith (happy hour, woot!), Downtown Bend
RSVP to Shannon at shanlee at gmail.com

Keep in mind, this is intended for bloggers who wish to meet other bloggers. This will be a nice chance for all of us to gather, and put some faces together with the blogs. If you don't have a blog, then this may not be the get-together for you. So, if you just can't stand not being there and don't already have a blog... what are you waiting for?!

Labels: announcements, meetings

As an alternative to the traditional monthly meetings with one speaker, this time we are going to try something new... PU.Camp.

PU.Camp will be a gathering for people to share and learn in an open environment. It will be an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. The format and name are inspired by BarCamp (which was inspired as a complement to FooCamp). Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join. When you come, be prepared to share with PU.Campers. When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world.

Interested participants are invited to submit their idea for a 15-30 minute presentation on any topic. Several "signature" presentations and discussions will be scheduled and announced in advance. Other slots will be filled based on attendee interest at the event (yes... you will get to vote!). This will be an exciting and dynamic event for all!

PU.Camp is tentatively scheduled for either Friday, February 29 or Saturday, March 1. Please send your suggestions for a meeting location and presentation ideas to manager@cowpu.org.

The first rule of PU.Camp is tell everyone you know about PU.Camp!

Labels: announcements, meetings

We had a great turnout at last night's meeting, and crammed twenty five people into the library conference room. Big thank you to everyone who attended... including hiring managers from several staffing companies and business owners around town.

Hint: if you are a web geek in Central Oregon looking for a part-time or full-time local gig... the COWPU is the place to be!

The only problem with our group's growth is that we have outgrown the Hutchinson room at the library. There seems to be no hope of getting the larger (downstairs) meeting room at a reasonable time, so it is time to find a new "COWPU Central".

I have a few suggestions from members, but would love to consider as many options as we can. One major difficulty is that COWPU doesn't have a bank account or a budget so we really need to find some friendly folks who are willing to let us use their space at no charge. It is really nice to hold the meetings downtown, since that seems to be a central location with plenty of parking. To accommodate our group's growth we need to find a room that can hold 30-50 people. Of course Wifi is always a plus... we are web geeks after all.

Any thoughts? Do you have an "in" somewhere? Let me know!

Labels: announcements

PU-Camp is coming in January...

Want to learn more? Come to the COWPU meeting this Thursday!

Labels: announcements

In case you haven't noticed (and quite a few of you have) COWPU is now on everyone's favorite social network - Facebook.

I also added COWPU to LinkedIn... Just add "Central Oregon Web Professionals' Usergroup (COWPU)" to the Experience section of your profile. While you're at it feel free to give yourself a (goofy or serious) job title.

Get the word out, and be a sheep... join our groups! :)

Labels: announcements

MAKE has a few new books coming out this month and O'Reilly wants to get an
early start looking for reviewers. If you already have a review copy and haven't completed your writeup this would be a great time to finish up so you can get your hands on these new releases. Please let me know if you are interested in any of the following titles:

Making Things Talk

Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders

The Best of MAKE

Eccentric Cubicle

There's also a new issue of Make Magazine featuring "DIY Wheels"

If you happen to be in the Austin Area be sure to check out the Maker Faire October 20-21 at the Travis County Expo Center, Austin, Texas. The hours on Saturday are 10am-6pm and Sunday 10am-5pm. Learn more and register!

Labels: "book reviews", announcements

Are you doing any development work (including skinning and UI design)
with Adobe Flex? Here's your chance to be a contributor to an Adobe
Developer Library book to be published in 2008, "Flex 3 Cookbook."
Adobe's got a terrific site for Flex developers of any stripe to show
their best stuff, and O'Reilly and Adobe are partnering on a book that
will include some of the best contributions from the site. Each
contribution uses the classic O'Reilly cookbook
"Problem/Solution/Explanation" format; if you've got strong material to
show the rest of the world, it couldn't be easier to write up your
material in the online fields, and join the cookbook party. Flex
developers are in very short supply in an exploding market, so here's
your chance to show your stuff to the rest of the community!
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/communityengine/index.cfm?event=homepage&productId=2

Labels: announcements

O'Reilly's created a brand new website devoted to the topics in our new
book "Beautiful Code" at http://beautifulcode.oreillynet.com.

We give you the opportunity to discuss the book's projects and to
contribute information about other projects that illustrate coding
artistry.

The lead programmer for the Beautiful Code website is Michael Feathers,
a popular author and expert in Agile Programming who contributed the
chapter "Framework for Integrated Test: Beauty through Fragility."

In a recent post, Feathers writes: "When I was a younger programmer, I
felt guilty about being a neat-freak. It was a selective obsession.
There I was, sitting in my office with stacks of papers and books
covering every available space, but I was oblivious to it. As long as my
code looked great, I could shut out the chaos around me: the towering
stacks of dead tree that could've toppled and crushed me if I had
sneezed."

Feathers continues, "I don't know why I felt bad about being that way,
but in retrospect, I think that I felt that I was wasting time caring
about neatness in code. It took me a couple of years to figure out that
the ergonomics of code matter, and that the time you spend decluttering
your code can declutter your thoughts as well."

Got a site that fits the spirit of Beautiful Code? Then send us a link
so we can blog about it:
http://beautifulcode.oreillynet.com/suggest_site.php


For more information on "Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain
How They Think" Edited by Andy Oram, Greg Wilson, go to:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510046


Don't forget that as a UG member you get 35% off from O'Reilly, No
Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Rocky Nook,
SitePoint, or YoungJin books you purchase directly from O'Reilly.

Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone 800-998-9938.
<http://www.oreilly.com/store/>

Labels: announcements

Hope everyone is having a great month so far! I received the following announcement for an upcoming BendTech gathering. Sorry for the late notice, I have not had access to email. If you make it let me know - I will be out of town most of the week.

When: Monday, August 13, 2007, 5:00 PM 2007

Where: Deschutes Public Library
601 NW Wall Street Brooks Room
Bend, OR 97701

All - so a slight change of plans for the next MeetUp. We're proud to welcome the Software Association of Oregon (SAO) to Bend on August 13th. They will be officially restarting a new chapter in Bend, working closely with BendTech going forward. And, August 13th will be an introductory meeting to SAO at 4:00 PM at McMenamin's. Depending upon how much fun and networking everyone is having/doing, we will move to the library around 5:00 / 5:30 and discuss the introduction of and direction of BendTech.

In the meantime, check out the following sites for further information:

http://www.bendtech.com
http://www.sao.org

I hope to see everyone at the event(s).

Matt

Labels: announcements

The Software Association of Oregon is considering forming a Central Oregon chapter. Their president, Harvey Mathews, writes:

We are interested in setting up a Central Oregon Chapter of the SAO if it adds value to the industry in the region.

We are having a meeting this Friday at 3:00pm at Alliance Data with a handful of local businesspeople to discuss this topic. If you are available at this late notice, please accept my invitation.

I will be out of town on Friday afternoon - if anyone else can make it please drop me a line and I will let Harvey know you are interested in attending.

Labels: announcements

Calling all Techie women!

Are you a programmer, a developer, an IT person, a tech. business owner, or a tech. exec.? If so, we want to meet you. We’re starting an informal, social networking group for Technical Women in Bend. Let’s get together for lunch and talk tech. The first meeting will be on Thursday, July 26th, 12:00 noon at DiLusso (Galveston location).

Please RSVP to Julie Anderson at julie@ciracreative.com, call (541) 977-8282, or check out this event's page on upcoming.org for more information.

Labels: announcements

If you ordered a book from O'Reilly... it's here! I will bring them to the meeting on July 26, where you can pick them up.

Didn't get your request in on time? I am starting a list of next months requests. Just send me the title and ISBN number of the book you would like, and I will request your FREE review copy from O'Reilly.

Labels: announcements