Let's Talk Community Events!

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Let's Talk Community Events!

Pat Wright

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Points: 35
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April 25, 2026 at 12:00 am

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Community Events!
April 25, 2026 at 9:33 am

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sjmoeller1264 Newbie Points: 6 More actions · Answer 1

Hello,

I was recently let go from my job as a DBA and I'm working on setting up a user group presentation. I've already started the process by reaching out to someone who had presented for our user group some time back. The group is not currently meeting, but I thought this might be a good opportunity to put together an event.

I'm going to use zoom as our platform. I'm in the process of reaching out to people we met with when the group was active. I'm hoping you might have any other ideas for me to make this a good event and a possible way of setting up a regular meeting with SQL DBAs.

Thank you! Spencer Moeller

Rod at work SSC-Dedicated Points: 34117 More actions · Answer 2

This is a very good discussion, but one which also causes me a lot of anger. I work for an agency which hasn't sent a DBA/Developer/SysAdmin to any conference in at least 35 years. Of course, managers can go to conferences and they do, but the rest of us are never allowed to go anywhere, ever. I've no idea how this circumstance came about because no one is still around when the decision was made many years ago to not send DBAs/Developers/SysAdmins anywhere for anything.

There are, in my area, some local user groups, but getting to them, if they meet during the business day, is impossible, due to management's refusal to allow anyone to go off site. And unfortunately, that's my reality.

What I'd interested in learning is how to build my network, under such restrictive conditions?

Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Pat Wright SSC Rookie Points: 35 More actions · Answer 3

Spencer,

Zoom is a good platform to get things started, and makes it so lots of people can get to the content. I will warn that you won't have as much of a "connection" with Zoom. It is a great way to get things started and get things moving while trying to find places to meet or get together.

Setting up regular meetings.

Focus on consistency, meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month, or once a quarter on X day. Something that people can count on to always have something going on.
Reach out to LOTS of people, don't just focus on DB professionals, reach out to meetups all around you and in many different technologies. They can help to support. Remember, everyone uses the DB sooner or later.
Find others to help you with this endeavor. It's better with others and it helps to have others to support you.

I also wrote a guide on events and meetups that might help. You can find it here. https://sqlasylum.wordpress.com/event-planning-resources/

Thanks

Pat Wright SSC Rookie Points: 35 More actions · Answer 4

Rod,

That is a really tough situation. I know that early on, when I was organizing user groups and meetings, I would run into managers who had this idea. They would say, "We don't want to send our people to those meetups since someone will hire them away". Unfortunately, this is a very narrow view from the managers, one that does not scale well and shows that it's more a manager/company of control rather than one that tries to do the best thing for the employees.

Building a network in these situations.

If you have other co-workers in your area, start an internal networking/lunch-and-learn session. Even if it's something you would love to learn that you haven't. I did a lot of training and learning with my Security folks at one company, which helped my career to move forward.
Suggest to the group's organizers holding after-hours sessions. This is a hard thing, since most groups have to work with the majority of users, and if they are getting good attendance during the day, it's a hard sell. Sometimes, though, they have a way to do perhaps every couple of months and an after-hours session. The discussion/ask is the important thing. Start the conversation and see what happens.
Join Slack/Discord/community channels for use during the day. This, of course, doesn't give the in-person connection, but you can still start networking and discussing projects with others during the day using a community message board. Things like here on SSC and many other places, you should still be able to post. Ask others what projects they are working on or whether they are running into issues with them.

Hopefully, this adds some options that might be useful. I don't agree with companies that put these sorts of restrictions on events and actively work to avoid those organizations.