Regardless of your field, if you aren’t a member of a professional networking group / community, I hope 2018 will be the year you choose to get involved. There are powerful benefits to your career for participating.
I’m the kind of guy who participates in IT communities and happen to be the co-leader of the SpiceCorps of Dallas / Fort Worth. What is SpiceCorps, you ask? At the core, SpiceCorps are local meetings of IT professionals to discuss technology, career, and support one another as we navigate the fast and furious world of IT. These groups were formed by members of the Spiceworks community after the first Spiceworld in 2008, originally meeting to discuss the Spiceworks application. Over time, the conversations evolved into general IT discussion and became what you see today.
In case you weren’t able to make it, here’s an overview of 2017 in our SpiceCorps. For some meetings we didn’t do a good job of taking detailed notes on presentation content, while in other cases we hit the home run by filming.
Fun Facts about the SpiceCorps of Dallas / Fort Worth
- In 2017 we had 6 meetings.
- All meetings are free to attend for anyone interested.
- The number of attendees per meeting ranged from 14 to 28 with an average of 20.
- Meetings close to or in the Dallas area had the highest attendance levels, regardless of sponsorship.
- Three of the meetings were sponsored by vendors – Storage Switzerland, Rackmount Solutions, and Arctic Wolf. In these meetings, we ask vendors to help find a venue, provide us with food and beverage, and deliver technical content about the problems their technology solves. Then we pick their brains on how it works.
- Three of the meetings were unsponsored. That means we found our own venue and chose the content, utilizing members of the SpiceCorps as presenters.
- One meeting specifically had no set agenda and was an open discussion forum. We talked for at least 2 hours and ended up with content ideas for future meetings.
What Were Our Topics at Each Meeting?
- March 23, 2017 – Fort Worth
- Flash, Object, and Cloud Storage – Making It Work Together in Your Data Center
- George Crump of Storage Switzerland
- Enhance Spiceworks Reporting with Power BI
- Flaviu Borcoman
- Read the meeting notes
- Flash, Object, and Cloud Storage – Making It Work Together in Your Data Center
- April 25, 2017 – Rackmount Solutions Offices
- The Science of Soundproof Cabinets
- Rackmount Solutions
- Using VMware Horizon View
- Marc Stevens
- Read the meeting notes
- The Science of Soundproof Cabinets
- June 29, 2017 – Dallas Makerspace
- Open mic night for general discussions
- Read the meeting notes
- July 25, 2017 – Dave and Buster’s
- Technical overview of Arctic Wolf’s security-as-a-service offering
- Read the meeting notes
- September 12, 2017 – Hardie’s Fruit and Vegetable Company
- How I Use Google G Suite for My Business
- Ray Hicks, Greg Carreon, and Chris Lambert
- Office 365 Panel Discussion
- Marc Stevens, Scott Alan Miller
- Read the meeting notes (includes presentation highlights and links to recorded presentations).
- How I Use Google G Suite for My Business
- November 16, 2017 – North Richland Hills Library
- A Recruiter’s Advice to the IT Pro
- Mark Franklin
- Career Panel – Is Management the only Way?
- Brian Nelson, Jason Shiplett, David Johnson, Brian Watson
- Read the meeting notes (includes presentation highlights and links to recorded presentations).
- A Recruiter’s Advice to the IT Pro
How Can I Get Involved?
If you like what you saw above and want to talky nerdy with IT pros in Dallas / Fort Worth, we would love to meet you. All meetings are posted on our page in the Spiceworks Community and normally get posted on Twitter and LinkedIn. I recommend signing up for a Spiceworks community account (free) and then following our group in the community. That will send you an e-mail any time a new meeting is posted and allow you to RSVP.
- Do you have an idea for a future meeting topic? Bring it.
- Do you have a topic on which you would like to present to develop your career? Just do it. We’ll film it and make you YouTube famous.
- Are you a vendor who would like to sponsor one of our meetings? Let’s talk.
Please reach out to either me or my co-leader Brian Watson through the Spiceworks community, on Twitter / LinkedIn, or drop a comment on this blog post.
What if I’m not in Dallas / Fort Worth but would like to find a SpiceCorps?
You can search for a SpiceCorps in your area or start one if there isn’t one close to you.