A new sheriff in town
Filed Under: Tags: austin_group, meetup_group, spread_the_good_word, web_standards, WordPress
So this morning I hit the office minding my own business. I had a very bad drive in to work with the rain. I avoided the early morning office conversations because I wanted to keep my head focused on getting some client project work accomplished. This client work involves using WordPress to host the site. But the client also wants to host an Events calendar.
So I pull up my browser and type two words into the search box, WordPress and Events. The first item returned from the search was titled ‘WordPress enthusist Events…’. Curious, I clicked the link. I was brought to the Meetup.com main page. This page listed all the know WordPress groups. This was great. I used to use Meetup.com years ago and was an active member of the local PHP developers and Web Standards groups. But after meetup.com started charging things dropped off. So I quickly scanned the listing and didn’t see anything listed for Austin, hmm. I tried the zipcode search. Nothing. Then I saw the banner, “Start a WordPress meetup group in your area…’. Another hmm.
I had to think about this a little. I really enjoy working in WordPress. And if I had any balls at all I would have worked harder to land the recent job opening at Automattic.com/. So I decided to pony up my credit card and launch the group. I’m the group leader. Can say what that will bring. But I do hope to spread the good word of WordPress.
Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Austin, TX area? Desire to meet others in the area with similar interests? Then consider joining the group. http://wordpress.meetup.com/173/
I’m also a member of the local Refresh Austin group. There are plenty of members of this group who also use and enjoy WordPress. But do they have time to possibly attend both groups? Only time will tell I guess.
Also setup a mirror Event on Upcoming.org in case you don’t like Meetup.com http://upcoming.org/event/168004/?ps=5
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March 22nd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
This seems like a good entry to post to austinbloggers.org
March 22nd, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Hey, this is awesome. Count me in.
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:14 am
Hey Paul,
Great idea! I for one can attend both groups. In fact, this one is made all the easier to attend because it’s within walking distance.
I look forward to leveraging Wordpress in new ways.
-RYAN
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:44 am
Hey Paul, you should kick out a note to Refresh Austin as well!
I’ll be there.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:56 am
[...] Paul Menard has taken it upon himself to start up Austin’s first Wordpress Meetup Group. If you use Wordpress as a blogging tool or are thinking about using it, then you should check out the Meetup.com and Google group. Same goes if you’re interested in using Wordpress as a CMS solution for client projects. [...]