Madan Khichi - Salesforce Bengaluru Developer Group

This blog is part of a blog series to highlight Salesforce Community Champion, from user group leaders, developer group leaders, and members from around the world #Ohana

From the biggest Salesforce User Group / Developer Group, I would like to introduce Madan Khichi - Salesforce Bengaluru Developer Group leaders.

Tell us about yourself, which Developer Groups you lead?
I have associated with Salesforce 5 years back. Currently, I am a Sr. Salesforce Consultant and holding 4 certifications.

I am leading:
- Bengaluru Salesforce Developer Group with Abhilash Kuntar
- Bangalore Student Salesforce Developer Group with Kishore BT 
- Chandigarh Salesforce Developer Group with Paarth Jolly and Vipul Goel
- Coimbatore Salesforce Developer Group with Sujesh Ramachandran

I am working very closely with Bengaluru Salesforce Developer Group. So, Today, I want to discuss Bengaluru Group.


Would you like to share the journey with Salesforce and User Group? and what made you would like to lead the group? 
I remember the days when I was searching the job and one of my friends told me about Salesforce meetups. First time I have attained meetup, was on October 21, 2012 and from that, I got depth knowledge of Salesforce.

One day I was discussing with my friend Anurag Malpani to be a part of developer group, by looking my interest he made me the Co-Leader of Bengaluru group and I announced my first meetup on Oct 11, 2014.


How often you plan for group meetup?
We planned to announce meetups in the interval of 2 months but looking at the interested of people till date we have announced 22 meetups in 34 months.


How long have been your group established?
Around 7 years (May 3, 2010).


How big is your user group member, meaning the number of members attend for the meetup?
This is the “World Biggest Group” with 3318 members. Every meetup we are crossing the150 attendees.


What have you learned as group leader?
There are lot more things which I have learned while leading developer group such as:
- Taking the responsibility
- Coordinating with the leaders and attendees
- Management skills and knowledge


What do you love being a group leader?
It’s lot more fun to share my experience and knowledge with others and get connected with new people.


What do the challenges as a group leader and how to overcome it?
Challenges:
As the meetups are very frequent, it’s hard to arrange speakers and relevant topics. The arrangement of place as sometimes the count of attendees are more than from expectation.

Solution:
We have prepared a Google sheet, which is attached to our meetup page. Whom so ever is interested, can fill their information with the topic. For high level meetups companies are coming to sponsor.


What do you think the "uniqueness" about your Developer Group compare to others?
We are in “India's silicon valley”, where we can get a diverse audience like dev’s, admin, consultant, and customers also.



Share us tips that make your Developer Group success
We are pushing Bengaluru Salesforce Ohana to came and present/share their knowledge.


What would like to see your groups in the future? 
Planning for a big event where thousands of people can attend and take the knowledge from speaker’s.


One last thing you would like to share with the community
It’s a great platform where everyone can share their knowledge and ideas. Salesforce Ohana is always there to give hands for the growth and always appreciate the efforts which we are putting. 

Simplysfdc comment: I am very impressed with your dedication to the community. Is being a Developer Group leader your hobby? All the best with Bengaluru Calling and hope it makes a great impact and benefits for the community!!