Pritam Shekhawat - Noida Salesforce User 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

In this blog, I would like to introduce one of the community champions from Noida - India, Pritam Shekhawat, he is Salesforce Noida User Group co-leader, and he is also very active in Salesforce Answer Community.

Tell us about yourself, which User Group you lead?
I am 3x Salesforce Certified Developer and Salesforce Lightning lover and champ. The most imperative thing which I like about Salesforce is giving back. There aren’t sufficient words in the lexicon to portray the essentialness of giving back. Also, egotistically, when I give my time and vitality to others, I simply feel better — about myself and my group.

No matter how much time I have, I am a big fan of Answers Community where I have been answering for almost 2.5 years. My count is over 9000 answers now and I am inspired to never stop contributing.

Here’s my example of overcoming adversity that as of late got distributed on:

• Salesforce MVP Vinay’s (Noida User Group Leader) "Know Your Answers Community Leaders" site. 
• My Salesforce story distributed at 3x Salesforce MVP Eric Dreshfield’s online journal.
• Salesforce in 2017: Predictions for the Future with Mason Frank.
• My guest blog “Tips For Classic To Lightning” on Salesforce MVP Sharif’s site.

I started my career back in the year 2014 and I hold 3-year hardcore Salesforce Implementation experience. Currently, I lead Noida Salesforce User Group, which is the most vibrant user group in India. It was set up by my friend Vinay Chaturvedi, who supported me here. 

I am also involved in the campaign #SFDC4Students which focus on Students and train them to be successful with Salesforce, with the sole aim of bringing more developers in Technology.


How do you become User Group leader? and how is your journey when taking the role as User Group leader?
I use to collaborate in the events managed and run under Noida Salesforce User Group. Also, I am involved in other meetups by other User/Developer groups in the region. That gave me to gain experience in managing and executing such events successfully and that's the reason why Vinay assigned me the group leader for Noida User Group, which is the most successful group in the region and India, I was always a big fan of.


How often your User Group meet up?
As we have a large community here who support us, we plan a meetup every 40 days, more than just the members, we all are friends, the reason is we meet so frequently and so many exciting stuff keep on happening here in the Noida region.


How long have been your User Group established?
I believe 2+ years approx if I am not wrong.


How big is your user group member attend for the meetup in average?
The last event held here recently "#TDX17", we got an attendance of 134 members who joined us.


What have you learned as User Group leader?
So one big learning is "Team work is dream work". We have a really big team of developers here in the region which is ready to help us in everything and every decision. 
Every member here is technically sound and good speakers, they all are real gems from the community.


What do you love being User Group leader?
Being a team leader, I feel proud being within the community and support it grow. I look at it as an opportunity to learn and live together. I am a fan of #OhanaCulture.


What do the challenges become User Group leader and how to overcome it?
Two big challenges I believe here are:
a) How to grow the size and how to improve the quality of meetups.
b) What important steps could be, in order to raise the number of #WIT members in the group.


Tell us what is unique about your User Group
One big unique here is that: "Noida Salesforce User Group" helping the campaign #SFDC4Students to support the Notion of “Giving Back” to the Salesforce community. 

#SFDC4Students is the campaign run and managed by Salesforce community in the region, to bring more developers in Salesforce, for the reason we target colleges and do regular meetups in there, help the students learn Salesforce through Trailhead.


Share us tips that make your User Group success
I am a co-leader in Noida Salesforce User Group and I should say, every member of our group is a leader, with equal opportunities to present himself or to speak, equal opportunities to learn and teach. We respect every girly appearance in our group and with each meetup, we plan something special for our #WIT soldiers.


What would like to see your User Group in the future? 
I am currently looking at and focus on the students, so I would love to see more students joining us and being successful with Salesforce.


One last thing you would like to share with the community
As I always said and will say it again, "For I can't help falling in love with" #SalesforceOhana. 
I love being here and I really love the words said by "Cheryl Fieldman": "The best thing I developed on the Salesforce Platform, is my Career". 
Working on Salesforce Platform has worked wonders for me and many others I know. 

Simplysfdc comment: it always feels great when seeing you guys, with full of the energy in serving the community. Keep up the awesome works mate!

Jean Velonis & Misty Jones - Phoenix Women In Technology

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

Hello ladies, tell me about yourself, which User Group you lead and any other Salesforce community groups in your city?
Jean Velonis: Sr. Salesforce Admin, Phoenix Women In Technology.
Misty Jones: Sr. Salesforce Admin, Phoenix Women In Technology.

We have 5 awesome leaders in Phoenix:
Phoenix WIT - Jean & Misty.
Phoenix User Group - Gloria Gutierrez & Marisa Hambleton.
Phoenix Developer Group - Mike Norton.


When is your group established and when you become the group leader?
Group has been around since 2006 for core user group, but WIT has been around for the last 3 years. We love helping our fellow Salesforce members. 

Jean has been an admin since 2001 and Misty since 2011. We encourage women in tech to step up and share HER story in the WIT group. This helps them practice for a larger audience and/or build confidence.


How often you plan for User Group meetup?
Phoenix Women In Tech meets once a month.


How long has been your User Group established?
The last 3 years.


How many members attend the meetup in average?
We get anywhere between 5 to 25 ladies.


What have you learned as a User Group leader?
All of our community members are so grateful to have a group that they can come and share stories, bounce ideas and learn new skills. 

For Misty, she initially joined because she felt more comfortable and that it is a "safe place" in an industry traditionally dominated by men. We've heard the same initial sentiments from other attendees.


What do you love being a group leader?
We love giving back, sharing and learning about what others are doing in life balance, career, and health. Teaching, helping, and inspiring others, in turn teaches, helps, and inspires us!


What do the challenges become User Group leader and how to overcome it?
Finding a location that works for all our members. Phoenix is a wide city. We see members from 50 miles. This is hard to meet in a centralized location.


What do you think the "uniqueness" about your User Group compare to others?
The Phoenix WIT User Group has a vast span of members. We have OGs to Newbies. Admins, business users, and developers. We encourage everyone to participate and share HER story. You never know who else is having a similar issue, solution or career opportunity.


Share us tips that make your group success
Meeting regularly with a day of the month and location. We are lucky in that University of Phoenix partners with us. They allow us to have a permanent home on one of their campuses. 

We also evolve the community members in share their stories and experience. We try to find a topic like a movie showing for She Started It to bring in allies. 

Relating topics to discussions that have happened at meeting and bring in experts to help facilitate specific skills.


What would like to see your group in the future?
We would love to see more executives join us! Admins, developers, and business users are the core but having executive sponsorship from the top down really gives Salesforce the sparkle it deserves.


One last thing you would like to share with the community
Jean & Misty are "swagaholics". We love to collect, trade, and give out swag! Both of our spouses desperately wish for us to declutter.

Simplysfdc comment: Just curious if men allowed to attend WIT? Yes, I agree that user group and WIT group is the place to practice to speak to a larger audience and/or build
confidence. So, I believe both of you have submitted your presentation for DF17.

I had a chance to visit Phoenix, Arizona two years back, where my ex-company US regional office located in Scottsdale, it's around Jun and it's so hot!!! 

Cynthia Saalfeld - Marin County Salesforce User 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

Introducing the next Salesforce champion from Bay Area, Cynthia Saalfeld - Marin County Salesforce User Group.

Hello Cynthia, tell us something about yourself, and which User Group you lead?
Cynthia Saalfeld, Salesforce Administrator at my current job but a Salesforce Evangelist inside and outside of work.  I’m the founder and co-leader of the Marin County Salesforce User Group covering a region north of San Francisco and I’m also an active member of other Bay Area UGs.


How do you become User Group leader? and what made you interested in starting a User Group? 
My previous co-leader, Liz Gladstone and I met virtually in the Success Community, as both of us are Marin County residents, we noticed the existing gap in our neighborhood between San Francisco and the Wine Country. We decided to do some research on the requirements of how to become a User Group leader and started hosting events. Two years went by, Ian Gotts has joined me in the leadership.


How often your group meetup?
We’ve been meeting every other month, but working on expanding our frequency.


How many members attend for the meetup in average?
We have a loyal core group of 15-25 attendees, over 100 members subscribed in all media combined.  The attendance varies upon the topic and the day of the week.  We avoid scheduling our events that would conflict with others in the Bay Area.


What have you learned as a group leader?
I’ve learned that it’s important to have a User Group to rely on and, somewhere you feel a sense of community that is there for you.  It’s also a place where you can share your issues without being criticized because we’re constantly learning new features, new workarounds, something new almost every single day.


What do you love being a User Group leader?
I love being there for the people. The guests choose to spend a couple hours of their lives with us in order to learn together, brainstorm as a group, debate as a community, network as friends and have fun along the way.


What do the challenges become a group leader and how to overcome it?
Time management: started using Trello as a guide for the planning, execution and post-event phases.
Venue: started hosting events not only at tech offices but also local business unrelated to the cloud computing. Our last meetup was taken place at a MINI dealership.


Tell us what is unique about your User Group
The proximity to San Francisco and Salesforce’s headquarter. This allows our User Group the ability to get a number of key Salesforce people as speakers and participants. Additionally, Marin County is known for wonderful outdoor activities that help draw attendees even from San Francisco to our meetups. 


Share us tips that make your User Group success
- Relevant topics
- Good speakers
- Creative venues
- Wonderful food and wine


What would like to see your User Group in the future? 
A guest appearance from Marc Benioff.


One last thing you would like to share with the community
Never underestimate the power of the Salesforce Community!

Simplysfdc comment: you guys seriously have the event in MINI car showroom, or event in Mircosoft store? wow, thanks for sharing Marin County Salesforce User Group!

Amanda Matczynski - Salesforce Boston User 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 Boston Massachusetts, introducing Amanda Matczynski - Boston User Group leader and #AwesomeAdmin Trailblazer.

Hi Amanda, tell us something about yourself, which User Group you lead, and how many co-leaders in your group?
I’ve been in the Salesforce ecosystem for 3 years now. And just took over as a co-leader of the Boston User Group last summer. I lead together with one other member of the community, David Pier.


I see you have a gold trailblazer hoodie, do you want to share a bit about that?
I was awarded the #AwesomeAdmin Trailblazer award at Salesforce World Tour in Boston. It was an awesome experience, and I am loving #LifeWithGoldie.


How do you become User Group leader? are you the group founder? and what make you interested in accepting the role as user group leader? 
I am not the group founder. The Boston UG has been around for quite a while, and has had a significant presence in the UG community. 
When approached to take over last year, I was excited to start planning events and engaging the Boston community. We have such a large community, and I was excited by the challenge to try and provide useful, engaging content to the community.


How often your User Group meetup?
Quarterly


How long have been your User Group established?
I’m not actually sure, but I know it’s been many years.


How big is your user group member, and the average number of members attend for the meetup?
We have over 2,500 members in the community, but we usually have 75-100 attendees.


What have you learned as a User Group leader?
I am constantly learning from our community. The knowledge of our member is incredibly vast, and I love seeing new ideas presented at each meeting.


What do you love being a User Group leader?
I have met so many incredible people through the User Group. I love getting to meet new folks and either sharing knowledge with them or getting them connected to the right person for the job!


What do the challenges become User Group leader and how to overcome it?
Finding space in Boston proper is generally our biggest issue. We’ve tried out a variety of spaces in the last few years, and want to continue to focus on meeting in the Boston area where folks have access to public transport if necessary.


Tell us what is unique about your User Group?
We do have an awesome MVP group here in Boston! Some familiar faces there for sure. Even in a city where tech is pretty big, we still have a good variety of companies represented at the User Group which I think is exciting!


What would like to see your User Group in the future? 
I’d love to be able to grow our attendance back up to what it used to be. We have an incredible group of folks who come regularly, and we frequently have some new faces. But I’d love to engage some others in the community.


One last thing you would like to share with the community
Imposter syndrome is a real thing. And man has I been there. But when others see potential in you, hold onto that insight and remember that you have worked hard for and deserve the recognition you’re receiving. Own it and remember that our Salesforce Ohana is incredibly supportive and encouraging! Embrace it!

Simplysfdc comment: You are really doing well for community and congrats for the Golden hoodie, you deserved it! 
Thanks for sharing about Boston User Group, it is a famous city, also a big name for the universities!

Dale Ziegler - Salesforce Kansas City User 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 second largest metropolitan area in Missouri, I would like to introduce Dale Ziegler, Salesforce MVP and Salesforce Kansas City User Group leader. Let's hear his story and transformation as user group leader.

Hello Dale, tell us about yourself, which User Group you lead, and how many co-leaders in your group?
I've been in the Salesforce Community since January 2011, the first 6 years as a customer admin and now a consultant.  I am the co-leader of the Kansas City User Group with Jason Kort.


How do you become User Group leader? and what make you interested in accepting the role as a group co-leader? 
When I first started attending User Groups, I was completely lost and actually stopped attending.
My boss then told me I *HAD* to go, and even tied my attendance to my annual bonus! From that point on, I made a point to be as engaged as possible, and gave my first presentation to the group in July 2012.
By 2014, I was a frequent contributor, and in Spring 2015, I decided to put my name in the hat to be co-leader of the group.


How often your group meetup?
Post-Dreamforce 2016 has seen a fairly regular frequency of every 2 months!


How long have been your user group established?
I couldn't tell you when the KCUG started up, but it's been strong for at least 6.5 years (i.e. as long as I've known it's a thing!).


How many members attend for the meetup in average?
We'll usually draw anywhere from 50-70 attendees...free lunch at a free site in the middle of an uncongested metropolitan area helps with that :)


What have you learned as a group leader?
I've learned that everyone attends user group meetings for different reasons, so it's important to provide a variety of content that's still aimed at capturing the entire audience's attention.


What do you love being a user group leader?
I love knowing we've organized a local forum for everyone to come together with their questions and insights, and in a safe place where everyone can drop their company affiliations and just be Community members.


What do the challenges become a User Group leader and how to overcome it?
Honestly, the biggest challenge can be finding willing presenters :) I know, I have a solid core of veteran presenters, but we all love seeing people get up on stage for the first time and tell their story.


Tell us what is unique about your User Group?
From what I've gathered in talking with other UG leaders, we're very fortunate to have access to an amphitheater-style room at a customer location, which means facilities are free!  This makes our group very competitive with sponsors, so it's definitely not a bad problem to have!


Share us tips that make your User Group success
Commitment.  To lead a solid and sustainable user group, you have to be committed to planning.  But also make sure it's fun and light.  No one wants to take time out of their day to be in another boring meeting.  Do whatever you can to make your user group meetings a local destination!


What would like to see your User Group in the future? 
I would love to see our group come together for some charitable work.  Kansas City has several non-profits that love to host work groups, so I think that would be a prime opportunity to practice Salesforce's spirit of giving back!


One last thing you would like to share with the community
We have the best BBQ in the world...if you want to come to KC to present at our user group, be prepared for some fine smoked delicacies!


Simplysfdc comment: this is the first time I heard that boss pushing the employee to attend Salesforce User Group, and even tied it to the bonus, if only more and more companies do the same thing, that would be really cool!

I think another unique about KCUG is that you guys not taking many photos :)

Lauren Touyet - Salesforce Ireland User 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

Today, we have Lauren Touyet from Ireland, the leader of OhanaCoffee and co-leader of Ireland User Group, she would like to share with us how great is Ireland meetup.

Hello Lauren, tell us about yourself, which User Group you lead, and how many co-leaders in your User Group?
I started off with Salesforce back in 2011 and am now 2 times certified and I currently work for a partner DocuSign as a Senior Business Systems Analyst. 
My hobbies are Salesforce! I found and lead OhanaCoffee a virtual meet up for the community

 I am a co-organiser of Surf Force and a co-leader of the Ireland User Group, there are 2 leaders of our group Bartley Doyle and myself.

How do you become User Group leader? what does your journey become co-leader? and what make you interested in accepting the role as group co-leader? 
I had been attending the user groups for nearly 2 years and had presented at 2 meet ups. Salesforce loved how passionate I was and how much I loved to talk about Salesforce that they asked me to be a leader! 
I became a leader in Oct 2016 just 1 week before Dreamforce 2016, when I got to Dreamforce I went to the State of the Union and instantly started connecting to other leaders and getting ideas on how they ran their groups.


How often your group meetup?
We meet once a quarter and meet for some ad hoc meetings like the Dreamforce Outpost, Lightning World Tour, our next ad hoc is Lightning in a Box on July 12th. 


How long have been the group established?
The group was founded in 2013 by Bartley Doyle my co-leader, but I didn’t find it until 2015 when I was looking to meet others who worked with Salesforce.


How big is your user group member, and the average number of members attended the meetup? 
We have over 400 on the Communities Group however for the meet ups the numbers vary depending on the time of year we get a steady 30-40 people ranging from Admins to Devs, business users, and new customers. 


What have you learned as group leader?
There is no shortage of help and Ideas from the community and it is important to get feedback from the members and act on the feedback!


What do you love being User Group leaders?
I love getting to talk to the #Ohana and help others – our user group meeting last night I did an unplanned presentation on Trailhead as we had 2 customers who were new to Salesforce and asking where can they get training. Being able to connect people to the wider #Ohana also makes me so happy! 

I experienced impostor syndrome (http://www.mostlycloud.com/blog/how-trailhead-helped-me-tell-my-doubters-i-know-what-im-doing) early in my career and didn’t have the support of the community as I didn’t know it was there, what really motivates me is making sure every salesforce user in Ireland has a place they can come and get advice.


What do the challenges do you face a User Group leader and how to overcome it?
Trying to get speakers and picking relevant topics for a wide section of people can be tough – if anyone reading this wants to talk at our next meet up just let me know!


Tell us what is unique and special about Ireland User Group
We don’t just talk about releases or new products we talk about actual problems we have faced and how we have solved them – you’d be surprised how many people say, “I had a similar issue and now I know how I can solve it”.


Share with us some tips that make your User Group a success
I think it is the same for all user groups! Swag! The Salesforce Community Loves Swag!


What would like to see your User Group in the future? 
I really would love to see more users attending and maybe some people from Salesforce America come over to Ireland and present to us!


One last thing you would like to share with the community
The Community is amazing I have never seen a community so close even when not close geographically! I have met some of my best friends on the community and know everyone has my back – it’s a fantastic feeling.

Simplysfdc Comment: wow OhanaCoffee, Surf Force - seems like you have all the cool stuff and fun of the community. But, only for people from Salesforce America? come on, we are #Ohana, not just America, kidding ;)

Anyway, I love the photos with Ireland flag, they definitely awesome!

Simon Gascoigne - Sydney Salesforce User 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

I would like to introduce our first champion from Southern Hemisphere Simon Gascoigne, co-leaders of Sydney Salesforce User Group from Australia.

Hello Simon, tell us something about yourself, which User Group you lead, and how many co-leaders in your group?
I have been involved with Salesforce for over 10 years both as a customer and more recently a partner. I co-lead the Sydney Salesforce User group along with 3 other co-leaders.


How do you become User Group leader, and what make you interested in accepting the role as a User Group leader?
In 2015, I was asked to take part in a rebooting of the user group by Salesforce MVP Peter Chalmers. As an active member of the community for many years, I was keen to give back. Very early in my Salesforce journey, I was lucky enough to spend time with fellow customers at several events (pre-dating the user group program we now know). 
The openness and willingness to help of attendees at these meetings really sold me on Salesforce as the place to be. I am really keen to bring that to everyone. We now have a word to put on it, our Ohana.


I heard something about ‘Down Under Dreaming’ in Sydney, what is that and can you share with us?
We had been watching with interest as Mid West Dreamin' and the events that followed around the world like London Calling caught fire. We are really keen to bring a community led Salesforce event to Sydney. 
We are excited to be hosting our event at Taronga Zoo overlooking iconic Sydney Harbour. We are putting together an amazing agenda and are thrilled that Erica Kuhl and Peter Coffee will be joining us. Early bird tickets are now on sale! http://www.downunderdreaming.com/

How often your group meetup? And how long it have been established?
One of the things we wanted to achieve when we rebooted the user group was regular meetings, so we have a meeting monthly. The roots of the user group go back many years but in it's current rebooted from is around one year. 


How big is your user group member, meaning the number of members attend for the meetup?
Depending on the meeting we normally have 50-200 attendees. 


What do you love being a User Group leader?
The people, our Ohana are very special. Someone saying they found value in a session is all we need to hear to know it's worth it.


Any challenges to run User Group and how to overcome it as a leader?
Finding suitable spaces for the size of our group can be very challenging. We just do our best to come up with different solutions.


Tell us something unique about your group
We were very proud at our end of year celebrations last year that we were able to raise 10,000 AUD for charity. This was due to the generosity of our sponsors and members. To have over 400 people attending was impressive in itself, but seeing the money raised was truly inspiring.


Share us tips that make your User Group success
As mentioned before meeting regularly, working to get engaging speakers and varied topics. Not being afraid to ask for things! We are fortunate to have had some amazing speakers from Salesforce come to our user group because we asked.


What would like to see your group in the future?
We would like to explore chapters that cover verticals in more details as part of the User Group. For example, Financial Services. Allowing those members to meet as well during the year to focus on their vertical while still being part of the main group. Also to look at Satellite groups in Greater Sydney.


One last thing you would like to share with the community
Please get involved with the community, I guarantee you will get out more than you put in! Be it online in the Success Community, on Twitter, at you local User Group meeting or by joining us in Sydney for Down Under Dreaming on Aug 29th! 

Simplysfdc comment: it is really awesome you guys able to raise AUD 10,000 for charity. But, seems like you guys party more then Trailhead sessions, I kid :)

Hope the first Down Under Dreaming in the next few months will succeed and benefits for the community.

Martin Humpolec - Salesforce Prague, Czech Republic User 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

Today, we have Martin Humpolec from the Czech Republic would like to share Salesforce Prague, Czech Republic User Group for the successful on the 1st meetup.

Hi Martin, tell us about yourself, which User Group you lead, are you the founder of the group? and what made you start the group?
I started with Salesforce 5 years ago as a consultant and learned more and more. At the same time, I blogged about my experiences and findings, tweeted links to interesting articles. I also became members of the Prague Salesforce User & Developer Group, but as Salesforce doesn't want to combine users and developers, I started the Prague, Czech Republic User Group and right now I'm trying to promote it to existing customers. 


I heard that your User Group just launch a few months ago, would you like to share the journey? 
Yeah, I've been accepted as UG leader in February 2017 and it took me a while to find the free time to organize our first meetup, which we held just in the middle of May 2017. We had 15 people signed up to learn more about Lightning and I was really surprised that ALL of them attended. 

It wasn't as hard as I expected, the hardest part was to find the right theme which might be interesting for a lot of people. And the second hard thing, in which I really haven't been successful, was reaching out to the customer. I emailed those I knew, I asked other Salesforce partner to promote it among their customers and also reached out to Salesforce's account exec for the Czech Republic. I hoped to be able to reach out to more people, but at the same time, 15 of them isn't really bad for such small market, which the Czech Republic is.


How often you plan for the group meetup?
I hope we'll have at least four a year, as Salesforce requires. But I hope to have them every two months. It is all just matter of how many interesting ideas we'll come with and will find someone to talk about them.


How big is your user group member, meaning the number of members attend for the meetup?
At the moment only those 15 who attended the first meeting, but there is a Czech and Slovak user group on the success community, where is more people, so I hope to convert more of them into our group and motivate them to attend our meetings.


What have you learned as User Group leader?
That it isn't as hard as one would expect to organize the meeting, at least at this size. And that it is a lot of fun to meet with other people and hear their stories, problems, and successes. 


What do you love being a User Group leader?
It is great to be part of the Salesforce Ohana and the feeling, that you do something to promote this great platform. I also love answering peoples' questions and finding the answers. 


What do the challenges become User Group leader and how to overcome it?
I think that for me the biggest challenge about being User Group leader is to stay ideally behind the scene. As I work for the Salesforce partner I don't want to be seen by other partners as someone, who do this to get their customer, I really want the user group to be a user group of all Prague users, no matter which partner works with them.


What do you think the "uniqueness" about your User Group compare to others?
How about 100% attendee on the 1st meetup?


Share us tips that make your User Group success
Care about people, let them ask questions and find answers if needed and no-one else knew it. Start the conversation and involve all in it. 


What would like to see your User Group in the future? 
Grow bigger, be known by every user in Prague and around, be respected and motivate its' users to share their knowledge with each other, not just listen. 


One last thing you would like to share with the community
Don't be afraid to start User Group in your city and help spread the word about Salesforce. It is fun and it also helps you to learn more about this technology and meet great people. 

Simplysfdc comment: Congrats for the 1st successful meetup Martin, and the group photo looks really cool!!!

Shinya Yamada 山田真也 - Salesforce Kansai Osaka User 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

Today, I would like to introduce a leader from the land of rising sun - Shinya Yamada 山田真也, leader of Salesforce Kansai Osaka User Group, he would like to share with us how awesome is the Japanese user group. If you can't read Japanese, google is your friend :)

Yamada-san, tell us about yourself, which Salesforce Group you lead, and how many co-leaders in your group?
SFUG ルーキー会関西でリーダーをしてます。


I heard something called "Umekita Force" related to your group, would you like to share more on it?
Umekita Force は、関西のSalesforce 開発者が集まるコミュニティとなります。
※Salesforceさんが主体ではなく、ユーザー主導で活動してます。

活動内容は以下となります。

関西において
ビジネス抜きに
開発者がワイワイと気軽に集まり
コミュニケーションを楽しみつつ
お互いいい刺激を受けながら技術力アップをめざし
Salesforceを愛でる

主にApexやVisualforceを利用されるDeveloper系の方が対象となります。（ポイント&クリックの宣言的開発を行うAdministrator系の方は若干外れるかもです） これからの方もエキスパートさんもお気軽にどうぞ。

一緒に関西でもSalesforceを盛り上げていきましょ～

https://www.facebook.com/groups/266521910164921/
https://umekitaforce.connpass.com/


What made you interested in accepting the role as the group leader? 
日本のSFUGでもっとも古いグループとなります。
私は6代目のリーダーで、推薦によってリーダーに選ばれました。
近日7代目リーダーに引き継ぐ予定です。


How often your group meetup?
3ヶ月に1回開催してます。


How long have been your group established?
2011年ごろから開催しており、４半期に1度の開催を目標としてます。


How big is your user group member, and in average how many members attend for the meetup?
メンバーは219人(2017年５月)で、参加者は40人前後となります。


What have you learned as group leader?
システム管理者同士の悩みの共有、
懇親会まで参加していただくことで情報共有頻度がUG以外でも行われるようになりました。

D&Dで簡単に機能追加ができるSFの手軽さを皆さんに伝えることができた。


What do you love being DG/UG leaders?
関西でTOPクラスのSF愛
新しい人にも積極的に話をすることで周りを巻き込む


What do the challenges become a group leader and to overcome it?
SFのCSMメンバーと打ち合わせすることで、何に困ってる人が多いから解消するために、
どのような勉強会をするかを検討、開催すること。


Tell us what is unique about your Kansai Osaka group
懇親会までが勉強会（お酒を飲んで仲良くなる）

自社のSF環境を隠すのではなく、見せ合うことで他社、他業種を超えて、
いい部分は共有しあう。

ギブアンドテイクの精神


Share us tips that make your group success
懇親会までが勉強会、積極的に周りを巻き込む。

聞いてるだけじゃなく、参加者も手を動かす、ディスカッションを行う。


What would like to see your DG/UG in the future? 
ずっとリーダーはしないですが、どんどん世代交代をしていき、
10年、20年と見続けていたいと考えてます。


One last thing you would like to share with the community
コミュニティのおかげで自分がここまで成長できたので、
この感動をもっとたくさんの人に広げていきたい。

また新しいグループも積極的に作っていきたいです。

Simplysfdc comment: people say a picture is worth a thousand words, thanks for your kindness and showering us with Osaka hospitality, personally I like the food in Osaka, think of Namba, and Dotonbori!

#Ohana means - you know that you have friends at the other side of the world, all thanks to Salesforce for building this community, check out this tweet!