Business intelligence in the Cape

My name is Matt Horn. I am (was) the co-lead of BIDN in Johannesburg. I've been in the Cape a little over 3 weeks and I am itching. Itching to start a community as vibrant and friendly as the people I have encountered here so far. To this end I am attempting to put together a Business Intelligence User Group with the dual purposes of knowledge sharing and networking.

Why attend a User Group

In the past I've been asked why it's a good idea to attend User Groups and the obvious answer is free beer!

(mostly).

In an attempt to answer the question in a more mature manner I read Niche Software's blog post on the topic. What follows is a summary 

• Cheap Training

  In the current economic climate many companies are hard pressed to find budget for training.
  User Group meetings are generally free and likely to give you a good grounding on relevant topics.
  
  Other attendees may have encountered similar issues to the ones you are facing and may be able to offer insight into solutions. Most leaders would be delighted to receive a request for a specific topic as there are often local experts willing to speak if asked.

• Networking

  It is always a good idea to meet other people working with the same technology stack. different viewpoint can be valuable. Such discussions can give you a fresh perspective, new ideas and increased motivation. 

• Community

  We all owe a debt to others in our industry and what better way to pay that debt than to give back to the community as a whole. help make better developers better DBA's and a better standard of work that gets delivered by all of us?

These are but a few reasons to attend and to get involved in user groups  for your Technology stack.