Monday, April 13, 2009

Apache OFBiz Community Building Tour - Mid-western USA, April 2009

As a follow-on to the April release branch, and to help encourage community growth and participation for Apache OFBiz, I'm planning a tour of the Mid-western United States. As part of this tour I'd like to visit with individuals and organizations who are current and prospective users, contributors, and others involved with or interested in OFBiz.

In these visits I will be available to spend 1-3 hours with you and answer questions about Apache OFBiz and how you can use it most effectively. I would be happy to speak with individuals or as many people from your organization as you would like.

If you would like to better leverage opportunities to collaborate with others in the community or there are specific things you'd like to see in OFBiz, or be able to do with OFBiz, this is a great time to chat about it. Also if you'd like general business level or technical help with the software I'm happy to go over those sorts of things as well.

I am doing this as the PMC Chair of Apache Open For Business with the intent of helping grow the community and not in my role as an officer of Hotwax Media. If you are interested in the services of Hotwax I'll be happy to briefly answer questions and refer you to the Hotwax sales people.

Below is the rough schedule I have in mind and the general areas I plan to be in. I'll be changing it as needed to accommodate what people are available for. If you're around these areas and available around these times, please let me know!

17 April (Fri): Omaha NE, Des Moines IA, Kansas City MO
20 April (Mon): St. Louis MO
22 April (Wed): Indianapolis IN, Louisville KY (maybe Chicago IL)
24 April (Fri): Memphis TN, Nashville TN
27 April (Mon): Dallas TX, Oklahoma City OK

Please contact me directly by email if you're interested in a visit. If you know of someone else who might be interested in a visit, please make an introduction and if they are interested I'm happy to play along. My schedule is flexible on this trip so morning, lunch and evening visits along with normal business hours are fine.

There is no fee for this, but I won't refuse a free meal if offered. I'm traveling in a 40' motorhome, so hints for parking somewhat nearby are also appreciated.

I am planning to do this in other areas in the near future, but don't have firm plans yet. The next likely area will be the north-western USA in July (around the time and place of OSCON which I'll be speaking at on July 23rd in San Jose, CA).

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