[MVP Blog] How to join Access User Groups and Events – or set up your own

[Karl Donaubauer]

Are you interested in joining or establishing a community or event related to Access? I would like to share some background, methods, and tips to help you do that. But first, a little about me: I'm the organizer of the two biggest Access conferences in the world. I have founded several Access User Groups in Germany, Austria, and Italy – both local with offline meetings and international with online character. I have helped other user groups get started and have visited and spoken at many user groups and Access events in various countries. Also important: I’ve had my share of failures and mistakes. Not everything I’ve tried has worked and not in every location.

Background

Access is in a difficult position in all parts of the world: its basic technologies are aging, its public image is questionable, rumors of its death repeatedly stoke fears, and many IT departments aren’t keen on supporting it. And these problems were only made worse by the years when Microsoft concentrated on Access Web Apps and deprecated a lot of features from the desktop version of Access.

But these times are over! The desktop version has Microsoft’s full support again, and the product’s indisputable strengths as a RAD tool and database development platform have allowed it to maintain a solid position in the market. In the last few years the Access Team has implemented many new features and continues to work actively on the product. So there is good news: we can tell the world that the product lives and evolves. This is a great moment to start new community initiatives for Access!

I strongly believe that a product’s ecosystem – communities, user groups, events, media, image, PR etc. –  is of equal importance for the persistence and position of a development platform to the product’s actual  feature set and policies – and that's the reason for this article.

Tip 1: First get yourself equipped with useful strategic Access material: above all, read (and memorize ;-)) Luke Chung's fundamental strategic article. Then dive deeper: peruse other material like my catalog for the professional Access application. Be informed about new developments and features in Access, read success stories about the product, and build your own set of real world arguments and content for whatever community activity you plan. Good places to start are the Access team’s new blog platform and the What's new in Access article at Office.com.

Access user groups

There are plenty of existing Access user groups around. However, many of them are not very active due to the problems I mentioned above. Nevertheless, you may be able to simply join and play an active role in – or even revive – such a user group if you put in some effort. Sometimes existing groups can at least be a good starting place to find and collect a few interested people for a new effort.

Tip 2: As a start, do a serious web search about existing user groups in your region or language. Do the same for websites about Access that originate in your region.

If you have to start from scratch, I would even suggest noting every colleague's name and e-mail/web address from your region you come across in real life, in your research, in technical forums about Access, or in social media like LinkedIn or XING.

To start a new user group, nothing is more valuable than a long list of names and addresses. The more you have, the better your chance of success. Only a fraction will be interested and take an active part in whatever you try to start. Don't be frustrated. It’s always like that.

Tip 3: One systematic method for collecting contact information for interested parties is to set up an informational web page where you paint a picture of who you are, what others might gain by participating, etc., and let people leave their contact e-mail addresses. This doesn’t have to be a new webspace. A dedicated landing page at an existing website can even be more trustworthy, especially if there is other real world and Access-related content already there.

You should use a normal website – not a "rich" platform where people have to be a member or log in – in order to convince the broadest possible range of strangers to take the first step. It’s important to make leaving their contact information a low/no barrier thing.

Of course, you need to advertise the page wherever you can, and keep advertising it for some months:  you never know who reads it, when, and where. Once you gather a few (or hopefully many) contact addresses, there should be a physical, offline meeting where interests and plans to proceed are discussed.

Tip 4: Generally a website with information about your user group is an important thing also in the long run. Again, don't rely on platforms that need some sort of membership and login. Use a plain simple website or blogging platform. Publish announcements and dates there, along with reports and pictures about previous group activities.

Tip 5: Advertise your planned user group or activities in the right places. There is the new Microsoft Tech Community Forum for Access which is explicitly dedicated to support community initiatives. There are the Microsoft community and MSDN forums for Access, and also third-party platforms, the biggest being Utter Access. Get the word out also via LinkedIn and Facebook etc. and of course use every available Access related platform in your language or region as dead as it may seem. You never know who still reads it.

Tip 6: Implement a fixed rhythm for your user group meetings, like every first Tuesday of the month or such. There may not be a lot of people at every meeting, especially in the beginning, but frequency, predictability and reliability are essential to let a user group grow in the long run.

Tip 7: Get interesting content or possibly speakers for every meeting. It doesn't have to be some sensational two hour presentation, but think about a motto, some use case examples, and some ways to get attendees to take an active role. (See also tip 9+10.)

Tip 8: Offline user groups are absolutely preferable, as they provide the richest experience, contacts etc. However if you are too isolated, or if you don’t have success in implementing a real world user group, then there is an alternative: on the virtual Access user groups platform, you can either join an existing group or create and lead a virtual group for your region or language.

Access events

There are several existing events for Access users and especially developers. These conferences have important functions. Not only to be up-to-date about the product but also as meeting places to exchange information, for professional developers to know the markets and rates, be self-confident as Access developer, learn new skills, integrate modern SW development methods in the Access work etc.

Some existing events:

• The German Access development conference AEK is the biggest with 200+ attendees every autumn.
• The Access DevCon Vienna follows with 60 attendees from 13 countries in its second year.
• The international annual PAUG conference of the Portland (Oregon, USA) Access User Group.
• The roughly semiannual National Seminarse. one day events of the UK Access User Group (UKAUG).
• The occasional Access Days in the US organized by JStreet Technologies.
• The annual meeting of the Spanish Access User Group.

If you want to set up your own Access event, it doesn't have to be an international conference. It is enriching and motivating for the group to hold an annual bigger meeting of your regional user group where you also possibly invite external speakers.

Tip 9: The Microsoft Tech Community provides a special Community Leadership Kit written by Jono Bacon, a community leader expert. This document contains useful information on how to establish and maintain offline user groups and in particular how to organize events.

Not everything in the kit will fit your purpose – Access is a special animal regarding sponsors, and there are lot of cultural differences in the world. Still, the document is a valuable resource, especially if you are starting from scratch.

Tip 10: Become a member of the Microsoft Tech Community for Access!

The Access Tech Community is the central place to engage with the Microsoft Access product group and the Access MVPs. We love to support ideas and efforts for the product and its users. This could be a user group, an event, a website, a blog or other media initiative – or whatever ideas you have. We can provide you with information, tips, organizational help, links, speakers, and more. Tell us what you plan and where we can help!

[George Hepworth]

Karl,

It's inspiring to see your continuing commitment to the success of Access. In my experience, the decline of local Access User Groups probably predates the detour into "webifying" Access in 2010 and 2013 versions, although that did take Microsoft's eye off the ball, in some ways. Given the MS Access Team's reinvigoration of the product, it's timely for us to renew our own efforts to reinvigorate our local Access user groups.

One question that does come up with regard to doing that is whether such groups need the recognition and support of Microsoft and the Access Team. And, if that is the case, the follow-on question would be how to go about garnering that support.

George Hepworth

MS Access MVP-2007-2018

[Karl Donaubauer]

Hi George,

in former times there were programs by MSFT to support user groups (CLIP, MSTC etc.). By and large organizers and attendees enjoyed the contacts, invitations, materials although they weren't always product oriented or purposeful. I think most of these programs have been suspended.

What could recognition and support by MSFT and the Access Team look like:

1. A public list and map of "officially recognized" user groups and events?
   as information, reference, to attract more people
2. Informational and promotional material?
   from papers/pages about technical subjects, features, community building, surveys to hats, shirts and flags with Access logos
3. A responsive contact address for organizers?
4. Personal and online visits, presentations, videos, slides, demo files etc. by the Access Team?

Any further ideas that would afford no work and money? ;)

At some points the MVPs could support e.g. keep a list updated, present sth. equiped with current MSFT info/material. But of course every kind of recognition and support needs some ressources and I can imagine a few people scratching their heads about such discussions. :)

[Christopher Rauch]

MS ACCESS - The Millennium Falcon at Microsoft! (phrase coined:  genevieve Solutions 2018)