Random Ramblings on LabVIEW Design

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swatts
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Loosely speaking I've been running a LabVIEW User-Group (with a great deal of help from Adrian Brixton, NI (numerous), Chris Roebuck, James Powell and many others) for about 5 years now. Click here to see more.

And I'll be honest one of the main reasons for starting it was as a bit of marketing, but over the years it's become much more than that. So here's my thoughts about user groups.

Presentation Skills

If ever you have seen me do a presentation, it may come as a surprise that I have no formal training. I'm a programmer and never went to university, so from 18 I have mainly interacted with machines on the factory floor. The idea of presenting filled me with horror!

In my opinion being able to present your ideas comes shortly after having some ideas worth presenting. So you learn LabVIEW syntax, learn some ways to program, make a few mistakes, nurture some opinions-----> now you will benefit by being able to present.

And why is this important? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

People will never know you have these ideas and the value of them unless you can present them.

A User Group is the best place to find your presenting mojo! and technical presenting is our forte, give us 10 minutes to describe how great our companies are and we'll struggle, give me 10 minutes on why I hate \user-lib and I'll hit you with slides, opinions, enthusiasm and maybe a few jokes.

Ideas Ideas Ideas

Generally a well organised user group is a friendly and supportive place, with people with ideas and experience at least on a par with yours. What better place to throw out a concept that may have never otherwise seen the light of day. I love the idea of academic discussions from professional programmers, this holds a great deal more meaning to me than academic discussions from people who have never had the pressure of deadlines, fixed prices or being paid by the hour to do work.

Programming outside of your tunnel

All the worst mistakes I make are because I'm mentally lazy and I seldom solve a problem in any way other than the first one that springs to mind. I'll assume most of humanity also has this problem. Sharing you code is a great way of re-evaluating some of your design ideas, sharing your design ideas is a great way of re-evaluating some of your basic pre-conceptions.

Friendship

Hippy moment coming up....

I actually try to separate work and home life, but I've found business to be mostly about relationships and over the years I've met some really great people and a user group is a nice excuse to all meet up and talk about something we all are interested in (sandwiches).

I also have huge admiration for people who present their own code, it's really a very difficult thing to do. Kudos to my CSLUG friends!

Filthy Lucre

So finally let's talk about marketing, some people impress with their fancy cars, suits, offices etc. In the programming world it's generally brains and experience.  A user group is much more up our street, we have a genuine technical interest in LabVIEW, we have opinions and are happy (sometimes a little too happy) to share them. Out of all the marketing opportunities a user-group fits us perfectly.

Remember : Marketing=hourly rate

We're going to try something new for our up-coming meeting; broadcasting via google hang-outs, this will be available to anyone who joins the CSLUG circle (if I can work out what the hell I'm doing). It will be chaotic but should be amusing.

So if you have a user group near you, join up and when you're comfortable present (the pain wil pay for itself many times I promise you)

If you don't have one near you start one up, NI will be delighted with you and there's still lots of puns left using LUG!

If neither of those options are available try the virtual ones or come join us on google hangouts, we can get you to present on Skype

And NI, how about a user-group track at NIDays, NIWeek?

Lots of Love

Steve