My User Group Participation is NOT a Political Statement!

aristocrat-161317_640I’ve been wanting to write this for a very long time, but each time I think it is safe to do so, something else crops up and I think someone is going to take this personally. Please don’t. This is just the way I feel. It’s general. It’s not about you. If you think it’s about you, maybe you have unresolved issues you need to deal with! 🙂

Followers of the blog will know I’m in the fortunate position of being able to speak at conferences around the world, typically organised by the local user group in that country. For one-off events, someone invites me and I say yes or no depending on my schedule and how many holidays I have left. 🙂 When I go on an OTN tour, I’m presented with a list of countries and will pick the tour or individual countries to fit in with my timetable. I try to do whole tours, or whole legs of tours for those that are split like Latin America, but that is not always possible. For example, this year I am only doing half the OTN APAC Tour as I’ve already committed to the BGOUG event and there is an overlap…

At no point in *my* decision process does politics become a factor. I never consider the politics of the country I’m visiting. I never consider the politics of the user group whose event I am speaking at. It’s just not what I do. I’m there because of the tech and the attendees! My presence in a country is not an endorsement of that country. My attendance at a user group event is not an endorsement of that user group. Regardless of the country or the user group, I’m at the event to meet the people. The people in most countries are remarkably similar and I enjoy meeting them!

My User Group Participation is NOT a Political Statement!

Cheers

Tim…