[This email was sent to me off-list, but I am responding on-list as I am
assuming that it has relevance to other people as well. I have removed
identifying info from the original email so as to not unnecessarily
compromise the identity of the sender who sent it to me privately. *PLEASE*
follow the example of this person and reply OFF-list so as to not
unnecessarily clutter the list for everyone else. Thanks!]
On 12/30/00 at 8:28 AM -0700, xxxxx wrote:
>> With the mission of being the catalyst to bring the
>> Arizona internet community closer together so as to help
>> enable it to do great things, we have always tried to keep
>> the threshold for participation as low as possible.
>
> Ed,
>
> That's the one sentence that stands out to me against everything
> else you said. If it is to bring the Arizona Internet community
> closer together, how can you only have events in one city, much
> less one venue in a large city. Events need to be moved around
> so that people travel and thus we all get to meet different people
> from different parts of Arizona.
Thanks for your feedback. Agreed.
There have been many many emails sent on this subject over the years.
First, we have a Discussion List of 2000+ people from all over the state.
Anyone and everyone has been encouraged to step up and post an email to the
list to see if there is enough people in their area who want to get
together. For a while there we had people doing meetings in downtown
Phoenix and up in Scottsdale. Those apparently have died from a lack of
interest.
Second, the existence of AZIPA and of this Discussion List has helped
support, and in some cases launch and sustain, many other groups and
events, everything from First Tuesday Phoenix to IndUS Entrepreneurs to O2
to AIECA to CITA to ATIC to AZTechCares to AZSOFT.net to AVCC, etc, etc,
etc, etc.
Third, if we had 100 different meetings each month in different parts of
the state with 6 people each, would that be the same value as one meeting
with 600+ people? Is not some of the value of the meeting the number of
possible interconnections between people attending? If you go into a room
of 600+ people once a month and you start by knowing no one, but go around
to 50+ Showcase tables (who are there because there are 600+ people there)
and meet each of those people, and maybe a few others, and then go back the
next month and do it again, meanwhile getting on this list and meeting even
more people, or perhaps deepening the relationship with the people whom you
have already met - to the point of inviting five of them to dinner and
having a small group gathering of six people to really sit down and talk,
does that not make it a better catalyst?
Short version: One big event a month (that is within fairly easy driving
distance of the bulk of the population of the state and of the Internet
industry) does act as a catalyst to bring people together from all over the
state. There are many other groups and events that AZIPA helps promote and
support that fill different niches and geographies. And finally, everyone
has the tool called the AZIPA Discussion List to reach 2000+ fellow
Internet professionals to throw out an idea and see if anyone else is
interested.
Best,
-Ed
==AZIPA=============================================================
Arizona Internet Professionals Association http://www.azipa.org
Next AZIPA monthly meeting is 5:30pm on Monday, January 22nd, 2001
Please be sure to RSVP! http://www.acteva.com/go/azipa
Other upcoming events:
Tempe Tech Oasis Techie Tuesday - 6:00pm, Tuesday 1/9/01
Beeloe's Cafe & Bar, 501 S. Mill Ave Tempe (SE corner of 5th)
Strategic Research Institute Web Launch BootCamp - 1/30-2/2/01
http://www.srinstitute.com/cx326
=============================================================AZIPA==
