BizTalk User Group Launch
So last night, December 5 2007, saw the launch of the first ever user group for BizTalk in South Africa.
As an integration architect and developer who makes heavy (almost exclusive) use of Microsoft technologies to deliver solutions in the EAI, B2B, SOA space this was an exciting event for me.
There were 40 (approximately) attendees at the inaugural event, which I think is outstanding. This proves to me once again that BizTalk is enjoying a run of popularity at the moment and that more and more people / organizations are starting to see the value of this tool as the glue in their distributed and connected enterprise.
All too often I have heard of BizTalk project failures and I believe it is due, largely, to the limited availability of good skills, understanding and experience on this tool in the country. Organizations implementing BizTalk in the past have often been sold this tool as the magic bullet to solve all their integration woes and a large percentage of these have been grossly disappointed up to now. It is my hope that a community such as this user group will go a long way to fostering a learning, sharing and collaborative culture around the product and related technologies allowing the image of BizTalk to be elevated to the level it rightly deserves.
Thanks to all the guys who took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and offered to present last night and in the future. Thanks to Paul Somers for attending, nice to see the current BizTalk MVP for South Africa present at a community driven event.
Last night's event was a little heavy on the power point slides for me ... I'd prefer to see more interactive hands-on demos, collaborative discussions / debates on implementing the product. I think the community can provide huge value in terms of real world experience versus the training / sales material and how sometimes these differ vastly.
So I guess I just volunteered myself for some major demo time at the next event .... 
A huge thanks must go to Frikkie Bosch from Microsoft. When I approached him with the idea of starting something like this he almost did backflips he was so excited. He immediately sprang into action and arranged everything for the first event. He has offered to setup and host an Office Groove site for the community where we can interact with each other. Microsoft has been kind and generous enough to offer us the venue for the meetings and last night provided fantastic snacks and drinks
(I must say, I am more than happy to be re-united with my old friend Amstel ... but that's for another post I guess 
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Frikkie, thanks man .... now that you've done the first event I guess it is up to us, the community, to drive it from here and ensure that this good start gives us a launching pad to work from.