Houston Adobe User Group: Mike Hall Interviews Drew Shefman | SCNA 2011
Houston Adobe User Group: Mike Hall Interviews Drew Shefman | SCNA 2011
Meet Drew Shefman, the founder of the Houston Adobe Users Group. Learn about the challenges and successes of organizing a technical user group and the importance of human connection in the industry. Don't miss this opportunity to connect with other professionals and learn about the latest Adobe products. #AdobeUserGroup #HoustonTech #TechnicalCommunity #UserGroup #SoftwareCraftsmanship
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
The Guest
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Hi, I'm Senni here with Drew Scheffman from the Houston Adobe Users Group. And he's going to tell us a little bit about what they do down in Texas with Adobe. So can you tell us a little bit about your group? Sure.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
It's the Houston Adobe Users Group. We have a whole range of Adobe products, which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and Flex. Since I run the group, and I'm mostly a Flash and Flex developer, I target most of the conversations. Unless someone comes up and says, "I really want a Photoshop presentation or something," they don't find this good with them. But for the most part, it's a Flash Flex group with the name.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
So you meet monthly in Houston?
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Monthly, it usually works out to about eight times a year. We try for every month, but it doesn't always happen, especially now with the holidays coming out.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay. And as far as like, what's your typical attendance? Do you guys usually get devs or designers? I mean, if you do in the Flex group, would you be probably more biased towards devs?
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
More biased towards devs. The group varies a lot between like three people who come or like 80 people who come, depending on the speaker or whatever. The designer sessions usually get a little bit more people. They're just harder to find speakers for since I'm in the Flex dev community. But yeah, it just ranges. Everyone shows up and we try to tailor it to like beginner level content.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
And you know, just something about the kind of a technical detail of the group is, is how do you manage your meetings? Do you, do you, I saw the website, but I didn't quite catch whether it was a meetup or a custom site? Well, it's Adobe's solution to managing all of its groups. Oh, okay. So Adobe provides a groups. adobe. com site for us.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
So if you want to form an Adobe user group, you just go there and say, I'm whatever, I'm the group and here's the meeting times. Oh, okay. And they can, they can push anybody who's interested to that site. And so you can search for other user groups in our area.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Is that only Adobe oriented groups or?
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
It's mostly Adobe. Okay, okay.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
And you know, like what, what made you want to found a group, you know? Or, or did you found a group or have you taken it over from?
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
I've taken it over from somebody else.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
I work alone. I'm an independent contractor.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
And I mean, coming to conferences like this and reaching out to my community, it's the way I interact with people.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Otherwise, because you're working on an island, you don't get to talk to anybody.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right. Right. Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
That's what drove me to create my first user group as well.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Great.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
So when you're, when you're having a meeting, I mean, you described that you've gone from having a three person meeting to an 80 person meeting. What kept you going through those down times of having the low attendance and then, you know, cause that's, that's something that can really. It is. It's very draining. It's almost defeatism.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
I don't know. It's just the, you know, for the couple of people who come out and they're interested, I'm excited to give them something.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
You know, that's, that's kind of what it is. I enjoy the opportunity to meet with people. I think there's a lot of value in FaceTime.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
I mean, in our industry, especially today, everyone's on social networks or talking over the computer and that's, that's not a connection.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
That's your, that's an interface.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
It's, it's, and I think the human connection, just meeting somebody and whatever it is that you're talking about, having, having FaceTime with people is just invaluable.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
And, and, and, you know, and then, you know, we talked about the, the, the three meeting, the three person meeting, but, but then you have the other end of the spectrum. When you're, when you're in overflow capacity, you know, you're 80 people. I mean, that's, that's gotta be the other end of the spectrum. The 80 people is very predictable.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
It's if, you know, Adobe is touring and they send, you know, an evangelist to come talk to us or something. We're like, you know, Hey, you know, Adobe's here. There's a big name here. And, you know, all of them. I've never had surprise topics. Like I did not know this was going to be that popular. You know, a surprise topic would be like 15 to 20 people.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay. Okay. Great. And, you know, what, what advice would you give to somebody that's in Houston? Like I, I'm familiar with the Chicago area, but what is, what's unique about user groups in Houston? Is it hard to draw people?
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Yeah, I don't know if I can give you advice because I don't know if I'm succeeding because, you know, I'm happy when I have three people. Well, that's, it's, you have three people.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
I have three people. But I found that with Houston, if the meeting is not in the building that you work in or exactly on your route home, they're not going to come.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
You know, if it's like five minutes out of their way, Houston, Houstonians don't, don't get there. For the most part. I mean, that's why we have our steady three people. Also, you have a lot of committed members that will come back.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right. Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Unless it's an amazing topic or something that someone's just dying to know. Or someone just comes to the area, like, I need a new job or I need to hold my skills in this area.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Right.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
But, you know, but if we, if we move our location, we're like, oh, we're going to have this downtown at this building. People who work in that building will show up. Oh, okay.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Now, if we go to the, the most convenient option for us as the managers, which has the free parking, the free entrance, the, you know, the free wifi, all that stuff, then we get all three people. If we go downtown, we're going to have to pay for parking and sign into security. You get more attendance. You get more attendance. But it's a higher.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
It's a higher barrier to entry that, you know, someone who's not downtown or not actually in that building won't come.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
And has, you know, looking at, at some things like, uh, costs, like if you were to go down to Hades, does Adobe offer any kind of support or anything like that for helping to? They, they do at certain, like, membership levels.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Which we're nowhere near. Um, so if we had, like, consistently had, like, over a hundred members coming, we would get some level of support. If we consistently had, like, 400 members coming, we'd get another level of support. Um, they offer incentives. They'll give us software to raffle away and other swag.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Which is awesome. Um, and you know, the day that we say, today's the, the raffle for the $1,000 software. People show up. People show up.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
But we can only do that once a year.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
But we can only do that once a year. So, you know, we try to build in incentives. Like, the more times you come, the more raffle tickets you can get. Oh, okay. Things like that.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
It's all just a big bribe.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Well, that, you know, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Well, anyway, Drew, it was really great talking to you here. It's the Houston Adobe Users Group. Yes.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
And, uh, they meet semi-monthly?
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
Every month. With some breaks.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay.
Drew Shefman
Houston Adobe User Group
But you can find out, we'll be linking to, uh, their user group, uh, or Drew's user group, um, in the, uh, in the post. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you.