Present: Doug, Dirk, Niels, Asbjørn, Alex
The Problem
In some countries umbraco is totally unknown or either not well know. We discussed how to change this and what help we can get from umbraco directly.
Local Umbraco sites
The experiences with the german umbraco site (umbraco.de) and the actual german forum are showing that a local umbraco site has not the effects as expected. Especially a local forum doesn't work. We all agreed that the language developers work with is englisch and having a local forum has the effect that the local users will miss relevant things going on at the international site.
Bottom up
The experiences from the past in other countries, especially in denmark and belgium, are showing that we have to start at the bottom to get umbraco more know, we have to start with the developers before going to the decision makers. So going into the Dot Net User Groups (DNUG) is a very good idea. After infiltrating the DNUGs we can then organise some regional meetings.
Another good way to get known is to get into the press like writing articles in local developer magazines or getting in touch with the local MS developer evangelists.
Support by Umbraco
Going to the DNUGs without some 'official' material isn't as good as having a little official touch. Umbraco is willing to give support to the local heroes as they will prepare some swag and giveaways which we can use. Also Umbraco is willing to give some financial help for journeys to the DNUG meetings, paying locations for meetings and some other stuff.
Conclusions
Just do it and if you need help or promotion packages just ask and you will get help. The return of investment to go into the local communities will be great.