For employees and owners of Sacramento Area businesses, attending a user group meeting or Meetup is a great way to network with peers and learn the latest about technologies that are important to career growth and to the success of a business.
Some user groups are niche in terms of the job role that they attract. Other user groups span a wide range of roles—from application admins to marketers to business owners & executives.
Partly due to technology cycles, a given user group can eventually become challenged with getting enough regular meeting attendees. Some groups go dormant. In fact, we have had to remove several listings since the original version of this post was published.
Other user groups and Meetups have no problem attracting a consistent number of regular meeting attendees. In many cases, the dedicated efforts of the group’s organizers is what drives a sustainable attendance level.
Here are some of the user groups and Meetups that those who work for Sacramento area businesses may be interested in attending.
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Sacramento WordPress Meetup
The Sacramento WordPress Meetup has over 1,400 members.
As WordPress powers 30% of the world’s websites and is surrounded by a massive developer ecosystem, there does not seem to be any shortage of topics for monthly local WordPress Meetups.
WordCamp Sacramento 2018 is a related event that will be held in mid September.
Sacramento Salesforce User Group
Salesforce hosts an events page for its local user group.
Salesforce admins, developers and users can register for events using their Salesforce login. Salesforce prospects who are interested in attending can contact one of the Group Leaders listed on the user group page.
Sacramento PC User Group (SacPCUG)
SacPCUG meetings are held the third Wednesday of each month at Arden-Dimick, located at 891 Watt Avenue in Sacramento.
This user group has packed meeting agendas, which include tutorials, Q&A and multiple presentations. Presentations are on software and hardware advancements, new computer trends, security awareness & applications and other requested topics.
SacPCUG has an annual membership fee of $30.
Sacramento Startup Developers Meetup
This is a Meetup that has benefited from the proliferation of tech startups in the Sacramento region.
The group’s description states, “We live and breath software, and software is the future of everything.”
Google Developer Group (GDG) Sacramento
The Google Developer Group Sacramento meets on the second Thursday of every month. This group is for anyone who is interested in Google developer technologies such as Google Cloud Platform, Google APIs, AngularJS and Android.
The group also has a Meetup page.
Sacramento Java Users Group (SacJUG)
The Sacramento Java User Group meets every month to discuss and discover new technologies that involve Java and other electronic information systems.
With monthly meetings going back over a decade, this group does not seem to have any trouble getting the Java faithful to keep coming back for more.
Sacramento JavaScript Meetup
SacJS is for those who are interested in meeting new people and learning about Javascript, jQuery, new APIs, NodeJS, and micro-controllers.
Sacramento Area GIS User Group
If topics such as Executing Geoprocessing Tools from Scripts, ArcPy Mapping and Datahoods are topics of interest to you, then this is the user group to check out.
Sacramento SQL Server User Group
The Sacramento SQL Server User Group is a local chapter of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS).
Upcoming events can be found on the group’s Meetup profile. Each July, there is an event called SQLSaturday.
The user group has an associated a LinkedIn group with over 500 members.
Sacramento SharePoint User Group
Another Microsoft-related user group is the Sacramento SharePoint User Group.
From the website, it appears that there are not any currently planned events.
Sacramento HubSpot User Group (HUG)
HubSpot offers an all in one inbound marketing platform. They company has a Sacramento user group page on its website, but no details about past or upcoming meetings are posted. It appears that anyone who is interested needs to submit a form in order to receive information and updates.
Benefits of attending Sacramento Meetups and user group meetings
User groups can be valuable to both Sacramento area businesses owners and their employees.
The meetings are an venue for employees to meet and network with like-minded people.
User groups can help employees maintain a level of enthusiasm about their jobs.
User group attendees will return to work with new ideas about how to leverage technologies in ways that will benefit the business.
