Power to the People! Host your own User Groups

From where I sit as Atlassian’s events manager, community is a big (maybe the biggest) part of what makes us Atlassian. For the past 3 or so years, we’ve been running our user group program. It’s been very successful, drawing about 50 people in each city. At the same time, our goal has always been to turn the user groups over to the community. That time is now!
Today we’re announcing the Genuine Atlassian User Group program. It’s an invitation to you, our customers, to run your own Atlassian User Groups (AUG) with some pretty sweet benefits and helping hand from us.
We think of a user group as a short (2-3 hours), recurring (at least a few times a year) meet up of Atlassian users in one region. Like your favorite Java User Group, Agile User Group, or Open Source User Group, an AUG is there to network, learn from peers and have some fun! After doing this for a while now, we’ve gathered some pretty good information about what works and what doesn’t work. We’ve written an AUG cookbook with a few recipes for “whipping up” a terrific user group.
Wondering if you’re the right person to start a user group in your area? Well the first question I would ask you is — are you passionate about Atlassian’s product/s? I believe that 90% of a success of an ongoing user group is the passion of the organizer. This will facilitate the right attendees, the right kind of mood, and the right discussions. Atlassian has over 15,000 customers so chances are – unless you live in Huslia, Alaska — there is a community for your to tap into.
So what’s in it for you?

• A free pass to Atlassian Summit
• Direct access to Atlassian Product Management. Request Product Management attendance to a user group meeting or gather user questions for Atlassian Product Management to answer.
• Invitations to participate in the Atlassian User Task Force to get a “first look” at new features and provide direct feedback on features, new designs, product prototypes, usability analysis, and beta testing new releases.
• A “Genuine Atlassian User Group” badge
• $250 to cover the cost of each group (minimum 3 per year)
• T-shirts and other swag for raffle prizes
• Your AUG members get a 10% discount code on Atlassian products/services
• We will drive attendance to your AUGs on our events page, monthly events blog, newsletter, Twitter
• We’ll send email to people in the city and region around your user group

If you’d like to run an Genuine Atlassian User Group, visit our user group page and apply to be an organizer. We’ll get back to you lickity split with all the information you’ll need.