Tech Groups in Kansas City

Posted in Life, People by Steven on May 5, 2010

Kansas City is home to a surprising large number of technology groups. There is probably a social law that states individuals with similar interests will eventually concentrate. Through the four years I have lived in Kansas City, I have come to recognize three social categories: general user groups, institutional business organizations and large events. In this blog post, I will introduce the organizations and events I recommend to get a taste of the culture in Kansas City.

Joining a professional or trade organization is the simplest and easiest way to get involved. There is a user group for every programming language available as well as groups based on professional job title. I’m a frequent participant of the Kansas City Ruby Users group as well as a connector to several other organizations such as Social Media Club of Kansas City, the Cowtown Computer Congress, AIGA-the professional association for design and a few others. A list of groups I have visited and/or participated will be listed below.

Did you know Kansas City is home to one of the world’s leading organization for entrepreneurship, the Kauffman Foundation. There are also many other established resources for entrepreneurship such as the Entrepreneur of Johnson County, KC Source Link, The Chamber and KTEC. These groups are what I consider as institutional business organizations, they indirectly relate to technology. StartKC and OfficePort are entities that recently came into existence.

Larger events hold a special interest of mine, mainly because I am an organizer of a few events. In the past two years this category covers BarCamp, Highlight Midwest, Pre Dev Camp, Startup Weekend, Coders 4 Charity and a regional Ruby conference that my friends and I are organizing. This summer Kansas City will be hosting a Designer/Developer conference and a Kansas City Developer Day. I’m sure there are a few more events that I am unaware of.

Each social category attracts a different individuals. So don’t let one meeting or event spoil your desire to meet others and participate in the community.

Now here is a list of groups I’m connected to organized by memory:

SMCKC – Social Media Club of Kansas City
KCRUG – Kansas City Ruby Users Group
KCJava – Kansas City Java Users Group
DotNext – Meetup Group for Tech
KCDOTNet – Kansas City .Net User Group
Mobile Mondays – Mobile Discussion Group
Adobe Design Core – Adobe Design Products User Group
Adobe Film Core – Adobe File Products User Group
Adobe Web Core – Adobe Web Product User Group
Adobe Dev Core – Adobe RIA Product User Group
AgileKC — User Group for Agile Software Methodology and Techniques.
IFC – Independent Filmmaker’s Coalition of Kansas City
AIGA – Association for Design
Jelly – Group for Co-Working
CCCKC – Cowtown Computer Congress of Kansas City [Hackerspace]
MakeKC – User group of DIY and Builders
KC/IABC – Kansas City International Association of Business Communicators

… and lets just stop there

I’m personally involved with a number of weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly events. I don’t have specific list of roles for involvement, but just know for now involvement opportunities are available. I’m going to save it for another blog post tomorrow.

Here is a list of events I had involvement with and events I’m currently involved in.