Open CLA Summit for everyone (willing to pay), or bring back the Power User Meetings

[crossrulz]

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@jcarmody wrote:

For what it's worth, I believe I could study for and pass the CLA exam (I will, too, you just wait), but so many of the discussions that I take pleasure in reading are so far over my head that I'd be lost at a summit.

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You might be surprised what you learn when you are actuallly at the Summit.  I felt the same way before my first CLA Summit and I learned to think like an actual actitect at it, mostly from the "extra curricular activities".  So I learned and became better at following those "over my head" conversations by starting to participate in them and asking lots of questions.

With that said, you still need to prove you are at least ready for those conversations before I think you should be allowed to join.

[Hooovahh]

Renew by points my friend.

[MarkCG]

Yes very much agreed with you that technical level at NI Days is quite disappointing for us power users/ professional LabVIEW developers. It's just listening to NI marketing pitches. No new information for us. Perhaps NI could also arrange for some high-level networking to connect current developers with potential customers who are looking at NI as a solution and are perhaps iffy on the learning curve involved.

[crossrulz]

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@MarkCG wrote:

Yes very much agreed with you that technical level at NI Days is quite disappointing for us power users/ professional LabVIEW developers. It's just listening to NI marketing pitches. No new information for us.

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FYI, the NI Days are just NI Week presentations.  So now you know what we have been saying about NI Week not having good sessions for us "advanced" users.  That is why the LabVIEW Champions pushed for our own track and thus the new Advanced Users Track was born this year.  Considering my session had 157 people in it and I know at least most of the others were also packed (I do not know the numbers on those), I would say it was a HUGE success.  I did hear something about a few of our sessions being done at NI Days as well, so hopefully you will get better sessions this year.  It is just a question of whether or not the AEs who do them can actually pull them off.

[James_McN]

For the UK NI Days we have a user group track this year where all of the user groups have been asked to provide presentations. Probably not as advanced as the CLA summit but should be an improvement on the technical level that is usually there.

Not sure if that is going to be translated to elsewhere in Northern Europe.

[Intaris]

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@AristosQueue (NI) wrote:

I can personally recognize the value of Intaris from years of interacting with him on the forums, but it is harder for Random Employer XYZ to do the same. The community benefits from having this standard.

I am also a good example of how communicating certain topics can be overly difficult due to one side of the argument being skilled in particular use of vernacular whereas the other side possesses a hodge-podge of self-taught and adhoc terms (some of which are already used in different contexts).  While I think I can follow technical discussions very readily, I think my inability to convey my own thoughts on the topics at hand efficiently are hindered significantly by my distinct lack of formal education and the associated standardised terminology.

Education or certification affects the ability of the non-CLAs to engage in discussion but I find it has much less relevance on the ability of the non-CLAs to understand what others are discussing / presenting.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

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@Intaris wrote:

Education or certification affects the ability of the non-CLAs to engage in discussion but I find it has much less relevance on the ability of the non-CLAs to understand what others are discussing / presenting.

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I agree. And that's why I think the Advanced User Groups and the Room 15-NIWeek track are a different kind of forum from the CLA Summit. The former two are more presentation. The latter is more peer discussion. Both have their value, IMO.

[Mads]

Are some CLAs educated in for example computer science at a level that makes it difficult for non-cs people (other CLAs included) to follow their discussions? Sure. Are there CLAs and non-CLAs out there that lack the same background, but are exceptional in LabVIEW and other sub/relevant topics like (UX-design, software entrepreneurship, innovative solutions to real-life problems etc) that *everyone* would enjoy discussing with? I'm quite sure of it.  The business of software and potentially advanced use of LabVIEW is much bigger than anyone of us can claim to master.

I took a risk by mentioning the CLA summits in what was originally an idea posted on the idea exchange: it was pretty obvious that it would provoke this storm of resistance. Many people who have gone through certification will feel entitled to something extra - like the CLA Summits. Why on earth should other people get access to those? I can understand that. I think the argument that non-CLAs are not (guaranteed to be) educated enough is weak (and came across a bit snotty...), but again - I understand it 😉 

I could have avoided  all this by just saying that I hoped for access to (more local) events with more advanced and varied content than what is currently available...and that the Power User Events of the past was an example of such (and not mention the summits...). And to answer your question Stephen/Aristos; the new track at NI Week does fit the profile quite well yes - if it was made available a bit more locally as well (I heard a rumor of a scaled down version of NI Week in Europe next year for example, that would be local enough for me/people at my company...).

[bsvare]

Just my 2 cents because of my background.

I have been functioning as an architect for 6 years. I've attended the local NI days, local user groups, almost all the classes, and just recently started attending NI week. I've always felt the content at NI week and especially NI Days is geared toward low and mid level developers. Advanced Users Track helped this year, but wasn't enough content.

I've had plenty of  brief conversations with other CLAs and champions over the past few visits to NI week. And I've seem to learn more from them in 1-on-1 conversations then I do when listening hour long lectures that tend to get sidetracked by trivial matters sometimes unrelated to session.

So, over the course of the last year, I pushed through my certifications and I can't wait to attend the CLA summit. I believe, from my conversations with people that have attend, this is a great avenue for learning, discussion, and rapport.