Joining and contributing to Veeam User Groups can a daunting experience, and cause some apprehension in participants. This post attempts to alleviate that apprehension and address some of those unasked questions you may have, around contributing to this Community and/or Veeam User Groups

I need to be a VMCE/VMCA/Veeam Employee etc to be able to contribute.

Well if you insist, we’ll see you after you have gained your qualifications. Anyone with any* level of experience or qualifications can contribute. Remember it’s your story/experience you are sharing. Sure there might be existing blog posts or presentations about the same subject, but everyone will have a unique take on how they approached and resolved an issue. Now that* is worth sharing.

I need to talk about cutting-edge products/features

If your day to day job involves working with the latest technologies, then sure go ahead, but not everyone is a Anthony Spiteri, Michael Cade or the content King..Jorge De La Cruz. Do try to remember the “Why” is more important than the “What”, people are more interested in why do something a certain way rather than the technology itself …most of the time anyway. A session on all the shiny kit with bells and whistles is also just as welcome.

My public speaking skills are lacking.

No problem, how about a blog post or two? Blogging is a good way to start out and hopefully with enough encouragement/coaching you’ll soon be ready to make the leap from blogger to a presenter. Every one of the Veeam user Group leaders is here to offer support and advice. Just reach out to its members. Everyone had to start somewhere, nobody was born a natural presenter.

I don’t feel my content is technical enough.

Your content is your content. It doesn’t have to be a session on building an air-gapped, immutable-repo backed solution offloading to AWS S3 with Azure Blob replication …not unless you’ve just built an air-gapped, immutable-repo backed solution offloading to AWS S3 with Azure Blob replication. Sessions/posts subjects can range from introductory sessions i.e. “how to install Veeam Backup and Replication” up to an air-gapped, immutable-repo backed solution offloading to AWS S3 with Azure Blob replication, it’s all open for discussion. Sometimes covering the basics, from your perspective, helps others and to solidify your knowledge.

I can only contribute sporadically

Not a problem, most of the contributors are sporadic posters. However, if enough people contribute from time to time, it soon adds up to a considerable Veeam User Group. It’s also worth bearing in mind you can cross-post from your own blog site.

Top Tips

1. Use OneNote, Evernote or similar products to take a note of posts/talks you’d like to write/talk about.
2. It’s ok to use snippets/processes/procedures/code etc from other sites/posts, just make sure you reference their articles/sites in your posts/talks.
3. Get out of your comfort zone and push yourself to write/present. Going that extra mile will more often than not take you further than a mile.
4. Use the wider vCommunity for advice and inspiration.
5. Have fun

And if you’re still not sure, have a read of this thread https://twitter.com/Fox0x01/status/951047109251424261

What are you waiting for, get in touch with your local Veeam User Group leader and get contributing?