What is a Liferay User Group?

Liferay User Groups (LUGs) exist to provide local collaboration between collections of community members that have commonalities such as geography, language, a common industry, or virtually any other specific common trait.

These groups are a great way to interact with others on specific topics regarding Liferay products and/or their underlying technologies, as well as learn from each other in ways not normally associated with very large communities. LUGs organize local events and gatherings, provide tools for their members to stay in touch between the live gathers, and promote their members to help them grow professionally.

To ensure LUG is successful, responsibilities and expectations are distributed between the following roles:

What do the LUG organizers provide?

Communication

  • Establishes and maintains communication channels for the group (chat, email, facebook, etc.).

  • Communicates important/relevant messages to the members using group’s communication channels.

  • Stays in close contact with Liferay Developer Relations team to:

    • Gets ideas for events and promotions.

    • Discusses ideas and/or issues related to group’s activity, growth, development, and interests.

    • Provides feedback about local Liferay products, community process, etc.

  • Remains in close contact with Liferay's regional offices or representative to get help in event planning and provide feedback about local Liferay presence.

  • Stays in close contact with other LUG organizers to learn and share from each other's experiences.

  • [optional] Provides access to remote learning experiences (pre-recorded videos, online courses, or live streamed conferences).

Collaboration

  • Continuously monitors member satisfaction level and improves as needed.

  • [optional] Organizes book readings, shares tech articles, and runs a LUG blog that is open for all members.

  • [optional] Helps the LUG, or particular members, get featured in Liferay managed media (websites, news, chat, presentations) by coding and releasing LUG materials like:

    • Demos for specific industries or use cases.

    • Prototypes of 3rd party software integrations.

    • PoCs suggesting interesting product improvements.

    • Translations in local languages.

    • Anything else Liferay and its community can benefit from.

Events

  • Manages local events (presentations, hackathons, architectural katas, coding competitions, etc.) by:

    • Encouraging members, local companies, partners, and experts to share their experience with the group.

    • Informing group members about all events.

    • Picking and preparing the venue and equipment.

    • Greeting and welcoming attendees during the gatherings.

  • [optional] Organizes informal meetings (drinkups, coffee tables).

What does the Liferay Developer Relations team provide?

  • Manages the infrastructure for all LUGs by providing Meetup.com groups and private Slack channel.

  • Occasionally attends local meetings in person to give talks, run workshops or simply to join in with the local community.

  • Monitors LUG activity, size, and publishes reports.

  • Continuously informs LUG leaders about new initiatives/events/ideas related to Liferay or their group’s interests.

  • [In progress] Promotes LUGs and their notable activities/achievements via community.liferay.com and regional specific email campaigns.

  • [In progress] Support LUGs in finding technical content and experts.

    • Keeps a list of Liferay engineers and their availability to give talks or lead workshops for nearby LUGs.

    • Maintains contact with external technology experts who could visit LUGs as part of their own DevRel activities.

    • Suggests topics for talks and workshops based on popularity and tech trends.

  • [In progress] Helps facilitate Online Liferay User Groups (OLUGs) by providing online events (webinars, live demos, etc.) in the local time zones of the LUGs.

What do the regional Liferay offices provide?

  • Space for local meetings in local Liferay office if possible or helps to search for a venue among partners, customers.

  • Financial support (travel expenses, speaker accommodation, purchasing valuable content, etc.) when appropriate and valuable for local Liferay office.

  • Support for LUG organizers in finding sponsors for the events.

  • Swags/giveaways for the group members.

  • Help to LUG organizers for promoting events locally.

  • Feedback regarding LUGs local activities.

What does Liferay provide?

  • A Meetup Pro account under which all LUGs and OLUGs are managed.

  • A page listing for their LUG and related events on Liferay's Community Website.

  • A private channel for LUG organizers on Liferay's Community Chat.

  • A dedicated channel for each LUG on Liferay's Community Chat.

  • [In progress] A monthly newsletter to LUG organizers containing:

    • Information about latest changes in Liferay products.

    • Suggested talks and workshops.

    • Ideas about demos, PoCs, prototypes, that are of interest to Liferay and/or its community.

    • Availability of Liferay engineers in particular geographical locations.

    • Availability of external experts in particular geographical locations.

    • Reports about community health.

  • [In progress] A website featuring Liferay’s involvement in local events like sponsored conferences or regional events put on by Liferay offices/employees.

  • [In progress] A platform to run a LUG blog.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns, you can always reach out to the Liferay Developer Relations team!