Kerala had active user groups in Trivandrum (Trivandrum Microsoft Users Group - http://t-mug.org) and Cochin (Cochin Dotnet - http://groups.msn.com/cochindotnet)
since 2002. This year another user group started at Kozhikode
on 21st June, 2008 named Kozhikode Microsoft Users Group (http://k-mug.org). Mr Sreejumon (one of the
founders of T-MUG and K-MUG) along with a group of energetic professionals came
up with a new thought process of merging all the disjointed user groups in
Kerala.
Microsoft had conducted India Microsoft
Technology Community Lead Meet at Bangalore
on 23rd Aug 2008, and Sreejumon was representing the user groups
from Kerala. He presented the idea of having
a single user group in Kerala and its plans and Kerala Microsoft Users Group
got verbal approval. Soon after that, Kozhikode Microsoft Users Group
(K-MUG.org) web portal was renamed to Kerala Microsoft Users Group and T-MUG
online activities merged with K-MUG. Apart from online announcement, K-MUG
wanted something bigger, so they decided to conduct the official mega launch on
25th October, 2008 at Kozhikode.
"K-MUG Activities Proposal", a
document which talks about the roadmap and future plans of K-MUG, was sent to
Microsoft & INETA for approval.
A venue that could accommodate 1000+
participants was blocked, since the mega launch was planned to incorporate
maximum number of professionals, staffs and students (both engineering and non
engineering). Kerala being a pre-dominantly FOSS-oriented state, Microsoft
showed special interest in K-MUG activities and showed green signal to K-MUG
launch event. K-MUG bagged the sponsorship from INETA as well.
In order to get maximum public
participation on the launch day, they decided to involve govt officials and
social leaders. A team lead by the Mr Binoy (K-MUG Vice President) contacted
some of the eminent personalities of Kerala and got confirmation from the
following leaders.
-
Mr. MP
Veerendra Kumar (Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
Former Minister of State for Labor & Finance, Govt. of India
Chairman & President of the Indian Newspaper Society)
-
M
Bhaskaran (Mayor, Kozhikode Corporation)
-
A
Pradeep Kumar (MLA, Kozhikode)
Mr. Sreejumon (K-MUG President) coordinated
the activities between Microsoft, INETA and K-MUG and ensured the sponsorships.
K-MUG got the following speakers for technical sessions.
-
Abhishek
Kant (Microsoft Community Program Manager for India
and MVP Lead for South Asia)
-
Mark D'Souza (Senior Evangelist & Academic Advisor at Microsoft)
-
Jayakrishnan (Director of Xtend Technologies and Microsoft MVP)
-
Indu Ramakrishnan (Corporate Innovation Team, UST Global)
Soon after the speaker confirmation,
K-MUG prepared the posters, banners & invitation letters.A team of K-Mug
event management team worked day and night to get maximum publicity of the
launch. Team covered the entire Kozhikode
district in three vehicles with K-MUG banners, so that the message of K-Mug
could be spread across all major institutions and public.
K-MUG planned group registration (for
institutes) and online registration to ensure they get the right attendees,
even though the launch event was free. The online registration process started
on 13th October, 2008 and K-MUG got 500+ online registration. K-MUG
arranged the spot registration at the venue, for those who opted group
registration.
Many institutes
were interested in sending a bulk of participants and K-MUG restricted the registrations
to attendees from computer and related courses.
Heavy
rains... lightning strikes... thunder claps.... It seemed like boats were better bet
in the city than motor cars. Kozhikode city
was under water and the organisers troubled. By 8.30 AM, the registration
counters started for spot registration. Seating managers were having a hectic
time in managing the gates and entry points of both VIPs and participants.
Launch
commenced at half past ten with the welcome speech of Mr. Binoy.On the dais,
we had Mr. Sreejumon, Mr. Mark D'Souza, Mr Jayakrishnan and Mr. Justin D'
Couto. Mr. Veerendra Kumar MP got delayed due to the heavy rain in the city.
After a
grand welcome, Mr. Mark D' Souza gave an introduction about User Groups and the
concept of knowledge sharing.
Then Mr. Sreejumon talked about the history of
K-MUG, its mission, vision and future plans.
Mr. Binoy explained the
scholarship process, which was launched later by Mr. Jayakrishnan.
After the
introduction sessions, the arena was set for the technical sessions, starting
with Mr. Mark D'Souza. He took the session related to Microsoft Academic
programs and explained its benefits for students and institutes. Imagine Cup
2009 details inspired most of the students and K-MUG arranged spot registration
for Imagine Cup 2009 during lunch time.
Mr.
Veerendra Kumar reached the venue by 12.30 PM. With cheer ups from the crowd,
the Hon' Member of Parliament, lighted the lamp and declared the launch of
K-MUG.
After the launch ceremony, MP had mentioned there is a deluge
of information available from the developments in information
technology, but information is incomplete without practical wisdom.
Chief Guest
was scheduled to leave soon after the inauguration, but he sat down with the
audience, giving a surprise to the program managers. Lunch break was postponed
and Mr. Jayakrishnan started his session.
Mr.
Jayakrishnan's "learning computer science" session was an eye opener for most
of the participants. He explained how to learn computer science based on his
experiences. Mean time, chief guest decided to leave and Mr. Jayakrishnan
decided to give a break by considering the 1000+ hungry participants.
Lunch coupons were
given during registration time and K-MUG served Kozhikode Chicken Biriyani and
Vegetable Biriyani for the attendees. As per the feedback from participants,
lunch was excellent.
Mr.
Jayakrishnan continued his interesting session and ensured the participants
were not sleeping after lunch.
Miss Indu
Ramakrishnan took the audience with another interesting topic related to
Innovation and its need.
Mr. Justin
D'Couto talked about the career opportunities in the IT industry.
Mr. Mark D'Souza
took one more session related to Windows Vista programming and showed some demo
on world wide telescope.
The vote of thanks was done by Mr Dileep, Microsoft Student Partner from Kozhikode.
After Mr. Mark D'Souza's session, it was time for gifts. K-MUG had
conducted lucky draw and it was getting announced through out the program
breaks. There were total sixteen winners and Mr. D'Souza presented them
Microsoft T-shirts. All participants got Visual Studio Express CDs, after
submitting the feedback forms.
Photos
Videos
More medias can be located at http://k-mug.org media section.