.NET User Groups in the UK

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It's been quite exciting over the last twelve months to see a number of new .NET user
groups spring up in the UK. I've got a high regard for user groups in general - they
often provide support (of both social and technical varieties), excellent technical
information and a better sense of community than I think we'd ever be able to offer
ourselves. Meeting up with other local developers can be helpful as a way to build
up contacts in the industry too, particularly for freelancers and contractors, and
you can learn a lot from hearing others' war stories of how they dealt with development
challenges. On a personal level, I've reason to be grateful to a couple of user groups
for giving me some of my first big breaks before I joined Microsoft.

Unfortunately it's quite difficult to find a list of local developer user groups on
the Microsoft web site; I'm trying to get that fixed, but in the meantime, here's
a list of groups that I'm aware of. Please drop
me a line
if you're a member or co-ordinator of a relevant UK-based group that's
not on the list, and I'll update it.

- VBUG. Focuses on Visual Basic and .NET development, with over 1200 members and 10 regional chapters. Nationwide.

[DDG](https://www.richplum.net). General focus on professional .NET development,  
with a regular magazine and meetings in Reading and London. *South East.*  
  • London .NET User Group. Regular meetings at
    Microsoft's London offices, covering practical .NET development. London.
  • Scottish Developers. Fairly new,
    but rapidly growing. Regular meetings covering .NET and agile development. Scotland.
  • UK SQL Server Group. Covering all aspects
    of database development and administration. Nationwide.
  • .NET Exchange. Run by the
    VBUG team, language-agnostic with a focus on current and future technology. South
    East.
  • York .NET User Group. Volunteer-led group
    - don't know much about them at the moment. North.
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