Moving to Geneva - User Group Meetings in French-speaking Switzerland?

I live near Vevey, which is an hour from Geneva... no Drupal groups around here that I know of.

Sean

I would be interested, but Geneva is about the same distance from Fribourg than Zurich.
For me a group in the region of Lausanne (or any place not too far from Fribourg) would be ineresting.

Hans-Peter

Hello Everybody,
There was once an attempt to launch some drupaler's meeting in Geneva, I know a couple of web develoipers working with Drupal in Geneva. Maybe Zzolo's energy and good vibes could give a new start for such meetings. Problem is not the interest .. but time.
Don't hesitate to contact me when you arrive in Geneva, There is definitely a Drupal biz here. (I'm freelance)
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Marc

The main Swiss Drupal user group is mostly based in Zurich, but the distance and the language barrier can make it difficult to participate. There are also the people from Edipresse (Lausanne) and Previon (Zofingen) who are pretty active and have been hosting some meetings.

If the goal is to reach Drupal developers/users/evaluators from french-speaking Switzerland, it might make more sense to organize something in Lausanne (more centrally located).

A week ago, i started http://groups.drupal.org/node/26525 to see if there is some interest. Now, 8 drupalers have positively answered and i think this could be a good start for a first meeting. For this meeting, i would not plan something big: simply a little meeting in a pub or in a bar to get better in touch.

@zzolo I'm happy to welcome you in Geneva. I really hope that you will love this city.

Hello all. I'm working for Liip (www.liip.ch). We are a company in Fribourg, Zurich and Bern, working in the web business (@flobruit we met at DrupalCon in Paris :). Because of client demand we'd like to build up a new Drupal team (see also job offer on http://www.liip.ch/company/jobs/).

Gladly we would help to build up a swiss french Drupal group. In our office we have enough space to do meetings (however it's in Fribourg). If there is interest we can do a first "get in touch meeting" @ Liip FR office?

Adrian

Hello Adrian,

This sounds really great :-) I really don't care to go to Fribourg even if i live in Geneva.

I have just started working for a Geneva-based NGO with a Drupal website, and I need LOTS of help, so a local users group would be great for me. I live in Nyon, so Lausanne is also possible. I speak some French and no German. Marc (mkalbere), are you available for hire on a answering-questions basis? If so, can you contact me directly at kathleen.mackenzie@bluewin.ch?

Let me know if there is a way I can help establish a group.

Geneva preferred, Lausanne OK

Hi,

I'm will be very happy to take part to some kind of drupal barcamp around Geneva. I'm working for Optaros, and we are building applications based on Open Source products. We have done some interesting projects with Drupal (integrated with some other OSS like Alfresco) across the company and I will be happy to share this experience with all of you.

Cheers,
- Damien

Thanks everyone for the replies and it's good to see there is so much interest. I am not a native and don't want to make any decisions, but here is my idea: A Geneva meet up at the end of November at a pub or something informal, and we can discuss if we want to broaden it out to a monthly meeting in either Geneva or Lausanne.

A side note, I am all about a Geneva DrupalCamp if anyone has interest in putting that together. I have been involved with putting together other DrupalCamps and its important to realize it takes a lot of work. I think I remember someone mentioning a Geneva DrupalCamp at DrupalCon Paris?

--
zzolo

Hello,

What about alternate the location of the meetings? Once at Lausanne, then at Geneva and maybe from time to time at Fribourg?
Greetings
Hans-Peter

Restaurants in Geneva are not yet forced to be non-smoking (coming in a few months), but there are some who are voluntarily or have at least a non-smoking corner.

Hi,

I'd be interested in participating as well. I live and work in Bienne. French used to be my second language. Though after living in the US for ten years, I've lost quite a bit of it. I have no preference as far as meeting location - Switzerland is a pretty small place and cities aren't that far apart. I'm pretty new to Drupal and have only been using it for a year now.

Patrick

Hello,

I have my business in Geneva and I'm Living one and a half our away in Isère (France).

I'm a newbie using Drupal to manage Local Associations Website... so Geneva would be my first choice.

Regards

Marc

Well, I finally arrived today. Unfortunately, I know little about what is in Geneva as far as being a good, friendly, smoke-free place for the meeting. Any ideas? My initial thoughts on a day would be Nov 25 or 26.

Glad you made it.

The good news is that since Nov. 1st, all Geneva restaurants and public buildings are smoke-free.

There are plenty of restaurants around the main train station; the question is just for how many people? 10 - 20?

Both 25th / 26th would work for me.

Me, too, the 25 or 26 November would be fine for me. I would advocate being optimistic and finding a place for 20 people. Gerald, if you have an idea of the place, I would be happy to check on availability. I assume you are thinking of an evening gathering?

Hello Swiss French Drupalers

As I already offered we could do the first meeting in our office in Fribourg on the 25th of november. I/Liip would organise some fingerfoods and something to drink. If there is interest (min. 5 "ok"-posts till Thurdsay evening) I would officially invite you to the Liip office.

Else I'll come to Geneva :)

Sorry, I'm too lazy to go to Fribourg. Switzerland is so small that travelling more than 1h could be frightened you know ...
There are plenty of bars/restaurants near Geneva's railway station.
For example : Nomades, Rue des Grottes 18 (Place of the previous Drupal meeting for the one who where there ,-))
25th after 19h30 would take my preference.

I would not say I am too lazy, but as I am still getting my bearings, and I think it is important to just see what kind of interest there is, I would like to stick with Geneva for this first meeting.

And as mkalbere as put it all together, then there it is:

25th November 2009 at 19h30 at Nomades (Rue des Grottes 18). Starting event post:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/35938 (Spread the word!)

Is someone able to make reservations (not sure if they are necessary)? From the response, I would only expect 10-15.

I can do the reservation. I'll wait a couple of days to have a better estimation of the number of interested people.
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Marc