Telerik Insiders Are Out

For you community dwellers, this may not be new news – but we are very excited to officially publicize our Telerik Insiders Program:  a speaker’s bureau for the community run by Telerik.

The Insiders Program is comprised of 14 (thus far) passionate and influential speakers conducting a variety of sessions at community events and user groups. Check out their profiles and abstracts here and our FAQ page for detailed information.

Even more exciting news - we’ve expanded this program into the European and Australian markets! (Check out today's Press Release for details) There we will continue our commitment to supporting the local developer community, with upcoming sessions at events like DDD Melbourne, DDD Sydney as well as a UK user group tour by Insider Gill Cleeren this summer. Our growth into these regions is timely with our recent office openings in UK and Aussie.

A little history on how the Telerik Insiders program was born:

Back in 2008 when I joined Telerik, I quickly recognized the value that the developer community can provide to the .NET world. Since then, I’ve been advocating for the support of such programs both internally and externally. Supporting these initiatives is essential to strengthening the developer industry and spreading knowledge across the world with a grass roots approach. Within a few short months, the worst part of the recession hit and it strongly affected the volunteer and non-profit world. We began to notice a lack of support for many groups and some were completely falling apart. At this time, it was 2009 and we began brainstorming more effective programs for user group support.

Late 2009 we held a community happy hour at PDC in LA, where I first met Chris Eargle; an outstanding and charismatic speaker out of South Carolina doing over 50 sessions per year on his own dime. We began discussing how we might be able to collaborate in the community. We agreed that if he’d like to incorporate a Telerik product offering into his session or simply mention our sponsorships, we could help with his travel expenses. This caught on very fast with user groups and events, so we opened it up to other speakers in other regions like the heartland of America. More than few groups were struggling to get top notch speakers to come and speak, so we began focusing on ‘off the beaten path’ groups. Soon enough we grew to 10+ speakers in 1 year – thus the Insiders Program was born. In a short time, we were able to quickly make a difference in the community, which was very much appreciated by the community.    

Nurturing the developer community is very near and dear to my heart. I always believed that giving back to others is the best thing you can do as it puts out an energy that always comes back around when you need it most. I’ve been fortunate enough to work for a company that shares this same passion and allows me to run such programs with flexibility and trust.  One thing I am learning is that developers can do a lot more for the world behind a computer than you could ever imagine. Thank you to all those who’ve contributed to your community! We are looking forward to growing our programs over the years.

So, if you're as passionate as we are about the community please don’t hesitate to contact us at insidersprogram@telerik.com to request a speaker at your group or events! This is what this program is here for and we’d love to find new groups and events as well as maintain the current & past sponsorships.

As an FYI, we are currently satisfied with our Insiders roster, but if you’re keen on getting involved, particularly for those of you interested in conducting session on Testing or Agile technologies, please email your experience and information to (once again) insidersprogram@telerik.com.  We will definitely consider you as a potential speaker for future opportunities as we grow and expand.