Cybersocial lets local IT people mingle (News)

January 14, 2010
Glenna Hanley, Daily Gleaner

Being comfortable communicating via cell phones, smart phones, text messaging, emails, and teleconferencing doesn't mean even IT people don't get lonely for a familiar face.

"It is a networking group that was established by a number of knowledge industry companies and employees who were interested in having an opportunity to connect and network, meet new people, share business leads and just really get together and loosen the ties and have some of those easy discussions we have after five," said Laura O'Blenis.

O'Blenis, general manager of the Knowledge Park, is chair of the Cyber Social organizing committee.

The socials, going on for six years, are held once a month at the James Joyce Pub in the Crowne Plaza hotel.

Attendees at the Wednesday night event include information technology consultants, social media monitoring, Internet security, people working in bio-technology, engineering, health care, and the IT side from all three levels of government. Universities and colleges are also well represented, said O'Blenis.

"You've got the people that are very technical that come and the sales people and the brand managers or developers, or software developers. It's definitely a broad cross section," said O'Blenis.

There are people coming from other parts of the province too.

"We have some people that come up from the Université de Moncton co-op program, trying to make sure that they can place students in appropriate employment opportunities."

A different company sponsors the social each month, usually, but not always, an IT company. The law firm Stewart McKelvey sponsored the December social.

To ensure the event doesn't take on an infomercial environment, the sponsors have just three minutes to make a presentation about their company, followed by five minutes for five individuals to promote themselves or their company.

After that it's on to the fun part: door prizes, refreshments, munchies and talking, mixing and mingling.

If people do not appear to be mixing well, then the organizers pull out the networking games, said O'Blenis.

People drop their business cards into a box for the door prizes. This serves a dual purpose, tracking who is attending and how many, said Lucas Roze, communication officer with Enterprise Fredericton. Enterprise Fredericton hosts Cyber Social and provides administrative support.

As many as 45 to 55 people have been showing up to the event, said Roze.

Susan Holt, of Chalk Media, attends the socials and has joined the eight-member organizing committee.

"I've been attending because I wanted the benefit of getting to know other people in the IT community in Fredericton," said Holt. "It's an informal way for IT people to have some fun together, stay in touch with what is going on and possibly make connections that could benefit them down the road."

She works in human resources and the socials give her is a chance to scout for new employees for job openings at Chalk.

Chalk Media, a subsidiary of Research in Motion (RIM), creator of the Blackberry, announced this week it is doubling its workforce in Fredericton.

Holt said it is beneficial to meet with like-minded people, find out what they are doing, to bounce ideas off each other and sometimes find opportunities to collaborate on projects.

A newcomer to the Cyber Social is Ryan Veino, senior consultant with OnX Enterprise Solutions, an IT solutions provider. The company is based in Toronto and is just starting to put down some roots in Fredericton and the Maritimes.

Veino moved from Ottawa in July and the cyber socials are just what he needed to fast-track the start up of his company in this new location.

"The very first Cyber Social this year in September, I had the opportunity to sponsor. From the mass email (a notice of the event) that went out, we were able to give a brief writeup of who we are. And from that we were approached by the Province of New Brunswick to talk about some business." said Veino.

He also found potential partners who could compliment the work OnX does.

"It's just been fantastic. My boss in Ottawa is quite happy with the progress."

Cyber Social is also on Twitter and Linkedin and has a growing number of followers on those sites, said Lucas.

For more information check out www.twitter.com/FredCybersocial and in Linkein.com under groups.

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