After six meetups in three years, DAM DC meetup is officially closing the week of this blog post.

We asked repeatedly DAM DC members on whether they wanted to attend, host, participate, present or suggest DAM DC meetup gatherings. Very few responses came back.

It took about year to set up and reschedule the DAM DC meetup at Discovery. Some believed it was a matter of people unable to follow up or top this venue. This was a competition. It was not about the ratings which were a respectful 4 stars out of 5 every time.

I decided to measure the data on the next set of three meetups and have the data decide the fate of the DAM DC meetup group. To do so, I held three informal DAM DC meetups in March 2012 located in different locations. The data gathered would be quite simple: Measure attendance (or lack of)

• March 1, 2012 at 6:30 PM in Washington DC: 2 people
• March 15, 2012 at 6:00 PM in Virginia: 4 people
• March 29, 2012 at 6:00 PM in Maryland: 5 people

Clearly, the single digit attendance data (which includes the author of this blog post in the total count of people attending)  shows a lack of attendance since it is not even 10% of the 72 DAM DC members. The data is clear, so DAM DC meetup is being terminated.

The few venues were interesting as were the conversations for those who participated.

The networking was helpful to most who did come to share ideas, socialize and collaborate with others. We rescheduled too often, but we were persistent as needed.

We did our best to inform and organize the DAM community locally, but the data shows local DAM DC events are not wanted.

It is a give and take. Not just take. If members do not contribute ideas for a meetup nor volunteer a location to meet nor come to the venue nor want to share ideas as a presentation, why have a meetup?

I do wish the other DAM meetups all the best since most have at least one major DAM conference in their city every year.

We are all online and that is the direction most things are turning. That trend will continue to grow. Physical venues are overrated, too repeative, and often expensive in comparison to holding an online venue. Just add bandwidth to some ideas, get organized and the online event can quickly scale to an international audience. Most are slow to grasp this concept for some odd reason.  I meet more people professionally online than at any physical venue I have attended.
I also attended a webinar late last year (2011) on my mobile device while outside and away from all buildings. I watched a presentation they were showing me from their desktop live as they spoke. Then, we collaborated and gave feedback in real time by voice (and chat) even though we were thousands of miles away from each other.

This is not new nor tomorrow’s technology. This is happening now. Webinar anyone?

The conversations around Digital Asset Management (DAM) will continue online.