DISCLAIMER: This is not your typical technical USNUA blog post. I am not technical by trade, so if you’re looking for that, I’ll save you some time. Now, if you’re looking for a humble opinion from someone who’s been attending and volunteering for a local NUG for two years, on why you should attend your local NUG event, why you should get involved, and you like memes, then this is the post for you.
If you’ve made it this far, a hearty hello to you, fellow and future USNUA member! My name is Patrick Murphy, and I’m the resident USNUA Florida Man. I’m not as wild as your typical Florida Man, but I do like to bring a lot of fun, a little spontaneity, and some shakas 🤙 to our (FL)NUG events. I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the (FL)NUG committee for two years, and what an awesome two years it’s been. Through my participation in (FL)NUG, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the coolest people in the IT industry, as well as plan and participate in some really great events.
If you’re not familiar, here’s a quick background on the USNUA and NUGs. The USNUA (US Networking User Association) is the governing body for all of the local NUG (Networking User Group) events. Local NUGs are managed by a volunteer committee that does things like finding, coordinating, and inviting sponsors, panelists, keynote speakers, and attendees to their local NUG events. There is usually one NUG per state, but in some larger states, there are multiple regional NUGs. The goal of a NUG is to connect network practitioners from all stages in their careers to talk shop, make friends, and support each other through life’s twists and turns. Now that you have the background on the USNUA and NUGs, why the heck should you go to one of these things? I’ll keep it simple: the NETWORK, the KNOWLEDGE, the PEOPLE. Sure, there’s free food and brews too, but the good stuff comes from the three aforementioned items.
The NETWORK, the routers, the switches, the firewalls, the access points, etc. and the human network. When you attend a NUG event, you’re going to get first-hand stories from network practitioners about their experiences in deploying, managing, and transforming physical networks. You’re also going to network with folks who have been in your shoes. They’ve been on midnight troubleshooting calls, they’ve dealt with emergency RMAs, and they’ve definitely questioned and cussed about the cabling schema of the person who had their job before them. I know the term “networking” can carry the stigma of stuffy chamber of commerce events and salespeople disguised as practitioners, but there’s a reason why so many people still do it, because networking WORKS. Now dust off that three-piece suit and get over to your local NUG for some NETWORK talk and NETWORKING. Just kidding about the three-piece suit, unless that’s your thing.
KNOWLEDGE is power! That’s a little dramatic, but it’s not wrong. At your local NUG event, you’re going to learn from people in your own town or city. We all get the same IT influencers on our screens telling us about the next great technology (cough cough AI), but at NUGs you’re going to learn from real people doing real things at real local companies that can actually apply to what you’re doing today. You may learn about a job opening at a company you want to work at before it hits the streets, you may find out that Company A is migrating to a new switching platform that your company is considering, and you may even bump into that IT influencer who you can slap and say, “STOP TALKING ABOUT AI!” The USNUA and (FL)NUG do not condone any physical violence at NUG events whatsoever (except for that one influencer). We are constantly shouted at by people we don’t know from places that are nowhere near us. Your local NUG is a great way to turn down the volume and get great insights from the people who are investing in your own community.
How does grumpy cat work for everything? We’ve danced around this last subject a lot already, so I won’t beat it to death. PEOPLE are the reason we do what we do every day. We wake up and work to earn a living for our people. We learn how to do things from people. You keep networks operational so people can create things, learn things, teach things, buy things, and search things. People are at the heart of everything we do. People connect us, shape us, and guide us. Without people, what’s the point? So join the people at your local NUG so they can get to know you and you can get to know them, because at the end of the day, it all comes down to the people in our lives.
This is where I tell you to GET INVOLVED in your local NUG! While the USNUA does a fantastic job coordinating and managing a lot of the behind-the-scenes needs for the local NUGs, events cannot happen without the efforts of the NUG event committee teams. Joining your local NUG event committee is easy, just email Kayla at kanthony@usnua.com. She’s awesome, by the way. Participation in your local NUG committee can be as involved as you want it to be, but I strongly encourage you to join, because without U, there is no NUG (see what I did there). Lastly, if you can’t commit to volunteering, then commit to attending your first NUG event in 2026. If you’re in Florida, I’d love to see you at the next (FL)NUG event.
If you made it all the way to the end, THANK YOU, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed my Florida Man perspective on what makes NUGs so special.