Hey folks,

Our first get-together since OpenCamp at House of Blues was a great event, and much thanks goes out to Damany and EventBrite for putting that together for us.

Now it's time to get back down to our OpenCamp roots and follow up with some good old fashioned learning and networking! So, for our very first lecture-style meetup since OpenCamp we're going to be tackling two different topics:

Demystifying Web Hosting
Steven Horn suggested a discussion about Web Hosting options, so I'm going to lead this one. For those of you who don't know my qualifications in this area, here goes:

• I'm the former CMO for Layered Tech, former VP for SAVVIS, and former Director at Cable & Wireless - some of the largest hosting companies on the planet.
  
• I deal with a very large amount of infrastructure in my capacity with Woopra.
  
• I've had a lot of challenges keeping OneMansBlog.com running with the high demand over the years.
  

We'll also talk about what solution might be best for you, and I'll make a few recommendations along the way. We'll also discuss how your hosting decision can affect your Google Rank and the amount of traffic you receive to your site!

SEO and Monetization Strategies
Do you guys remember our friend Scott Kublin from OpenCamp? John Hays does, and he suggested we bring Scott back for an encore. Dorian also suggested some more monetization discussion...

I told everyone that it was the first time Scott ever shared any of his little secrets, and boy was he popular! Well, I talked him into coming into town to meet with our group again and impart some more of his wisdom.

He'll be addressing all sorts of tips and techniques for improving your search engine performance as well as really focusing in on how to make the most of every visitor in terms of:

• Determining the most effective ad platform for a given situation
  
• How he measures and monitors the performance of his had network
  
• Techniques for success with affiliate platforms
  

After All That...
After a couple of hours of lecture I'm sure everyone will be hungry, so we'll head on over to a nearby local establishment for drinks and snacks. The after-party is TBD, but hold a little time in your schedule as you won't want to miss the socializing.

Location
I'm extremely pleased to announce that OpenCamp has partnered with the University of Texas at Dallas to host our monthly meetups!

We will be having the monthly meetups in the large Hoblitzelle lecture hall which will accomodate up to 300 attendees. However, we're going to limit attendance to 250 for the meetups to ensure there is breathing room.

UTD has a robust WiFi network so everyone should be able to get online, but make sure your laptops are charged because the lecture hall is configured without individual power at the seats.

And since this is the first time we're doing a meetup at this location please come a little early so that you have time to find the room. UTD is a big campus so here is a PDF version of the campus map you can print and bring with you.