I've been complaining since I moved to Rhode Island about the void in active community groups for business and technology. Brown University sponsors a venture forum but the last time they've updated their site is April, 2003, and that tells me a lot about the activity of their group. Compare this to the Missouri Venture Forum in St. Louis. I've really missed the monthly talks.

For pure technology, St. Louis has the CAIT. Companies like Boeing, Monsanto, Pfizer, Edward Jones, Energizer, AG Edwards, use the CAIT to train their workforce and it gives them probably the best trained technology workers in the country and supports special interest groups in a whole range of technologies. I really haven't been able to find anything in Providence that resembles the CAIT>

I suspect there is a need for a more vibrant technology community in Providence. It is much smaller than St. Louis and it is also dwarfed by Boston which has an outstanding development community. I keep marking the NEJug on my TODO list, but who wants to drive an hour and a half to burlington in rush hour traffic to make a user group meeting at 7pm?

Anyways, sometimes if you don't find what you want, you simply have to start it up. I started the St. Louis developers roundtable and it was a great group. Now it is time for the Providence Technology Forum. I see this as not so much as a user group, but rather a technology speaking forum.