Red Gate have been running
the Friends of Red Gate program for years now, and over that time we've built some
great relationships with some truly awesome members of
the SQL and .NET communities. When I took over
the running of
the program from Annabel in 2011, I was overwhelmed by
the enthusiasm and commitment of our Friends. There were just so many of them, however, that it was hard to make
the most of
the relationships we had with people, and I wanted to fix that. I decided to survey all our Friends, to find out what they wanted to get out of, and put into, being in
the Friends of Red Gate (FoRG) program. From
the results of that survey, I identified 30 FoRGs that were really willing and able to go that step further to help Red Gate improve their tools, improve their relationship with
the community, and improve
the Friends of Red Gate program. Those 30 Friends of Red Gate have been awarded 'FoRG+' status. That means they'll: Have a closer relationship with
the product teams, by getting involved in projects Have even more access to
the inside track about
the tools they're interested in Get
the opportunity to come visit us at
the Red Gate office and really influence
the development of
the tools. Plus more, depending on how
the individual FoRG+ wants to work with us. This doesn't mean I've forgotten our other Friends; I'm working on ways to improve their experience of
the Friends of Red Gate program. I'll write about them in another post. If you're an existing Friend of Red Gate, and you're interested in finding out how to get involved in
the FoRG+ program, then I'd love to chat to you. For anyone that's interested in joining
the Friend of Red Gate program, take a look at
the web page dedicated to
the program, and get in touch at
[email protected] to be put on
the waiting list for our 2013 program.
