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I am looking to make a new SpiceCorp in Shelbyville. I have a conference center with video capabilities as well as space to spread out for social distancing. There would be plenty of parking as well (there is a parking lot right in front of the center) so no need to worry about that.

My goal would be to always host hybrid sessions with the conference center (the conference center has a large TV available for use as well as a conference camera), and potentially record them (depending on the content). As I’m not sure what kind of attention this would bring, I’m hoping to have some demos at every session for fun (wifi-pineapple, O.MG cable, a rubber ducky and a raspberry pi, potentially a scrap computer to play around with, and other things that will make us more paranoid than we already potentially are…), and other presentations as well regarding free technologies/OSINT such as Divinci (for video editing), Cuckoo Sandbox (open source automated malware analysis engine), Spiceworks Helpdesk (which I’m sure we all use), and more…

Just a heads up, this is extremely far outside of my comfort zone and depending on the results, I need to follow-up with the city to check on the availability of the conference center as well as figure out dates/times that will work for everyone. Once/if I get a reply back from either of the SpiceCorp Indianapolis leaders, I plan to try and make a post there to raise awareness. I am going to be looking to grab “guest” speakers as well, more than likely from the corp at first, but potentially from others as time goes on.

If you are interested, go ahead and PM me some dates/times that would work for you and I can work on trying to find some time to make it happen.

EDIT: I heard back from the city, the cost for renting out the conference center will be covered by me assuming I host too many for no cost – we are also allowed to drink alcohol at the conference center during events.

7 Spice ups
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Depending on when you have it, I could attend. I live about an hour and a half from Shelbyville. I would be interested in the WiFi stuff you mentioned. I keep getting onto my users about using public WiFi and that would be cool to see first hand. I am really up for anything IT related, I am a one man show and its always nice to talk with other like minded people.

2 Spice ups
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I would be looking to have it at any time once enough people express interest. It seems like Saturdays would be the easiest to schedule the conference center while still allowing everyone to fulfill their normal work times. Definitely let me know what would be best for you though!

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I would say for now you can count me in. As long as there is nothing going on, a Saturday works for me.

1 Spice up
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I would also be interested. It is a bit of a drive but could definitely video conference in if I can’t make the drive. I used to hold these in the conference room of a previous employer and they are definitely a great way to mingle with other like- minded individuals!

2 Spice ups
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I’m up in Muncie, so this would be a bit of a hike for me. I might be able to make this trip maybe once a year unless there was something amazingly stupendous going on to warrant more frequent trips. I wish you luck though.

3 Spice ups
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I’m interested as well, although it’s about an hour and a half south of me (I’m in the Muncie area). My schedule is rather hectic, but given enough heads-up I might be able to make it.

1 Spice up
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@marktinder ​ - I take that as a challenge! What would be your areas of expertise/items that you would be interested in making that “hike” for?

@trentf , @bradendrown ​ and @chris0984 - What would be ideal in terms of heads up/general availability?

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Right now, anything lol. I haven’t been to a physical IT seminar or conference since 2019 (I went to a KnowBe4 conference in 2019 before the world went to crap) and it would be nice to get out of town for the day and hang out with other people in our field. So I am up for the drive. I think right now for me, WiFi, I would even like to build something with a WiFi Pineapple to use on my employees as no one ever believes me. And I am hoping I can learn something from this.

1 Spice up
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I can usually get free for weekdays if I know a couple of weeks ahead of time. Weekends are trickier and I’d probably need to know a little sooner (along with the wife’s approval lol).

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Sounds good, I will do some research to see what I can come up with for a session. Just doing a small google search I found " DIY WiFi Pineapple Guide " – So maybe we could look at doing something like that.

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My duties and interests involve Active Directory, on-prem e-mail servers (Exchange currently, moving to MDaemon), Veeam B&R, VMware, Cisco ASA’s, Cisco AnyConnect (VPN), WordPress site management, PowerShell (primarily for AD and Exchange tasks, but also various scripting projects), and Dell network switches. Quite a bit there to play with I reckon.

Forgot to mention WiFi. We use Ruckus APs and their virtual SmartZone appliance. Perhaps I wear too many hats…

1 Spice up
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Too many hats? Don’t let the business catch you saying that, you might gain another!

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Good luck and I wish you the very best.

When I started the SpiceCorps of Indianapolis I had some very cool meetings. Sponsors helped immensely and by providing food and drink that helped bring in members since most of these meetings were during the week around dinner time.

You may have better attendance on a Saturday as that was one thing I did not do; schedule meetings during the weekend.

When I polled SpiceHeads they were all receptive to seeing new technology, even if Spiceworks wasn’t involved. You having guest speakers and things to “play with” should go over well. I know at some of my meetings the “hands on” displays or demonstrations were well received.

I don’t even know if the SpiceCorps of Indianapolis is active anymore as I spend most of my time out of state and have not been involved in Spiceworks for years but I do wish you much success.

Richard

2 Spice ups
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Welcome to MDaemon! We have resources to help you migrate from Exchange. Please let me know if you run into any issues during your migration or if you have any questions.

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Thank you Richard, when I joined Spiceworks I was a little sad when I saw the Indianapolis one was dead. Hopefully, I can get this started out and gain a lot of interest on it. If you’re interested, I plan on “presenting” the demos where possible so that the virtual audience can enjoy it as well.

Unfortunately, the only things that I am really familiar with in terms of mass audience participation are more geared towards the cybersecurity realm which is a short coming that I am hoping to overcome.

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It has been at least 4 maybe 5 years since a successful meeting with the Indianapolis chapter. The last one I remember attending in person was located at the Stutz Business Center with Eaton was the sponsor. That was a convenient space to meet as we had a remote office also in the building, so planning a trip to the office and staying for a SpiceCorp meeting was really handy. My last notification was from 4 years ago when fellow Spiceworks member “LastGoodKnight” was moving out of state and looking for a new leader.

2 Spice ups
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To be honest, I am fairly open afternoons after 6pm and on weekends that my daughters travel softball team aren’t playing.

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Back when SpiceCorps of Indy was active, which I want to say was about ten years ago. I had multiple in my office and they always had a tech company come in and discuss their products (HP, Scale, etc). They did almost always cater food as well, which I am sure great improves attendance. Most even gave out an item at the end of the night. I can’t remember who was running at this time, but a penguin comes to my mind. Ah, I looked back and it was @james , and his avatar is a penguin.

2 Spice ups
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Sounds good! I will see what is possible. I don’t think Thursdays or Fridays are very open for the conference center, but who knows!