This isn’t the post I wanted to write tonight but I knew the time was coming. The leadership of the Indianapolis .NET Developers Association (IndyNDA) announced in its LinkedIn group that its December meeting will be its last.

IndyNDA has had a good run. Having endured for nearly 12 years it has been a cornerstone of the Indianapolis development community. When I moved to Indianapolis seven years ago it was the go-to place for all things .NET. Having come from a small user group in Fort Wayne I was a bit overwhelmed by the size of IndyNDA meetings at first but it has been part of my life most of the time I’ve lived here, increasingly so over the past four years.

I credit IndyNDA for helping craft me into the developer I am today. Over time IndyNDA broke me out of my shell. Through IndyNDA I’ve learned about things I probably would never been exposed to; I’ve formed relationships with people I’d probably never have met; and I’ve had opportunities I’d probably never have found on my own. I can’t thank the people of IndyNDA enough for its impact on me.

While I’m sad to see the group end I understand. The world has changed a lot in the past decade. When IndyNDA started it was the only game in town. Back then we didn’t have social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn; we didn’t have answer sites like StackExchange; and we didn’t have webcasts of every major development conference. All of this comes at a price though and in this case it’s that groups like IndyNDA have diminished importance.

IndyNDA may be coming to an end but I have high hopes for the future of the Indianapolis development community. Per the announcement IndyTechFest will be making a comeback next year and there are certainly other events around town as evidenced by a quick Meetup search. In the meantime though I’d like to thank Brad Jones, Dave Leininger, Dan Rigsby, Joel Dart, Alex Gheith, and everyone else that has led the group through the years. Your contributions are appreciated.