While giving the AIR training this weekend several of the class participants lamented at the lack of “community” among web professionals in Houston. As a hiring manager I would have to agree. Having worked and hired in Austin, and spent a lot of time in the Silicon Valley I understand the importance of “community” among professionals. The Austin and San Jose/San Francisco areas are close knit technology communities because:

• Professional embrace each other(that’s not a joke) even if they don’t work at the same company.
• Companies and professionals support and recruit from local universities
• There are strong entrepreneurial communities that understand the necessities for keeping these professionals together

Houston is the 4th largest city in the U.S, we can do this too. I have discussed this problem with Chris Stelmak, Erik Fruin, Adam Roarke and Ann Jenkins and I think the solution is to start a Houston area web professionals organization. It would be group where designer, developers, usability specialists, accessibility specialists and information architects could get together to teach, learn and interact with others in the same profession(s). Would you or someone you know be interested? Fill out the form below - let’s get this thing started!