We are also excited to announce that a new BlackBerry Developer Group is forming in Atlanta, Georgia! The Atlanta BlackBerry Developer’s Group is the place to be for BlackBerry developers who are interested in networking with fellow developers and staying updated with what’s happening in the BlackBerry development platform world. The group plans to have 8-10 meetings per year to share BlackBerry development knowledge and to have some fun in the process. The goal of the group is to build a knowledge sharing network for writing quality software on the BlackBerry platform – a place where developers can turn for answers and advice.

If you live or work in the Atlanta area, please be sure to attend the group’s first meeting on April 25th, 2011. The meeting will take place at 11475 Great Oaks Way, Suite 400, Alpharetta, Georgia. To register for the event and get more information, please visit the official website of the Atlanta BlackBerry Developer’s Group.

As always, we invite you to visit our BlackBerry Developer Groups website to find a group in your area. If one doesn’t already exist, you can start a new one by filling out this form.

The London BlackBerry® Developer Group will be holding their inaugural meeting in one of the public spaces at the Royal Festival Hall (Level 4) on Tuesday Thursday, December 2nd 2010 starting at 6:00pm.

Food and drink will be available from the bars and cafes in the building, and the meeting agenda will be available for viewing on the group’s site shortly. Anyone interested in joining the group and attending the meeting is encouraged to register on the site.

Please visit our BlackBerry Developer Groups site to find a group in your area or start a new one!

The meeting will cover important topics covered at BlackBerry DEVCON 2010. Attendees will have a chance to learn about learn about the BlackBerry WebWorks program, upcoming BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) APIs, the new BlackBerry Payment Service and BlackBerry Advertising Service, Research In Motion®-backed open source projects and yes, even the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet.

Please visit out Developer Groups site to find a group in your area or to start a new one!

As we all get in taxis, cars, trains, and planes (maybe boats too?) to travel to BlackBerry® DEVCON 2010, have you planned ahead and checked out all the special programs this year?!

Yes, not only do we have a MASSIVE catalog of over 100 sessions, but we’ve also lined up a panacea of special programs to suit the diverse passions and interests of the community.

These are my personal favorites!

• On Monday morning, various @BlackBerryDev team members – including yours truly – will be leading DEVCON tours to help new attendees get familiar with all the key activities and locations throughout the week – even an alumnus may discover something new! Find the tours by heading to the registration desk.
• Also on Monday morning, DEVCON Alumni will have access to an exclusive One-On-One event with Research In Motion® (RIM) experts in an informal setting. This event is taking place in Yerba Buena Ballroom 7 between 9:00-11:30am. Check out all the cool alumni benefits including VIP lounge, discounts, and an Alumni exclusive breakfast!
• Monday night is going to be huge too! After the welcome reception (another can’t-miss event, by the way), we will be holding a special Community Connection event all about celebrating the BlackBerry Developer Community. Join us to hear about highlights from the BlackBerry Partners Fund “Super Apps” Developer Challenge, learn about our new BlackBerry Developer Groups popping up all over the world, and cheer as we recognize community members for outstanding contributions. Get all the details here!
• The BlackBerry DEVCON foursquare Challenge starts with the first check-in at the DEVCON keynote Monday at 12:30pm.
• Tuesday night. DEVCON party! Enough said.
• Wednesday night, we have both an International Reception for our guests from outside the US and Canada, and the DEVCON Mobile Scavenger Hunt powered by AT&T. Head out into the city of San Francisco for an evening of adventure and fun! Passes will be handed out at the AT&T booth, so make sure you swing by!
• Are you a student or faculty? Make sure you check out the special Academic Program!
• …and don’t forget about Developer Day on Thursday! Find all the details here, and in my previous blog post.

Which of these DEVCON special programs will you be attending?

As mentioned in my earlier BlackBerry® Developer Groups post, September is an exciting month with numerous BlackBerry Developer Groups around the world holding meetups! Now that Chicago, Zurich and Tel Aviv have had their meetings, there are three more groups meeting in the second half of September.

The Brazilian BlackBerry Developer group meets in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo every second Wednesday of each month, and the next meetings are as follows:

Sao Paulo:

Rio de Janeiro:

Discussions will revolve around the most recent announcements in the industry, including the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone running BlackBerry® 6 and a preview of the activities at BlackBerry® DEVCON 2010 in San Francisco.

The Edmonton BlackBerry Developers Group will be meeting on September 15th at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, with special guest speaker Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations from Research In Motion® (RIM). Mike will be presenting his insights on BlackBerry app development. There will also be a draw for a free BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone!

Finally, the New England BlackBerry Developer’s Group is holding its fourth meeting at the Boston Marriott Cambridge on September 21st. The agenda has not yet been finalized, but some potential topics of discussion include: optimizing performance and memory usage, BlackBerry JDE tips & tricks, BlackBerry shared libraries and open source, and advanced UI tricks.

We invite you to start a new group if one doesn’t already exist in your area! Are you planning on attending any of these meetings?

September is shaping up to be an exciting month, with numerous BlackBerry® Developer Groups around the world hosting meetings! As the program continues to grow, we continue to add new groups, including the Chicago group which meets for the first time on September 10th. Check out the group page here for all the details.

September 7th (today!) will be the second meeting for the Zurich group at the picturesque Lake Side restaurant. Details on the upcoming meeting as well as future meetings can be found on the Zurich BlackBerry Developer Group page.

Also, the Tel Aviv Developer Group just held their post-summer meetup, where they covered interesting topics such as Free vs. Paid Business Models: Marketing Applications in BlackBerry App World™ storefront and addressing the ‘APN Challenge’ – great stuff! For information on future meetings and to keep up with all things for developers in Tel Aviv, visit their comprehensive group page.

As always, we invite you to start a new group if one doesn’t already exist in your area! Let us know what you want to see at future meetings.