Last Friday, the 16th of September 2005, was Lebdev's first year anniversary. Lebdev (the first .NET usergroup in Lebanon) is 1 year old now. I feel really lucky that I was one of the founding members of the usergroup that did a great job promoting the .NET technologies in the local developer's community. I've gained a lot of experience and got to know a lot of great people through Lebdev. What's really great about the offline community usergroup, and what actually differentiate it from an online community group, is that you get to meet the members of the group, network with them, get to know them better, and actually be friends with them.
For the anniversary, Lebdev did an event where keynotes were given by Microsoft and Lebdev. Microsoft's keynote was given by Muhieddine Chaaban, Microsoft's DE/DPE Lead in Lebanon, and Lebdev's keynote was given by Samer Chidiac, Lebdev's Public Relations officer. A small introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 was given by myself and Firas Hamdan. Also a small introduction to the new features of SQL Server 2005 was given by Tarek Ghazali.
You can see some photos from the event here.