We did it! Earlier this week we held our first ever Virtual Meetup and, I may be biased, but it was a massive success!

Thanks for attending, those of you who could, and big thanks to David and u/aprimeproblem being a part of the panel. For those of you who couldn't I have news! The recording is posted!

• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@ActiveDirectoryCommunity
• However, if you want to download it, I put up on Archive.org too: https://archive.org/details/ad-community-meet-2026-06

Don't stop reading there are a couple more items we need to throw out there.

Post-Meeting Survey

Whether or not you made it I'm interested in what you think about some of the items. Especially some of the logistics items.

• Survey Link

Based on the previous survey Tuesdays worked best. Currently this one is suggesting a different time. I want to give the most people the opportunity to join as I can, so if nothing else answer that part. Oh, and if you want to be considered as a panelist, let me know in the survey (provide me your contact info, please).

Merch?

AD Subreddit Merch Link

OKay, hear me out. I wanted to put them out there as an opportunity for us to share a common theme. I'm using Printify and Etsy to do all the sales/distribution part. They are priced just above cost with idea of only covering cost changes and to make Printify not bug me.

I have zero intention of making money off this and will use the funds to fund more meetups. Anything more will go to one or more charities. If you want to know ask and I'll show you the numbers.

Next Meeting?

TBD at the moment. We'll probably post it about 2 weeks before we actually do it, but right now we are planning early July. I'll do some more posts when it is time.

Other Events

First, make sure you're subscribed the talks, cons, and webinar's thread Identity Conferences/Webinars/Podcasts Megathread.

I'll be presenting at Zero To Sec's town-hall/meeting Saturday. I'll post details in the con's thread.

Also if any of you are going to Hobocon, I'll be there and presenting as well if you want to say hello.

Everything after this is just some reflection and discussion.

Takeaways

The AMA/Q&A style discussion ended up surprising me. I've been to several conferences, trainings, etc. and rarely are they structured to be a back-and-forth discussion. This really enabled some conversation that I don't think happens often and after talking with a colleague I think it may be needed.

That said, I think we'll keep the open Panelist-AMA-style discussion in future meet ups.

Eventbrite, Teams, etc.

Eventbrite was not my first choice. I'm going to evaluate other options for next time. The idea here is I need a means to track registration so I know what to plan for. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, let me know.

Teams

There were a couple of challenges with teams. Admittedly, I've not done teams calls outside of the workplace and that added a layer that surprised me. I said it before I'm looking at using Proton in the future, but we'll see. I don't have any licensing I own outside of Teams currently so there are lots of variables.

Reach Out If you have ideas or suggestions, reach out. Otherwise, thanks everyone for everything and for making this an awesome community.

I love any input anyone has. Just reach out!

Less than 24 hours until our inaugural community meetup! I hope you all are excited, because I know I am! I will start the event early and do some pre-meeting banter if anyone is interested. Also, I'm going to open up for more attendees (we're sold out).

If you can't make it, no worries. I'll be recording it and will make it available through a couple of platforms.

Event Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/active-directory-community-virtual-meetup-happy-hour-tickets-1990001856121

Pre Q&A Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFsbopcwHDeCkMoSKu1X5PVUl_nglFpNAPSKrd38-ZM9sI1g/viewform

>NOTE: We had originally planned to use Proton to do the meeting but will be using Teams. We'll try Proton next time.

We're taking some pre-questions for the Q&A if you can't make it or just want to submit something. The panelists will be trying to go through as many of these as we can. Don't worry, we'll also be keeping an eye on the chat.

Pre Q&A Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFsbopcwHDeCkMoSKu1X5PVUl_nglFpNAPSKrd38-ZM9sI1g/viewform

Agenda

• Introductions + Warm Up
• State of the Subreddit / Community Feedback
• Community Discussion + Q&A + Panelist Discussion
• Conclusions + Next Meeting Planning

If you didn't know, I'm a huge fan of Black Hills Infosec and Antisyphon Training. They're one of the few companies I feel like are actually working towards the greater good in the cybersecurity space.

They recently announced "Free Lab Fridays" where you can do some CTFs and Cybersec labs for 2 hours a week on Fridays.

https://www.antisyphontraining.com/free-lab-fridays/

Also, if you're not checking out their Wednesday Webinars, I recommend that too. Check out their discord.

https://discord.com/invite/antisyphon

Note: I do not work for them, nor am I directly affiliated with them. I did help present a webinar through them but no money exchanged hands.