Bermuda's own professional not-for-profit association in software development has made its way to being fully recognised on an international level.I am the founder and president of the not-for-profit association the Bermuda .NET User Group which provides free education, networking and opportunities for like-minded professional collaboration.With the first session held in November 2010 and three additional sessions offered in 2011, the association has now been accepted into the international collection of similar user groups governed over an organisation called INETA.This is our contribution toward encouraging and promoting the growth of software development in our community. There can only be sustainable growth if developers in our community continue to learn the new trends and understand industry best practices.The Bermuda .NET User Group's mission is to provide free education on the latest software development tools and techniques, solution architecture and all other areas associated to the field like project management and development methodologies.We are very happy of the turnout with over 80 people attending one of our sessions, and it is all made possible by our sponsors and core committee members.The two other core group committee members are Paul Coleman and Russell Medway. All members are long-term contributors in the field of technology advocacy in Bermuda and have put their expertise to good use in both the local and international organisations.We hope to offer general sessions on SharePoint, database administration or optimisation and business intelligence. There will also be specific business technology related topics in re/insurance, risk management and capital markets. With over $10,000 already given away in free licenses and books by our sponsors the content of the sessions and networking opportunities is by far the most valuable part of this growing group.The sessions provided to date have included discussions on the latest features available in the .NET Framework, the differences between WPF and Silverlight, parallel computing and a session on the future and risk of technology. Each session has been provided by qualified software developers who have each authored published books on their subject matter expertise including Microsoft MVP's the fourth most influential software engineer and author Dr James Martin.To learn more about this association or to get involved please contact Sandra De Silva at sdesilva[AT]nova.bm or visit our website at www.dnug.bmSandra De Silva is the managing director of Nova.