The main purpose of this page is to announce news and forthcoming events related to Access
It is also used to explain how you can catch up on some recent events you may have missed including web links and YouTube videos where available.
I hope you find this information useful.
If you are aware of other forthcoming events of interest, please let me know by email
Section Links:
Access News
Forthcoming Events
Recent / Past Events
Access News
Access User Group - Europe
The online Europe chapter of Access User Groups was launched in March 2022. This meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 18:00/6 PM London (UK) time.
The group is chaired by Colin Riddington and supported byAlessandro Grimaldi. It provides a forum for IT professionals, developers, and new users to share and learn about Microsoft Access.
The group focus is on innovative and lesser known features in Access with an invited speaker discussing a topic relevant to Access developers for the first 45 minutes of the session. The remaining time is used to answer questions, share ideas and suggest topics for future sessions.
More details are available at the AUG Europe webpage and on the Access Europe section of this website.
Each session is recorded and uploaded to the Access Europe channel on YouTube.
Please subscribe to get advance notice about topics planned for future meetings. Do join us!
Other Access User Groups
Another four online chapters of AccessUserGroups.org have (or will be) launched during 2024.
The full list is as follows:
• Lunchtime - led by Maria Barnes: https://accessusergroups.org/lunch/
• Europe - led by Colin Riddington: https://accessusergroups.org/europe/
• Espana - led by Juanjo Luna: https://accessusergroups.org/espana/
• SQL Server With Access - led by Juan Soto: https://accessusergroups.org/sql-server-with-access/
• Pacific - led by George Hepworth: https://accessusergroups.org/pacific/
• Latino America - led by Edgar Olivares: https://accessusergroups.org/access-latino/
• Italia - led by Alessandro Grimaldi: https://accessusergroups.org/italia/
• Express Australia - led by Kent Gorrell: https://accessusergroups.org/access-express-australia/
• Beginners - led by Juan Soto: https://accessusergroups.org/access-beginners/
Click the links above for full details of each group's aims together with the dates and times of each meeting
All meetings are recorded with the videos available free on the AccessUserGroups.org channel on YouTube.
Access News - YouTube
Great news! Karl Donaubauer (Access MVP) has now released several editions of a series of quarterly 'newscasts' where he shares the latest news about Microsoft Access.
The videos are each about 30 minutes in length and are now available on Karl's YouTube channel.
The videos are both entertaining and informative. Enjoy!
Access Forever
Karl Donaubauer has also created a blog site called Access Forever (AFo) to promote Microsoft Access. I am one of a group of 6 current and former MVPs who are collaborating to release information about Access bugs, tool, events and findings.
The AFo website can be found at https://www.accessforever.org/. Do check the site regularly!
Forthcoming Events
Access Europe User Group First Wed of each month
For details of all speakers and topics at all forthcoming sessions of the Europe chapter of AccessUserGroups.org, please see the dedicated page elsewhere on this website: Access User Groups: Europe (AEU) or visit the Access Europe website
German Access Developers Conference (AEK) Sat 19 / Sun 20 October 2024
This is the 26th annual Access Entwickler Konferenz (AEK) for Access developers in Germany. The two day live conference will be held in Nuremburg, Germany and is organised by Karl Donaubauer. For full details of this event, go to the AEK website.
UK Access User Group Conference Wed 20 November 2024
UKAUG will be holding a live Autumn conference at Oxford University, UK.
The event includes 5 sessions with different speakers.
For further details of the day's events, go to the UK Access User Group website.
Recent / Past Events
Access DevCon 2024 Thur 18 / Fri 19 April 2024 (2 days)
The 8th annual online 2 day Access DevCon conference took place on 18/19 April 2024.
There were a total of 12 sessions by different speakers over the 2 day event.
I led a session called
You can REALLY do all that with Forms?. This was a whistle-stop tour through a wide ranging series of tips and tricks to enhance the functionality of your forms in Access.
Full details of all conference sessions and speakers are available on the
Access DevCon website.
UK Access User Group Conference Tues 9 April 2024
This was a one day in-person conference held at Imperial College in London, UK.
The event included 5 sessions with different speakers.
For further details of the day's events, go to the UK Access User Group website.
Access Europe User Group (AEU) Sept 2023
I ran a presentation on my new Database Analyzer Pro application for the Access Europe User Group on Wed 6 Sept 2023
For more details, see: Access Europe – Colin Riddington (Database Analyzer and Other Tools)
The session was recorded and the video is now available at the
Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access DevCon 2023 April 2023 (2 days)
I led a session at the online Access DevCon conference on 28 April 2023 called Making Automatic Form Resizing Work For You. This included a review of all the latest AFR features as well as live demonstrations to show how easy it is to use automatic form resizing to successfully convert:
a) An ‘oversized form’ originally created in a high resolution
b) An old Northwind database created for Access 2000 in 800*600 resolution
Full details of all conference sessions and speakers are available on the
Access DevCon website.
Access Lunchtime User Group (AL) Jan 2023
I led an online session on Translation Tools in Access for the Access Lunchtime User Group on Tues 31 Jan 2023. In the first part of the session, I demonstrated my Translate and Speak app which is a practical application of Text to Speech . The rest of the session was used to demonstrate my Access Application Translator app which is due for release in March 2023
The session was recorded and the video is now available at the
Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access Europe User Group (AEU) Dec 2022
I ran a presentation on Annotating Google Maps in Access for the Access Europe User Group on 7 Dec 2022
For more details, see: Access Europe – Colin Riddington (Annotating Google Maps in Access)
The session was recorded and the video is now available at the
Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access Espana User Group (AES) Nov 2022
I led an online session for the Access Espana User Group on Thur 17 Nov 2022. The topic was Controlling the Application Interface / Attention Seeking Database . My contribution was in English with simultaneous translation to Spanish by George Young (organiser of the Denver Area Access User Group)
For more details, see:
Access Espana – Colin Riddington (Controlling the Application Interface)
The video of the session is available at the
Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access Europe User Group (AEU) Sept 2022
I led an online session on Optimising Queries and the JET ShowPlan for the Access Europe User Group on 7 Sept 2022
For more details, see:
Access Europe – Colin Riddington (Optimising Queries and the JET ShowPlan)
The video of the session is available at the
Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access DevCon 2022 April 2022
I was pleased to run two sessions at the online Access DevCon 2 day conference on 28/29 April 2022:
- Annotating Google Maps
- Translate & Speak
Full details of all conference sessions and speakers are available on the
DevCon website.
Videos from three of the DevCon sessions are now available on Karl Donaubauer's YouTube channel.
Access User Group - Europe (AEU) Mar 2022
The first meeting of the new Europe (AEU) chapter of AccessUserGroups.org was held on Wed 2 March 2022.
It was co-hosted by Alessandro Grimaldi and myself (Colin Riddington).
The video of the first meeting is now available at the
Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
All meetings are held on the first Wed of each month at 18:00 UK time
Please subscribe to get advance notice about the topics planned for future meetings of the new chapter.
Denver Area Access User Group - (DAAUG) Feb 2022
I was also asked to run an updated version of my Automatic Form Resizing presentation to the online Denver Area Access User Group on Thursday 17 Feb . The latest version includes guidance on using automatic form resizing with datasheets and navigation forms.
The session video is now available at the
Denver Area Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
UK Access User Group (UK AUG) Feb 2022
I led an online session for the UK Access User Group earlier this year on Automatic Form Resizing
Another scheduled online session on Controlling the Application Interface was originally planned for Wed 8 June. This may happen at a future date.
Further details will be published at a later date at the UK Access User Group website.
Access User Group - Eastern Time (ET) Dec 2021
I recently led a session on Controlling the Application Interface to the online AUG ET group on Friday 17 Dec 2021. Further details about this event are available at the
Access User Groups website.
The session video is now available at the Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access User Group - Pacific (AP) Dec 2021
Michael Aldridge was, at that time, the Principal Program Manager for Access at Microsoft. Michael led a session explaining the Updated Access Roadmap and the new Access Connector for Dataverse.
The session video is now available at the Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access User Group - Lunchtime (AL) Nov 2021
Peter Cole of ThemeMyDatabase.co.uk led an excellent session where he explained how to update API declarations to work in 64-bit Access.
The session video is now available at the Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access User Group - Lunchtime (AL) Sept 2021
I ran a session on Automatic Form Resizing to the online AUG Lunchtime group on Tue 28 Sept 2021.
The 1 hour session showed how to resize and reposition Access forms and their controls for users with different screen sizes and resolutions. The session also covered zooming forms in/out.
All required code is available FREE.
The session video is now available at the Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access User Group - Pacific (AP) Sept 2021
Crystal Long (MVP) and I jointly ran a session on obtaining Extended File Properties using Access to the online AUG Pacific group on Thur 2 Sept 2021.
The 1 hour session was used to demonstrate two free Access applications used to obtain the extended file properties of any file or group of files in Windows.
All required code is available FREE.
The session video is now available at the Access User Groups channel on YouTube.
Access DevCon Apr 2021
I ran a session to introduce the main features of my JSON Analyse & Transform for Access (JATFA) application to the online Access DevCon 2021 conference on Fri 23 April 2021.
This app was designed to make importing and handling JSON files in Access both a straightforward and, in many cases, a largely automated task.
For more information, see JSON Analyse & Transform for Access (JATFA)
The session video is now available at the Access DevCon channel on YouTube.
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