A major event, such as a nursing informatics conference or course has been used successfully as an impetus to gather nurses interested in informatics together. This paper reflects on a 2008 nursing informatics event held in Singapore and the author's previous experiences with initiatives to support the emergence of nursing informatics in countries without a strong nursing informatics presence. Possible next steps and potential barriers are identified. It is hoped that countries new to informatics, and without an established nursing informatics group may gather ideas on how to better support nursing informatics involvement.