Asterisk Users in your area?  
There are Asterisk User's Groups (AUG's) in Toronto (http://taug.ca), Montreal (http://amug.modulis.ca/), Winnipeg, Atlanta, New York, Sacramento, San Diego, Utah, and New Zealand.  For pointers, see http://taug.ca/augs 
Open-access VoIP INFO
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/
http://www.voipuser.org/
Asterisk Official Sites
Asterisk http://www.asterisk.org/
Ast Conference http://www.astricon.net/
Digium http://www.digium.com/