What is the secret sauce of a technology meet-up group?

November 14, 2013 5:59 AM

What is the secret sauce to starting and maintaining an informal meet-up of technology start-up people?

A couple of months ago a new (free to join) technology startup group started in my city. The group is an informal gathering of budding technologists and startup people mainly in the area of code, cloud computing and general tech-related startups. It is an informal meeting which is free of "the suits" which meets every 3 weeks or so. It got off to a flying start. Enthusiasm and great intentions displayed by most members. Now, a couple of months down the line - things are beginning to wane. Attendance is not what it used to be. Momentum seems to be flagging. So what is the secret sauce to a technology meet-up like this?

posted by jacobean to Technology (5 answers total)

Best answer: A lot of the secret sauce is having a reason to meet up. "I'd like to meet new people" only works once or twice, because now you know all those new people. Even if there's still substantial "just hanging out" time, having some kind of agenda or presentation element can be a big factor in providing a focus and making it feel important to show up to this meetup, not just some meetup some time. "Hey guys, let's hang out!" is one thing; "Hey guys, this month we have a 5-minute presentation on common pitfalls in porting intranet apps to the cloud, and Sarah's going to demo her Arduino-based Automated French Press system everyone got curious about last week" - that's another entirely.
posted by Tomorrowful at 6:22 AM on November 14, 2013 [6 favorites]

Show and tell.
posted by squirbel at 7:24 AM on November 14, 2013

People get excited about the idea of work but fewer are interested in actually doing the work. You can get high on ideas.

People go to meet-ups if they are getting something out of it, if it is meeting their needs somehow. You could have two flavors of meetup: co-working group (regular) and special meetups where you share coding and start-up tips, or bring in guest speakers who've "made it" somehow, or "show-and-tell + critique" as suggested above.

Maybe every 3 weeks is too often, or not often enough? You can ask members what THEY need and want, and have them volunteer to run things. Make it a community.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:45 AM on November 14, 2013

Two organizers willing to do all the work, a topic every event, a regular schedule that's completely reliable, and visibility/tie-in with other groups. Free food really helps as does availability of beverages and a few talkative people.
posted by michaelh at 10:02 AM on November 14, 2013

Response by poster: Tomorrowful, your're right. When the group is just "hang out" time - people no longer have a reason for attending.

St Peepsburg, "getting high on ideas" is something I see a lot on the start-up scene alright. (In fact I think the organizers are high on the idea of people just attending their event.) But I would hate to see this group dwindle into "just another tech meetup" which dies out due to lack of focus.

And yes anyone can come up with ideas. The difficult part is implementing them. Maybe the group should have a speaker every session "How I made it".

Anyway thanks for the input. You have given me something to chew-on.
posted by jacobean at 9:00 AM on November 23, 2013