by Michael Green from Local Regen Guide #1 – by greenpill.network
Format:
We meet once per month and sit around talking for ~1.25 hours, then we have a scheduled move to a local bar a few blocks away. This provides a more casual atmosphere where people can follow up on discussion topics and network a bit more.
We start each meetup by giving attendees a chance to introduce themselves, suggest one or two topics to discuss and/or upvote topics others have provided. The meetup organizer keeps track of interest in the topics and starts the conversation by picking the most popular subject to discuss. The moderator doesn’t need to have any expertise in the topic themselves, and can start the convo by asking a basic question related to the topic EG: “Why is X interesting to you?”
During the conversation, there are usually a lot of acronyms that get used and some folks might not know what they mean. To make the meetup more inclusive, the organizer can jump in from time to time to ask the speaker to explain what something means, which ensures folks have a better chance of following along. If there is a lull in the discussion on a specific topic, that’s a good cue to move on to the next most popular topic. The organizer is present to keep the conversation moving, not to decide what to talk about. Keep it simple to participate, and allow the group to dictate the direction of the conversation.
At the end of the meetup we give about 5 minutes for members to announce any local events related to the meetup subject matter that others may be interested in. This provides an opportunity for people to organically discover things they may have otherwise not discovered.
Discussion Logistics:
As an organizer of the meetup, you need to be comfortable interrupting the conversation from time to time in order to keep the meetup productive and on track.
The above format works great for up to ~30 meetup attendees. If there are more than 30 attendees it is very helpful to split the attendees into groups. This can be an organic process based on subject interest or the moderator can pick who goes where. When splitting into groups, it is important to designate an attendee as a moderator of that group. This ensures the conversation stays focused and attendees get value from it. When choosing someone to moderate, do your best to ensure they are someone trustworthy. During the bull market grifters occasionally show up and try to shill their bags and or take advantage of other attendees. Usually picking a regular attendee/someone you know & trust as a moderator is the best bet.
When the meetups were really popular in 2017 we would sometimes get up to 50 attendees. We found it useful to create a separate group for beginners. These would be led by a volunteer attendee of the meetup. Again, it is important to choose someone knowledgeable & trustworthy to lead this group.
Sometimes an attendee may end up dominating a conversation/dragging out a topic for too long and the moderator may have to jump in to move things on. Providing this guidance should be done gently. An easy way to handle this situation is to suggest continuing the conversation after the meetup.
Occasionally there may be intense debate on a topic and the moderator may have to jump in to diffuse the situation. This can usually be handled by suggesting to continue the conversation after the meetup.
If there is a lot of enthusiasm for one topic, it can be easy to get caught up talking about that one thing for a very long time. This should be avoided, especially when there is a long list of other topics folks want to discuss. A good rule of thumb is to limit discussion on one topic to less than 30 minutes. As above, the best way to move on to the next topic is to suggest that the conversation continues after the meetup. Limiting topics to 30 minutes or less, provides for more diversity in the meetup subject matter and keeps it relevant to more people.
Venue Logistics:
One of the biggest factors for a successful meetup is consistency. Holding the meetup at the same time (6pm on the 2nd Tuesday of every month etc) & place, makes it much easier for people to plan around.
Finding & maintaining a venue for the meetup can sometimes be challenging. One way to find a venue is to look for a company/project in the community that has a suitable space and would benefit from exposure to the meetup group. This can be as broad as a co-working space that would want to have attendees get memberships to their space, or could be as narrow as a project that is looking to hire talent from the industry the meetup is focused on. The easiest way to find these connections is to reach out to members of the existing meetup community if it exists.
If you host the meetup at a location that is provided by a company/project it is important to make sure you give the host proper acknowledgement for providing the space and give them a moment to shill their project, or shill it for them. It is also important to encourage the group to publicly express their gratitude to whoever is contributing the space by clapping for them after their project/company has been shilled. The same is true for any company/project that is providing food or drinks for the meetup.
If you are bootstrapping a meetup community and are having trouble finding a venue, local libraries often have space that can be used free of charge. If it is nice outside you can also meet up at a local park. We have found that having meetups in bars or restaurants isn’t conducive to great conversations because they tend to be noisy and distracting and often don’t have enough space to accommodate the meetup.
Communication Logistics:
We post all of our scheduled meetups to meetup.com. This makes it discoverable to those who are looking for meetups based on a particular topic. Using meetup.com also makes it easy for existing meetup members to know when the meetup is happening because it is easily accessible and will even send members event reminder emails.
In addition to the Meetup.com page, we have a telegram group people can join to stay updated on monthly meetups and other community events. We would send out an email reminder and a Telegram Channel post to everyone the Sunday before our Tuesday meetup to remind everyone of the time/location/and suggestion to come with a few topics to discuss.