Meetup.com practices

Some rights reserved by Christain Senger

For quiet sometime I have been attending meetups/sessions organised through meetup.com at different locations. I have seen that the general practice is quiet similar everywhere. 

• The Agenda is posted on the meetup group by the organizers/speakers . 
• People mark RSVP(even when most of them wont show up). 
• Less than 30 percent of attendance is seen.
• The actual event would start at least 30-40 minutes (or more) late than it was scheduled because of late comers.
• The speakers and the participants would just socialize or sit idle.
• The late comers would give the same reason always; couldn't find the location/stuck in traffic.
• Many 1st time visitors for the meetup who will probably have no clue of what the meetup is all about and will be expecting to have the basics covered 1st.
• The organizers would probably consider reviewing the basics based on the majority.
• The meetup will cover most of the times everything as per the agenda.
• A break with some snacks/refreshments and for socializing.
• Meetup concludes with an informal planning for the next meetup to be arranged.
• Feedback mail received for the meetup.

Finally it all goes well here, but I see a few problems that could be avoided. 

Latecomers :  

 This is something that cant be avoided. However I honestly feel that this could be minimized to a certain extent for sure. Also, most of the organisers already practice this and I think it helps them for sure.

• While giving a time, keep a buffer of at least 15-20 minutes as certain things like traffic cannot be avoided.
• Provide a google maps link for the users to locate things fast. Also some important landmark nearby could help too.
• Traffic situation at a particular time in general will also be helpful for people to leave little early. e.g if the meetup is conducted in the evening, at a busy location, it would take hours to reach the location.
• A way to reach the location would help too. e.g if someone comes by bus, the bus stop he should be informing to the bus-conductor and the bus number he needs to look for. If by rickshaw, the nearest possible landmark to the location and approximate walkable distance from any location if its complicated to find.

Newcomers :

Many meetups will have new faces who expect basics or the introductory things to be covered for them to keep up with the pace. When the meetup starts directly these people don't get most of the things and then they would probably not join in the next meetup as well. Covering the basics time and again will make the regularly coming people bored as it would just eat up their time.

• Newcomers need to make an attempt to reach the venue as early as possible and ask questions to the organizers or the people present there and make the maximum out of the time to understand the introductory part.
• The organizers could play slides of the previous meetup or of the introductory meetups for the beginners/newcomers to know what was covered or perhaps covering the basics for the 1st 15-30 minutes buffer can also be a good idea provided the newcomers are coming early.
• Beginners can also read about the past meetups and check if the slides for the past meetups are available on the page and review them, understand what topics are covered, read them and then join the meetup. Its just like attending the classes in the college and reading a brief info of the topic before the lecture.

Socialize : 

Less participation is been seen in terms of socializing at a few meetups. You never know, who could help you in what kind of problems where you are stuck at office. I have come across so many situations where I don't get what use cases could be followed for a particular problems and the experts I meet in the meetup/conferences have really splendid and simple solutions that I could not have think of. Not only will they give you a solution, they would also explain why would that solution be the best one to be used. Michael Ducy from Chef(old Opscode) provided a really good, simple and descriptive answer for the best use case to be followed for Chef-Docker integration.

Incorrect RSVP :

One practice that has been seen is that people would simply click attending/going and will not turn up for the meetup. In almost every meetup I see an attendance less than 30%. Planning to attend a meetup in advance and marking RSVP is good, however if the plan changes, updating the RSVP is a good practice too. It will keep the organizers updated and help them arrange the function well. It gives me a feeling that people would just RSVP yes to a meetup cos its free. It becomes difficult for the organisers to arrange the meetup because of incorrect RSVPs. I have seen last minute arrangements being made to many meetups and I will surely not blame them for it, its just the RSVP that they cant trust and then have to rely on the last minute attendance.

• Update your RSVP whenever you change your decision for any reason.
• Mention reason in the comments if your decision changes due to any reason so that the co-participants will look for you in the next meetup. Everyone is an important member in the meetup.
• If you plan to bring a friend/colleague along with you, update the RSVP to reflect the change.

Feedback :

The organizers keep looking for feedback for the meetup that they organized voluntarily and selflessly (marketing the brand can be ignored for sometime). The attendance is as low as 30% and the feedback is even lesser, close to around 10%. An honest feedback helps the organizers organize better in future. 

• Always provide a feedback after the meetup verbally as well as on the meetup page.
• Let the people know that it was nice to see them at the meetup. This builds a good network, there are high chances that next time they would attend the meetup to meet you and socialize further. 
• Its all about giving respect and getting it back.