Meetup events can be powerful tools for networking, educating, community building, and more. With a bit of careful planning, you can reach larger audiences and create the value you’re hoping to deliver as an organizer.
Dr. Kevin Browne, Instructor of “How to Organize Awesome Meetup Events,”* joined Meetup Live to teach you to think through important decisions when planning your events to help you build the experience you’re looking for. The talk focused on deciding the goals for your Meetup group, choosing appropriate topics, and knowing your audience. Learn the nuts and bolts of planning events, from messaging and marketing to scheduling and hosting.
*This talk is based on the new Udemy course, “How To Organize Awesome Meetup Events.”
Main Takeaways:
- Organize your group and design your events for the community you want to attract and the value you want to create.
- The best Meetup groups fill a gap. If there isn’t a group in your area around the topic you’re thinking about, it could be a great fit. Consider increasing or decreasing your topic scope to find an audience.
- Tips for hosting great events:
- Pick a consistent day and time when your audience is available.
- When choosing a venue, community preference is important. To start out, think about where your audience might want to meet, and consider how accessible or central of a location it is.
- Check to make sure you have everything you need the day before an event, and send reminders to any speakers.
- Show up at least thirty minutes early, and start on time. As people arrive, introduce yourself, introduce people to each other, and welcome new members. Early arrivals are usually passionate about the group and are enthusiastic to help—welcome them and delegate some tasks.
- Make sure there’s time at your event for chatting and networking.
- Send a thank you note to speakers and send a survey to attendees.
- You want feedback from your target audience, or the community you aim to provide value. Compared to in-person feedback, post-event surveys are often more comfortable for introverts and extroverts alike, and can lead to more honest responses. Ask only a few questions, using likert scale and open ended questions.
- An organizer is a caretaker of the group, not the owner. Bring in co-organizers, especially those with different perspectives and identities than you.
- Be prepared to pass the torch someday. When you can step away from the group and it remains, that’s when you know you’ve created something really cool.
Top Q&A:
- How do you keep your community engaged during online events?
- Asking a warm introductory question and having built-in Q&A time is helpful, but it can be difficult to have conversations between attendees during an online event. Discord, Slack, and Facebook groups can be useful tools to facilitate and have conversations online in between events.
- What are some strategies to increase attendance?
- Charging a small fee can help boost the show-up rate. It can be difficult to introduce at first if people aren’t used to paying, but charging a fee can signify a higher quality event. You could also ask for feedback to see if it’s a timing or event-type issue causing low attendance.
If you’re interested in becoming an organizer, learn how you can start a group.
Last modified on August 17, 2021
