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Having run Meetups for the last ~4 years or so, with my current one being a nice size (~100/month attend), I can tell you the absolute biggest challenge for mys

Having run Meetups for the last ~4 years or so, with my current one being a nice size (~100/month attend), I can tell you the absolute biggest challenge for myself and for others is getting a good affordable/free space to run the events. As WeWork has so much prime real estate, I can easily see the Meetups being a natural feeder to get more people exposed to their spaces, and also to create community events for those that rent. Seems like a nice opportunity for synergy here. Hope it goes well. Two great NYC companies!

jasonbarone 9y ago
Bingo. I also run a small Meetup with ~50/Meetup. WeWork (among other coworking spaces) have welcomed my Meetup, for free. Meetups commonly bring in new customers and free drinks/pizza that are then promoted to customers as in-house food, entertainment, and learning. It's a win-win-win.
estreeper 9y ago
As far as finding spaces, I've found that local bars/restaurants/coffee shops are usually quite happy to host events during off-times like Monday through Wednesday nights. I always ask nicely, thank them in the event description, during the event, and in an email after, and try to go out of my way to make things easier for them (checking in with estimated attendees a few days before, helping put chairs back in order afterward, etc.) It's nice because these places are inherently social so people feel more comfortable talking, you don't have to worry about food/drink, and it brings attention to community-minded businesses.
- Jd 9y ago
  For 100+ person events? What coffee shops have 100+ person spaces? I have the same problem described and space is always an issue. I live in Silicon Valley and i can't think of a single bar that has a space of that size or that would let you use it or that noise pollution wouldn't be an issue.
  - heartbreak 9y ago
    Outside of Silicon Valley (midsize city) we’re lucky if 5 people show up to the Ruby meetup.
    - ch4s3 9y ago
      The one in Baltimore is routinely 30 people.
- stevoski 9y ago
  My girlfriend ran a meetup for a while in Barcelona. The meetup took place in a bar on an otherwise quiet night. The bar owner actually paid her for each event she hosted in th bar.
- sitepodmatt 9y ago
  Problem with these things is you can make yourself out to be not welcome despite best efforts, some attendees are utterly hopeless / shameless that they'll decline any offer of drink (soft drink or otherwise), demand free tap water, speak like shit to staff (grunt with no thanks or please), leave no tips, sneak their own beverages in, complain wifi is slow and so on. I wouldn't host an event in a bar unless I knew the people attending, you're judge by your company after-all and if you want to come again then bringing shameless mingebag joe no manners is not a good idea. Note: this shitty behavior isn't isolated to tech groups, bridge groups and other card game groups are apparently worse that they now have to rent out community centres.
  - narrowtux 9y ago
    Maybe an entry fee that buys you your first drink would help for the first problem at least
    - sitepodmatt 9y ago
      Maybe, I can see it being a little tricky to implement unless you take the fee on meetup.com prior to arriving.
    - tedmiston 9y ago
      A meetup I frequent solves this by having a monthly drink sponsor that spends a few hundred bucks to buy everyone's first drink, and get their logo projected on the wall.
  - rdnt03 9y ago
    You're not kidding. A group of even a small size brings in a misfit or two. A guy with olfactory problems or a girl who doesn't say anything except the low mumblings to herself. This is not me spreading gossip to bring the rest of the group together, but that one or two people always brings the meetup down. This is not even including conspiracy theorists or people in general who want to rant.
- nunez 9y ago
  > I've found that local bars/restaurants/coffee shops are usually quite happy to host events during off-times In bigger cities, bars will usually only host you if you can provide them with a revenue stream afterwards. This works for social events, such as speed-dating or social Meetups (I've run both types), but not so well for technical meetups UNLESS they get sufficiently large. Also, companies are usually willing to host Meetups because it's free and easy recruiting that's nearly guaranteed to bring out top talent. This is usually why recruiting agencies are almost always totally willing to give up space for events and sponsor for food and/or drinks; it saves them a ton of time that's usually lost to prospecting.
MrBuddyCasino 9y ago
Interesting, we run a lot of tech related meetups, and finding a space is rarely an issue because its an important promotion tool for tech hiring. Whats difficult is finding speakers.
- andy_ppp 9y ago
  He doesn’t specify that his meetup is tech focused so the hiring thing might not apply.
- hammerbrostime 9y ago
  Finding "a" space, e.g. for one or two events, is relatively easy. Finding a consistently scheduled space (e.g. "the second Wednesday of each month") at cheap/free is a whole other thing. Once you have a consistently scheduled space, getting speakers is rather easy, because you can schedule way out into the future. For example, a popular speaker may not be available in the next three months, but I could easily get that speaker for April if I already have my venue lined up. The first meetup I had was a bit of a vicious cycle - we had no home, which made scheduling hard, which made getting speakers lined up hard. The second meetup I ran started out a Pivotal Labs which was amazing. Free food, free drink, nice atmosphere, good location - and most importantly, we had "the second Wednesday of every month", which made scheduling ridiculously easy. Actually running the whole meetup was a level of magnitude easier after that. Current venue is also similarly awesome. I wouldn't go back to not having a regularly-scheduled venue.
  - MrBuddyCasino 9y ago
    Maybe its different in your location then, in Munich its the other way around. Where are you located?
    - hammerbrostime 9y ago
      NYC
marmalade92 9y ago
We have totally different problem. Finding a place is too easy, finding good speakers is the problem. Where are you at?
hannob 9y ago
May i ask if it's a tech meetup or something else? In my experiences companies, hackerspaces or coworking places are all quite happy to host tech meetups and it's rarely a problem.
- hammerbrostime 9y ago
  Tech meetup (please see my other response below)
timthelion 9y ago
This is a strange phenomena. In Prague some meetups have had trouble finding places to host, while others have had multiple firms competing to provide free space and food.
- acjohnson55 9y ago
  Like so many things, I suspect it's all about differences in how effectively individual leaders access their social resources.
nunez 9y ago
> getting a good affordable/free space to run the events. OH MY GOD, YES. Hounding people for sponsorships is almost a full time job. It is extremely hard to do this while travelling. In fact, most of the Meetups I've been to, and some that I've hosted, took place at WeWork offices!

jasonbarone 9y ago

Bingo. I also run a small Meetup with ~50/Meetup. WeWork (among other coworking spaces) have welcomed my Meetup, for free. Meetups commonly bring in new customers and free drinks/pizza that are then promoted to customers as in-house food, entertainment, and learning. It's a win-win-win.

estreeper 9y ago

As far as finding spaces, I've found that local bars/restaurants/coffee shops are usually quite happy to host events during off-times like Monday through Wednesday nights. I always ask nicely, thank them in the event description, during the event, and in an email after, and try to go out of my way to make things easier for them (checking in with estimated attendees a few days before, helping put chairs back in order afterward, etc.) It's nice because these places are inherently social so people feel more comfortable talking, you don't have to worry about food/drink, and it brings attention to community-minded businesses.

Jd 9y ago
For 100+ person events? What coffee shops have 100+ person spaces? I have the same problem described and space is always an issue. I live in Silicon Valley and i can't think of a single bar that has a space of that size or that would let you use it or that noise pollution wouldn't be an issue.
- heartbreak 9y ago
  Outside of Silicon Valley (midsize city) we’re lucky if 5 people show up to the Ruby meetup.
  - ch4s3 9y ago
    The one in Baltimore is routinely 30 people.
stevoski 9y ago
My girlfriend ran a meetup for a while in Barcelona. The meetup took place in a bar on an otherwise quiet night. The bar owner actually paid her for each event she hosted in th bar.
sitepodmatt 9y ago
Problem with these things is you can make yourself out to be not welcome despite best efforts, some attendees are utterly hopeless / shameless that they'll decline any offer of drink (soft drink or otherwise), demand free tap water, speak like shit to staff (grunt with no thanks or please), leave no tips, sneak their own beverages in, complain wifi is slow and so on. I wouldn't host an event in a bar unless I knew the people attending, you're judge by your company after-all and if you want to come again then bringing shameless mingebag joe no manners is not a good idea. Note: this shitty behavior isn't isolated to tech groups, bridge groups and other card game groups are apparently worse that they now have to rent out community centres.
- narrowtux 9y ago
  Maybe an entry fee that buys you your first drink would help for the first problem at least
  - sitepodmatt 9y ago
    Maybe, I can see it being a little tricky to implement unless you take the fee on meetup.com prior to arriving.
  - tedmiston 9y ago
    A meetup I frequent solves this by having a monthly drink sponsor that spends a few hundred bucks to buy everyone's first drink, and get their logo projected on the wall.
- rdnt03 9y ago
  You're not kidding. A group of even a small size brings in a misfit or two. A guy with olfactory problems or a girl who doesn't say anything except the low mumblings to herself. This is not me spreading gossip to bring the rest of the group together, but that one or two people always brings the meetup down. This is not even including conspiracy theorists or people in general who want to rant.
nunez 9y ago
> I've found that local bars/restaurants/coffee shops are usually quite happy to host events during off-times In bigger cities, bars will usually only host you if you can provide them with a revenue stream afterwards. This works for social events, such as speed-dating or social Meetups (I've run both types), but not so well for technical meetups UNLESS they get sufficiently large. Also, companies are usually willing to host Meetups because it's free and easy recruiting that's nearly guaranteed to bring out top talent. This is usually why recruiting agencies are almost always totally willing to give up space for events and sponsor for food and/or drinks; it saves them a ton of time that's usually lost to prospecting.

MrBuddyCasino 9y ago

Interesting, we run a lot of tech related meetups, and finding a space is rarely an issue because its an important promotion tool for tech hiring. Whats difficult is finding speakers.

andy_ppp 9y ago
He doesn’t specify that his meetup is tech focused so the hiring thing might not apply.
hammerbrostime 9y ago
Finding "a" space, e.g. for one or two events, is relatively easy. Finding a consistently scheduled space (e.g. "the second Wednesday of each month") at cheap/free is a whole other thing. Once you have a consistently scheduled space, getting speakers is rather easy, because you can schedule way out into the future. For example, a popular speaker may not be available in the next three months, but I could easily get that speaker for April if I already have my venue lined up. The first meetup I had was a bit of a vicious cycle - we had no home, which made scheduling hard, which made getting speakers lined up hard. The second meetup I ran started out a Pivotal Labs which was amazing. Free food, free drink, nice atmosphere, good location - and most importantly, we had "the second Wednesday of every month", which made scheduling ridiculously easy. Actually running the whole meetup was a level of magnitude easier after that. Current venue is also similarly awesome. I wouldn't go back to not having a regularly-scheduled venue.
- MrBuddyCasino 9y ago
  Maybe its different in your location then, in Munich its the other way around. Where are you located?
  - hammerbrostime 9y ago
    NYC

marmalade92 9y ago

We have totally different problem. Finding a place is too easy, finding good speakers is the problem. Where are you at?

hannob 9y ago

May i ask if it's a tech meetup or something else? In my experiences companies, hackerspaces or coworking places are all quite happy to host tech meetups and it's rarely a problem.

hammerbrostime 9y ago
Tech meetup (please see my other response below)

timthelion 9y ago

This is a strange phenomena. In Prague some meetups have had trouble finding places to host, while others have had multiple firms competing to provide free space and food.

acjohnson55 9y ago
Like so many things, I suspect it's all about differences in how effectively individual leaders access their social resources.

nunez 9y ago

> getting a good affordable/free space to run the events. OH MY GOD, YES. Hounding people for sponsorships is almost a full time job. It is extremely hard to do this while travelling. In fact, most of the Meetups I've been to, and some that I've hosted, took place at WeWork offices!