One technology development which makes this increasingly relevant are the prevalence of Arduino (Raspberry Pi, etc) - embedded platforms that take care of a lot

One technology development which makes this increasingly relevant are the prevalence of Arduino (Raspberry Pi, etc) - embedded platforms that take care of a lot of the hardware heavy lifting for you. But there is a gap between what the Arduino libraries let you do and the capabilities of the hardware itself. And it is for these things, projects of increasing sophistication, which require some C and assembly, for which there is value in wider dissemination of expertise. Incidentally, I (a few months ago) created an "NYC C and Assembly Enthusiasts" meetup group, which seems to be in a similar vein. I have not yet hosted any meetups, but since C Conference Enthusiasts seem to be on this thread, please send me a note!