Depends on the make up of your community. In my experience, though, nothing gets a new group going better than several strong speakers in a row (that is, over s

Depends on the make up of your community. In my experience, though, nothing gets a new group going better than several strong speakers in a row (that is, over several consecutive meetings). I relaunched a (non-Ruby, semi-technical) group and went from 10 attendees at the first meeting to 60+ in less than a year of every other month events by doing this. If your community is one where the people feel comfortable just getting together to hack in the same space, perhaps speakers aren't necessary at every event. But I encourage you to try to book speakers and hold hack sessions only as a fall back.