The worst thing about these meetups were people that were practising their presentation skills. I know people have to start somewhere but I really don't want to waste my time with that.
Ask HN: Are Tech Meetups Dead?
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Re: Ask HN: Are Tech Meetups Dead?
#12In my experience, any meetup > 10 people becomes useless because you cannot really make meaningful connections and large meetups usually have a fixed agenda where everyone is out there selling their own stuff. I now will not attend a meetup unless it is extremely small group (<10 people). Those are hard to sustain though.
Speed meetups could work where you'd go to a series of meetups in a row. Venues could allocate space for this, say 5 separate rooms and every few months you'd go to a bunch of meetups all on the same day. Small gatherings with a larger space where people could keep talking once the set period is over if need be.
Even a local park on a sunny day would work and you could "kick on" into the night if things were going well - no obligations or pressure.
Re: Ask HN: Are Tech Meetups Dead?
#13I led a successful AWS meetup for many years, however as implied COVID was a turning point. We pivoted to online during the year of restrictions, but I didn't want to do that. Presenting into a void doesn't hold any interest for me, people mute themselves and you aren't sure if there is anyone really there. When I could get it back in person, I did. The problems I found were that 1. Companies weren't interested in ho…
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Re: Ask HN: Are Tech Meetups Dead?
#14Not really, no. I'm in Dublin and I help organize a couple of them. We have 3 for June alone from our org alone. In Dublin there's something happening every 2-3 days.
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Re: Ask HN: Are Tech Meetups Dead?
#19I personally loathe meetups, and love them. It just depends on what they are and how they're run. In the mid 90's, CompuServe sponsored a Boy Scouts Explorer Post at their headquarters -- they gave us free accounts and then once a month for an hour or 2, a couple dozen kids ranging from probably 12 to 18 would show up, the adults would be so fucking cool and gracious and welcoming, showing us around the building (ser…
Now I wonder if it was WOW! [0] instead of WorldsAway. Can't remember with any clarity lol
[0] https://www.wired.com/1996/11/compuserve-fails-to-wow-consum...
Re: Ask HN: Are Tech Meetups Dead?
#20Maybe I'm old but I feel like actual tech meetups died well over a decade ago...
They used to be full of geeks building cool stuff and people would genuinely be interested in what you were doing. I made a lot of friends back in the day from those tech meetups.
What you're describing here is exactly why I dislike and avoid meetups today.
There was a shift somewhere in the 2010s where it started to become harder and harder to find good tech meetups and instead they all seemed to morph in some combination of a networking event, people trying to pitch the startup they were working on, or people just trying to practice public speaking.
The tech scene today isn't really a place for people interested in tech. It's a scene for people who want to be the next tech billionaire or want to build a following as a public speaker for their career.
And that's fine. I just personally have no interest in networking with these types of people.
I'd also note that the utility of the networking benefits of meetups today is close to non-existent due to the types of people who attend them. You're better off building professional working relationships with people imo.