I am in phoenix, it is summer right now so things are double dead but even in fall to spring months, I have tried to find tech meetups (my interests are c++, c99, java, distributed systems, data engineering and non generative AIML/infra) and I can’t find any activity in the 5th largest city in US. I have tried to host things myself but only my friends or coworkers showed up, where are my fellow passionates?
A reawakening of systems programming meetups
81–90 of 162 posts
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#82I would love to see this in Chicago. Unfortunately.. a lot of the wind got let out of the sails in the city for tech meetups during covid.
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my experience $20-$70 an hour is too much. We were offered $50/hour meeting space at a local incubator, but the numbers never added up. It is hard enough to get people to show up if it is free, requiring people to pay to attend a casual meetup would not work in our situation. Who is going to foot the multi thousand dollar per year bill for meeting space? This is why municipalities need to provide this space for fr…
Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups? How would we distribute access to this newly created resource equitably? I don't disagree with the concept, but it gets hairy in the particulars. The problem is that of course we rarely ever get to vote on issues such as "should we build a community meeting space?" so we never really get to understand how the electorate truly feels.
As far as distribution, you could make these same objections about any shared space, from parks to roads.
In this scenario, contention for the space is the best possible problem to have, as it means the community is using it.
I'd suggest providing public space is a very important role of local government, to foster community interactions.
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my experience $20-$70 an hour is too much. We were offered $50/hour meeting space at a local incubator, but the numbers never added up. It is hard enough to get people to show up if it is free, requiring people to pay to attend a casual meetup would not work in our situation. Who is going to foot the multi thousand dollar per year bill for meeting space? This is why municipalities need to provide this space for fr…
Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups? How would we distribute access to this newly created resource equitably? I don't disagree with the concept, but it gets hairy in the particulars. The problem is that of course we rarely ever get to vote on issues such as "should we build a community meeting space?" so we never really get to understand how the electorate truly feels.
> Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups?
Because they'll also pay for your special interest group meetup. If you don't have a special interest group, a low friction meeting place available makes you more likely to start one. Public space allows for a municipality to build a community.
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#85Ive been struggling to find good meetups in the san diego los angeles area. meetup.com seems pretty dead.. any suggestions?
Los Angeles area:
- OWASP security meetup: this is great! Hosted at a WeWork or a local company. Great stuff. I'm not sure their funding model, but it's working. https://www.meetup.com/owasp-los-angeles/
- Socal Python: we haven't found good venues that support talks so... the meetings are more social hours. This is fine. https://www.meetup.com/socalpython/
- LA DevOps: only one physical meeting so far. The bar let us show slides in a nice patio in the back, but it was so loud I couldn't hear. I hope they'll find a better venue. https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-ZZQWJLTm/
I'd love to start giving talks again, on "Fast Development" and organizational topics, but have prioritized my job for the moment. Ah well.
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what "community centers" are for! A town next to mine has one of those, and any town resident can rent a room for a reasonable amount of money ($20 to $70/hour depending on room size). So as long as at least one group member is from the right town, the room is guaranteed.
In my experience $20-$70 an hour is too much. We were offered $50/hour meeting space at a local incubator, but the numbers never added up. It is hard enough to get people to show up if it is free, requiring people to pay to attend a casual meetup would not work in our situation. Who is going to foot the multi thousand dollar per year bill for meeting space? This is why municipalities need to provide this space for fr…
The other solution is to get sponsors. In return for paying $50 a month (or whatever), they get to put a representative in front of a group of people for five minutes to pitch heir products. Or maybe they pay for the food at a place where you have a separate sponsor for the venue.
This is much the same way that DevOpsDays and other similar conferences are operated, just on a smaller scale of a few hours instead of a couple of days.
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
With GPS its not so much the location but thr change in time commitment. The new location is never 5 min from the preious but 30-45 min difference. People in these groups often have busy lives so if your 3hrs suddenly becomes 4hrs its simply less of a headache to cut the unnecessary thing rather than change 50 other things in your schedule. Eventually this scheduking effect shakes off all thr people in the group with…
Yes, generally people are adverse to change and like routine. Going to a new location requires figuring out how long it takes to get there, where do you park or get on/off transit, where is the building entrance, where within the building do you go, etc. It is important to have consistency in time, location, and consistency to build a thriving meetup.
I run a dance practice 2x a month and there's more.
You need to make sure it's on the same day on cadence (we have 2nd and 4th sundays).
And we also spam out fb event invite (use what you want here, email etc) about 1 week prior to "remind" people it's coming.
These things tend to be incredibly effective.
Also when dealing with a venue offering to book out the whole year will get you some leeway with things as you are taking away a LOT of scheduling time for them; which matters.
I would highly recommend trying out a spot for a few months first before committing.
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#88They need to happen again for networking reasons. I feel a lot of businesses are starting to look at tech costs as a burden rather than an investment these programming meetups help keep discussions open. I suggest if a business plans to start a tech front they should come to these and learn.
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I do believe that it should be a mandate for the municipality to provide meeting space for local non-profit and special interest groups. Japan has these. There’s local community centers basically everywhere which can be used as a meeting space for a token fee (I think it was like $5/hour last I checked). My local center in the middle of Tokyo is just three floors of rooms that people can use for whatever they need.
In 2024 Japan you could also just buy a house for 10k USD and call it your club house :p
True, but you’d have to travel for hours to get there, which makes it kinda inconvenient unless you want to have a permanent club meeting.
Re: A reawakening of systems programming meetups
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I do believe that it should be a mandate for the municipality to provide meeting space for local non-profit and special interest groups. Japan has these. There’s local community centers basically everywhere which can be used as a meeting space for a token fee (I think it was like $5/hour last I checked). My local center in the middle of Tokyo is just three floors of rooms that people can use for whatever they need.
I'm interested and I need this. Do you have some additional info for me maybe? Thank you!!!
This is the one near my place. I suspect you can find a similar one nearby: http://sdh-takaido.sakura.ne.jp/kumin.html
(It was a bit more expensive than I remembered, but still extremely reasonable)