The benefits of hosting a Meetup

Hosting a community or professional meetup is an exercise that I highly recommend to anyone looking to broaden their network and build new skills. In this post I will list a few of the benefits and learnings I’ve come across being the organizer of the Boston Kubernetes Meetup.

Benefits

1. Expand your network 10x

   This is the biggest and most obvious benefit. You can grow your professional network faster and easier than you think. After a few events your efforts will gain their own momentum and you will find connections with people come very easily. More than simply attending a meetup, the organizer is typically at the center of a meetup’s conversations. Even passive effort will result in new connections.

   

2. Learn new skills in people management

   For most of us engineers, hosting a meetup will be the only way you’ll experience certain challenges and build new skills. Thanks largely to this meetup, I’m confident in each of these:

   • approaching potential sponsors and venues to ask for money, hosting, or other favors
   • navigating or saying “No” to commercial ulterior motives
   • finding industry colleagues to present technical topics
   • facilitating large room discussions where people are hiring/looking/open to new opportunities
   • ordering food/drinks/other for 60+ people
   • coordinating raffles, giveaways, and swag
   • generally coordinating and delegating to others
     
     

3. Build a reputation publicly and internally

   After a few successful events, people all over will notice your meetup. This reputation is helpful in the public sphere (if you ever need to job search, if you want to establish credibility in a conversation) and in your own organization (you will stand out as someone who can organize and execute, at the very least).

4. Build professional knowledge

   This benefit applies to anyone that attends a meetup. As the organizer you will be present at each meetup and will know each topic because you scheduled it!

5. Call the shots

   • you decide the dates, location, and speakers at the events.
   • you decide the format. Topic themes? Hyper-focused presentations? Short lightning talks? Group discussion? It’s up to you!
   • have fun with it! I’ve experimented with an ice cream social in summer and I’m planning to do a once-off day-long bootcamp this year.
     
     

Challenges and advice

1. Committment and consistency will be the difference between those who quit and those who grow a successful community. My first 3-4 events were lucky to get 12 people (I now cap RSVP’s at 100). The picture below shows my first event, for which my co-host Tony and I spent many hours planning.

   

2. Develop a process that streamlines your efforts. I started out experimenting with different locations and this meant a lot of new work for every event. Now I use the same location, times, and meeting format every time. I rotate sponsors (mostly to keep it vendor-neutral and fair to everyone) and now I estimate that organizing takes a few hrs per month.

3. Delegate and accept help. For the first few events I did everything - bought pizza and beer, organized payment via someone else’s credit card, brought A/V gear, MC’d the meeting, then cleaned up. After meeting some helpful folks at Google I’ve realized that others can and will help. It’s been a gift!

4. Decide what you will not do for others. My events are now in-person only because virtual events are too much work. Before every event, someone asks me to set up a virtual option. Sorry, I’m not doing it. I’ve been asked by one company to move the meetup to their office in return for sponsorship and support. Sorry, I’m not doing that either. The result is a better experience with focused efforts.

The future of Boston Kubernetes Meetup

I feel fortunate to have inherited this group after it fell dormant during the pandemic, so I feel a responsibility to the community to focus on education, networking for members, and support for newbies.

I’d like to hold focused educational events for motivated people - young or old - who are looking to differentiate themselves. I remember in my 20’s learning anything I could to propel my own career opportunities, and in my late 30’s I found the CKA certification to be very helpful in understanding the industry.

I’d like to find a way to support more minority speakers and help more young women into the technology workplace.

I’d like to develop actual friendships with group members. There’s a lot of folks I know by name but with whom I’ve never spoken with for more than 5 minutes.

I know some churn in attendees is inevitable, as people move on in careers, technologies change, and the world keeps turning. But while Kubernetes is still a hot technology I hope we can be that meeting place for learning and networking for all.