Make your meetups more sustainable¶
Sometimes our Write the Docs meetup organizers launch a successful meetup, only to find they struggle to sustain their meetup in the long-term. The hardest part in sustaining a meetup is organizing the events – especially as many organizers are also juggling a full-time job, families, and other important commitments.
Follow these principles to increase the chances that your meetup stands the test of time.
Minimal Viable Meetup checklist¶
Host a maximum of ten meetups per year. You can skip August and December, since most people are on vacation at that time, or taking a break from their usual activities.
Regular meetups help people plan their commitments. Host your meetup at the same time every month – eg the first Wednesday, or another specific date.
Try to host your meetup in a regular event space to minimize the need to spend time finding new spaces.
If you can’t find a local speaker for each meetup, consider screening a popular talk from one of our past Write the Docs conferences and inviting the conference presenter to call in for a live Q & A session.
Alternatively, consider hosting a regular informal ‘docs and drinks’ to keep the momentum going with your attendees – these can involve either alcohol or coffee.
Bring in at least two main organizers for your meetup (including yourself). This helps shoulder the burden of organizing and stops you burning out.
Check your scheduling won’t clash with an overlapping meetup that might attract away your attendees.
Even if you haven’t had a meetup in a while, just pick yourself back up and schedule another one when you can.
Nice-to-haves¶
You can set up a twitter account for your meetup to help you promote it and engage attendees.
Promote your meetup at other related events. Send out reminders for your events through meetup, or over Twitter if you can.
Create a dedicated website to share information about your meetup.
Find the potential helpers in your group and make them volunteers. Give them jobs to do – eg welcoming attendees or fielding questions.
Partner with other parallel meetups to share resources – eg meetups just outside of your geographical area. You can also partner with crossover meetups in industry areas such as APIs, Agile, Programming languages, UI, Content Strategy or QA.
