hey jamstack meetup people,
I get a emails from all over the world with people looking to create meetups, and for many of them, it’s the first time organizing something like this.
I’d like to share some tips and tricks with you here about picking venues, getting sponsorships, etc, but i see this also as a place where you can share what has been working for you - giving an opportunity to learn from each other. I bet we all have things that worked or didn’t work so well.
Anybody want to share?
I’ll love to hear from you. If you have any tips. I’m organizing my first so far it’s being going well but I’ll still need help with tips and tricks that works. Happy to hear from other organizers around the world as well.
Our JAMstack Meetup in NYC in has 1000+ members and we’re on our 24th event. When we started we were lucky to have three people in the room, but as awareness of JAMstack has grown, so have we.
I’m happy to share anything people want to know, if that’s helpful, but I will say one thing that might be helpful. It’s not enough to just put your event on Meetup and forget about it. Much of our growth has been a lot of one-on-one emails etc to develop a list of speakers, beg for venue sponsors (here in NYC, space is expensive) and getting people to attend. I also go to other Meetups and take the opportunity to promote our event.
It’s been a lot of work, but when you meet new people at an event and they learn things, you feel the value you’re bringing to you community.
I totally agree with @budparr - you get out of it what you put in. Organizing can be a lot of work…finding venues, sponsors and speakers, to start with. Sending out regular emails, all of that. But, it also allows you to really support your local area, which, in turn, can be really good for your career. It looks great to future employers when you have a meetup on your resume that you actively participated in and grew.
Firstly - do less, but do it consistently, and this is kind of echoing what bud said too…You don’t need to have something organized every week or even every few weeks. Once a month or every six weeks is a great rhythm, but you have to be consistent so that people actually make time to come to the meetup.
Secondly - someone asked me recently if it is better to have a small venue that might “sell out” or a big venue. I think that starting small and then growing is absolutely the way to go. “Selling out” i.e not having enough capacity to seat everyone at a meetup is a great problem to have. That way, when you advertise on social, you can create a sense of urgency in people.
When the time is right, you can move to a bigger venue. But in my opinion it always feels a lot better to be in a packed space than in a big space that is half empty. What do you think?
Thanks @budparr for sharing and @perry I absolutely agree with starting out small and then growing from there which is what I’m focused on doing alongside @Chuloo my co-organizer. The main idea is to get more people involved with the JAMstack and we are focused on doing this consistently.
Hi guys! Thanks @budparr for your message, it’s awesome to read your story!
We are starting the Seattle Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/jamstack-seattle/ and have the first event planned for May 8th.
First event looks good, although as you said, it’s going to be just a few people, but it’s gotta start and hopefully will grow from there!
I attended the ReactJS meetup a few days ago and talking with people, I realized that many don’t know what the JAMStack is, so I’m hoping this meetup will help spread the word! 
Where are you advertising your events?
Portland has an amazing tech calendar that is a central place where many tech events get advertised, but not every city has something like that.
What are you doing to get the word out?
Thanks @perry and @budparr , You are right and agree with you, But about venue how can me know that small is enough while I don’t now how much will coming?
And is it good to change the place after your promote you meetup with the first small or big place at the end?
Well, it is a good rule of thumb, at least here in the states, to say that if 100 people have said “yes” to coming to an event (lets say on Meetup.com or Facebook or other platform) then maybe ~50 will actually show up. That maybe sounds disappointing but it is actually really common - people have good intentions but then they get busy, or need to spend time at work or with family instead of showing up.
I think if you are organizing a meetup and you get more than 15 people showing up to your first event, you are doing pretty well!
I concur with the Leader of the Free World. About half show up, typically. If you can charge a small fee, you’ll get a bit better turnout (people tend to then only RSVP if they actually intend to go) , but fewer RSVPs. In the beginning it’s good to have more RSVPs anyway (so I’m not recommending charging, unless you have to), because that RSVP count becomes the record of attendees regardless of how many people show and it just looks better to have a higher count.
hi @florantara, wondering how your first meet-up went and what the community is hoping to get from a jamstack meetup (what it is, best practices, industry speakers, show and tell, more tech specific). we’re looking to get our own started as well. how much time did you allow from initial planning to hosting your first one?