I have been plugged into the HashiCorp User Group program for over a year now. Below are some organizer best practices that I have learned from our wonderful HUG organizers but will be applicable to any Meetup group. What are your best practices for organizing or attending Meetups?
Getting started as an organizer
- Accept invitation to the Slack channel
- Drop a hello
and introduction in #general
- Create a #channel specific to your chapter to enable async communication amongst co-organizers and HashiCorp community liaisons
- Drop a hello
- Post your first Meetup quickly for visibility with joining members
- When the chapter is created, Meetup will socialize to members of other local groups
- HashiCorp will encourage any local teammates to socialize the new chapter with their networks
Communication, Communication, Communication
- Touch points of engagement:
- A week prior to the Meetup
- The night before or day of the Meetup
- A thank you note and link to Meetup speaker slides
- Seeking speakers
- A week prior to the Meetup
- Local community events
- Happy milestones
- Local career opportunities
- What’s next? When closing out a Meetup, let attendees know when the next one is
Meetup Event Descriptions
- The more details, the better
- Agenda
- Speaker bio
- Talk title, talk abstract
- Parking / public transportation information
- Accessibility details
- Thank you to the host
- Descriptive title
- Instead of New York City HUG July Meetup, use something descriptive like “Consul Service Mesh Deep Dive”
- Include your email at the bottom in case anyone is interested in getting involved as a speaker, venue, sponsor, or fellow co-organizer
- Your chapter branded holding slide or social card is a good place holder photo for the Meetup
- Here is a good example
Speaker Enablement
- Encourage the speaker to arrive early to engage with community members and familiarize themselves with the set up
- Socialize your speakers using the templates for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook
- Give your speakers the slide deck template
Encourage people to get involved
- An environment of trust happens top down from an organizer to the local community
- #CityHUG social hashtag for your chapter
- Do your best to make the rounds and speak to everyone at your Meetup and identify yourself as the organizer in case they are interested in speaking
Consistency
- We recommend hosting at least quarterly and our most successful chapters host monthly
- Consistency has a huge impact on a chapter’s attrition rate
Out-of-the-box Meetups
- Hands-on Labs
- Lightning Talks
- Ask Me Anything (AMA)
- Oslo HUG example
- Whiteboarding session
- Irvine Meetup example
- Read this blog post for more inspiration
Stepping down as an organizer
- If you need to step down as an organizer, we understand and wish you well
- Please let us know in the HUG organizer Slack or via email
- If you have someone that you know is interested, please connect us
Plug into HashiCorp Resources
- Follow the conversations in the community forum
- Discover something new in the learn portal
- Read through the HashiCorp Blog
- Use cases documented in the resource library
- HashiCast Podcast
- HashiCorpLive Twitch