I first started using Meetup in the middle to late 2000s in the Bay area. It almost kick started my tech career after meeting a ton of people at a computer music event. I wasn't quite ready yet and made a detour through moving to LA, starting a pirate radio station and then becoming a carpenter in the art world for 5 years.
Meetup was there for me when I finally re-engaged with software engineering and computers. I would go to events almost weekly and met tons of interesting people who taught me about all sorts of subjects from 3d printing to category theory. I got to see the inside of many different startups and eat a ton of bad pizza.
All the way up to the pandemic i was a regular participant. I don't think I have been to a single event since the pandemic. I still live in the same place and do the same sort of work. I have a really hard time motivating myself to use the site and whenever I do, I find the schedule rather sparse. I have heard the same story from others many times.
Perhaps this is post-covid trauma? Or perhaps this is part of the price we pay for shifting so hard to remote work? Or perhaps this is the result of the shitty Meetup UX making it difficult to find groups I relate to? I don't know, but I suspect it is all of the above.
I miss the sense of IRL community provided by my local meetup groups.
I also took a break from Meetups between about 2019 through 2022 due to some life events followed by COVID.
Getting back to meetups (including those outside of Meetup.com) has been slightly strange. As some of my previous favorite meetups became more popular, the type of audience they attracted has changed.
There's much more of a self-promotional vibe to a lot of the talks I've visited recently. Several speakers have actually flown in from other states to present at local Meetups via sponsorship from their company, then delivered what was clearly a very rehearsed presentation. At one point someone from Google flew out to deliver a rehearsed talk about their work. I was actually interested in asking him questions afterward, but he acted like he couldn't get out of there fast enough. He just wanted to present, get it recorded for his LinkedIn and personal website, and get out of there.
One of the meetups I was involved with organizing has also struggled to filter out local presenters who are just going through the motions of resume building. In the past it felt like a small group of enthusiasts getting together to talk about things they were interested in. Now, half the presentations feel like somebody decided they were going to be a presenter first and then looked for something to talk about second. We have a real problem with some people putting on presentations that are more than 50% memes and animated gifs.
Maybe I've got a rose colored glasses thing going on, but it feels different now that it's becoming a competitive resume builder activity rather than a fun get together.
Our local conferences are starting to feel the same way. A significant number of the talks from the last big conference I watched felt more like cheesy motivational speaker content.
I first started using Meetup in the middle to late 2000s in the Bay area. It almost kick started my tech career after meeting a ton of people at a computer music event. I wasn't quite ready yet and made a detour through moving to LA, starting a pirate radio station and then becoming a carpenter in the art world for 5 years.
Meetup was there for me when I finally re-engaged with software engineering and computers. I would go to events almost weekly and met tons of interesting people who taught me about all sorts of subjects from 3d printing to category theory. I got to see the inside of many different startups and eat a ton of bad pizza.
All the way up to the pandemic i was a regular participant. I don't think I have been to a single event since the pandemic. I still live in the same place and do the same sort of work. I have a really hard time motivating myself to use the site and whenever I do, I find the schedule rather sparse. I have heard the same story from others many times.
Perhaps this is post-covid trauma? Or perhaps this is part of the price we pay for shifting so hard to remote work? Or perhaps this is the result of the shitty Meetup UX making it difficult to find groups I relate to? I don't know, but I suspect it is all of the above.
I miss the sense of IRL community provided by my local meetup groups.