Forum on the Future of the NY Tech Meetup

What should we (all of us together) do with the NY Tech Meetup? It could be a better, more powerful organization. What should it become?

smaller 'masterclass' discussion by people who have implemented various pieces of technology on what works and what didn't and what lessons were learnt along the way.

eg - get 3 people who has implemented Amazon web services into their startup to run 5 minute session on their company and their implementation with a 15 minute panel to follow.

wont work in the current 'mega' format though as you need smaller group for this to be effective.


Cheers,
Dean

What should we (all of us together) do with the NY Tech Meetup? It could be a better, more powerful organization. What should it become?

Virtualize - Live streaming the event allows non-attenders to see what they've been missing. It's great exposure for the presenters as well. Publicize it.

Interactivate - Now the presentations are pedagogic or slap-dash. Better to skip the demos and have the presenters take questions (hard and soft). They shd offer an online demo beforehand.

Decentralize - Fewer presenters to smaller groups in different places around town. Split by unifying themes or verticals.

Socialize - more beer. Pick a large place where people can comfortably hang out after.

I think facilitating entrepreneurship is key, and we need to better help people connect.
After each presentation, there are ?light bulbs? that go off in our heads and new project ideas are born. Some are related to other projects we?ve seen or heard of and could be applied. Others are new and unrelated.

It would be great if we could agree on an on-line forum to have tangent discussions of ideas that often pop up later on...

I also agree that casual conversations should be fostered afterward, such as in a large local bar.

The one time I was able to get in I saw a LOT of empty seats.

You could do what other groups do when there is limited space for events, but many want to come. They have a strict RSVP policy. If someone RSVP's "Yes" and doesn't show they are removed from the group.

No-shows are an epidemic problem in Meetup. It's rude and unfair when their are limited spots and no-shows hog them up.

/.\\?
Al Mejias

What should we (all of us together) do with the NY Tech Meetup? It could be a better, more powerful organization. What should it become?

From Drew:
Virtualize - Live streaming the event allows non-attenders to see what they've been missing. It's great exposure for the presenters as well. Publicize it.

I think Drew Robertson is on to something, and I would go even further. Stream the demos and make day-later break-out sessions the main Tech Meetup events. In this use case, the Tech Meetups *are* the breakout sessions. I mean the demos live are cool to go to, but it's becoming impossible to RSVP fast enough to get in anyway.

The breakouts would have to be arranged beforehand, probably organized by demo-topic.

Then the community reports back the results from the breakout session on one main website.

I agree that streaming would help, especially if there was a IM forum to ask questions. Can we find a bigger venue? Public Library?
Also, the point about empty chairs-Can there be a turn up on the door policy to fill the chairs no-one is coming for? these are good problems to have - meet-up is clearly very successful.

I thought the weeks where the presenters were concentrated in the same or adjacent segements of the market went well. I though it helped build a critical mass of ideas and made for good discussions and networking afterward.

Perhaps that format could be continued. Each month focusing on a different market segement.

Find a bigger venue. IAC is awesome but access is awesome-er. There are no shortage of venues that can hold a bigger crowd in NYC, and if you can consistently provide 500+ attendees on a weeknight, I have to imagine you can work something out, say with a venue that can monetize the audience with a cash bar. Maybe consistency would be a problem with a music venue, as I'm sure they'd book a gig if they had the choice, but there are churches (that would be pretty cool), NYU / Columbia / Carnegie / Lincoln Center / Juilliard amphitheaters, a rotating stable of 1-3 venues with capacity of 600 - 1,000 would probably assure scheduling consistency and ensure access.

What should we (all of us together) do with the NY Tech Meetup? It could be a better, more powerful organization. What should it become?

From haphazard perusal of the message board, it seems to me that many people involved in the NY Tech Meetup are interested in either meeting NY Tech talent or connecting with exciting NY Tech companies. Proactively facilitating opportunities for those of us interested in doing so (an opportunities corner?) after meetup presentations might be worth a try. This would not be in place of a more robust job/situations wanted marketplace, but in addition to.