Meetup Best Practices: Venues
At the WordPress Community Summit What the meetup? discussion, we created an action item to get meetup organizers to start sharing best practices. This is the first post in a series on Meetup Best practices for you to share what has worked for your meetup. Each post will pose a small amount questions for meetup organizers to answer. Out of these, I imagine some best practices will bubble up. At a minimum, the knowledge and background should help both current and future meetup organizers.
For the first entry in this series, let’s look at something every meetup needs, a location.
- Where does your meetup meetup? Do you meet at the same location every month, or do you move around? Do you have multiple locations that you regularly use?
- How did you find and choose your current space?
Aaron Jorbin 3:48 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
The DC meet up is currently in its second incarnation and I can’t speak at all to how things were the first time around.
We had our first meetup at starbucks. After that we moved to the Public Library (proving once again that having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card) for about three or four meetups. It wasn’t the ideal location, we were in a basement with horrible wifi and couldn’t have food or drinks, but it was free. Then we moved to our current venue, an art gallery/event space that is run by a creative agency.
We got connected to our current space because it was the host of the PHP community in town and one of our organizers spoke at the group. It was perfect. Decent Wifi, we could bring in food/drink. They also have an amazing deck almost the size of the room we have our meetups in that we use for socializing when it’s nice out. The only flaw is that is on the second floor without an elevator. We’ve now been holding our meet ups there for about two years.
David Bisset 3:53 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
South Florida meetups meet in two locations (because of geographical distances). Both are stable (for the most part) locations. Miami location meets in an internet cafe while Ft. Lauderdale location meets at a donated college meeting room. Sometimes we have small meetings at local Dunkin Donut shops (they have meeting rooms down here).
Finding spaces basically was a result of finding where other meetups had venues and asking those venues if they could take on another meetup. We had to struggle for a while to find stable locations in the past because venue locations were not ideal or the venue (typically a co-working location) was available or moved on us.
Mario Peshev 4:02 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
Universities tend to be open to hosting events for free with equipment, also large companies or open spaces. Standard venues for conferences and so are option if you have a sponsor, having a physical space, projector and Internet
Drew Jaynes (DrewAPicture) 4:21 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
We haven’t had much luck with the local universities, if only because we don’t (yet) have a tie-in with an on-campus department that can reserve a room for us. It really seems like the best solution because they invariably come fully equipped with “smart” classrooms, projector, screen and decent WiFi.
nataliemac 4:41 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
My group in Los Angeles hasn’t had much luck with colleges or universities either. It’s unfortunate, because we’d gladly welcome any students or faculty who wanted to attend, but so far, they only want to rent us rooms and they tend to be really expensive.
Mario Peshev 6:14 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
Drew, few of us are university speakers (I think you are as well) and the speaker community works together on hosting different FOSS events over there. With the right pursuance and motivation (like: we could host it in the other university and their students will get better education over top-notch cutting edge technologies) the competition usually beats it up. Even private universities seem to be open to this, if you visit them with several other trainers or write a long letter (again, at least here it does work).
Konstantin Kovshenin 9:07 am on January 24, 2013 Permalink |
We also had a pretty crappy experience with a University. They told us we could come host our meetup at their place, and in exchange we would allow their students to chime in. Everything was good until they told us they’re sending in 30 students and that the classroom could hold 30 people.
Mario Peshev 12:46 pm on January 24, 2013 Permalink |
that’s really demotivational, all the stories above. If that’s correct, I think that’s a direction we need to put more effort internationally into proper negotiation and explanation (some old-school people tend to see it as a business venture and not a free voluntary work, and if you don’t present it properly, chances are little to none).
Naomi C. Bush 4:14 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
We meet every month at a local business that was just starting to use WordPress for their client sites, happened to see that we were starting up, and volunteered their adjustable conference room
Drew Jaynes (DrewAPicture) 4:16 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
Denver meetup meets at (or has been meeting at) the same place every month, which is the Denver Press Club. The venue isn’t free but it’s cheaper because one of the co-organizers is on the board of directors. It was never meant to be used as a long-term solution (we’re forced to charge or take donations for the venue costs) but haven’t had a lot of luck finding a fully donated venue. Recently, we’ve been looking at getting sponsorships to pay for and/or donate a venue.
We’ve also been looking at the university/college route but in reality, the only way to go into those spaces for free (at least in Denver) is if you have a tie-in with one of the departments who can reserve the room for you. As many of you know, university/college spaces are great because many of them come fully equipped.
dllh 4:18 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
1. Knoxville meetup is in a facility run by one of the members. We’ve met there consistently.
2. A friend who also became a member of the group had recently been involved in spinning up a small venue for tech meetings, eventual coworking, etc., and he volunteered the space.
Sallie Goetsch 4:21 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
The East Bay WordPress Meetup (that’s the San Francisco Bay) has been holding its events at Tech Liminal, a co-working space in Oakland. The owner is also a WP developer and charges a nominal fee for the space, providing Wi-Fi, projector, and soft drinks. (Part of our per-head charge actually goes for the Meetup.com fees and not for the space.) We meet there every month unless there’s some kind of conflict.
It was the previous meetup organizer who first got in touch with the venue, so I’m not sure exactly how he came across it. The location is easily accessible by public transport, though parking could be better, and also physically accessible to people with disabilities. It seems to be a very good fit, and they just moved to a new location that will let us have larger groups, though we’ve only overflowed the old space once or twice. (Out of our mailing list of 700+, roughly 20 people attend any given meetup, but sometimes as many as 40.)
There’s certainly not another venue in the area that I’ve been coveting, though I’ve considered starting a second meetup closer to home now that I live 45 miles from Oakland.
Heather Acton 4:28 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
The Lake County (north ‘burbs Chicago) meetup has met in a couple of different locations. We were meeting in a local restaurant/bar, but it gets busy at times and just doesn’t have the right atmosphere for learning/building/creating. We just moved to a conference room in my building and the atmosphere was better, but technology was lacking (router died…it’s locked up where I can’t access…no projector). Ongoing, though, we agree that the conference room atmosphere without tech is better than a noisy restaurant with some tech.
By March/April I will have leased a space large enough to use as a collaborative workspace and I’ll host my meetups there (and hopefully other local ones too).
nataliemac 4:51 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
The SoCal meetup now has two locations – it’s so tough to make it through Los Angeles traffic. We polled our members and found that most were reasonably able to get to the Westside or downtown, so we alternate between those two locations. We have a coworking space downtown that hosts us for free. That coworking space is run by a creative agency that does a lot of WordPress work, so we’re a great fit there. We also have a coworking space on the Westside that has agreed to host us for free provided we provide volunteers to do the setup/takedown before and after our meetups.
Our current venue situation has been a long time coming – we’ve tried so many things. The LA public libraries aren’t very friendly for renting rooms from – they charge and additionally require you to purchase a $1 million insurance policy. We were happily using the Santa Monica public libraries, but were permanently banned after we asked that people attending the meetup chip in $5 toward the cost of renting the room – they have a strict policy against charging to attend events. Even though I explained that it wasn’t a money-making proposition and it was just to go toward paying for the room, the librarian was angry and kicked us out.
We also tried restaurants – we have a few restaurants in the area with large meeting rooms, often available for free if your group purchases food and drink. That works out okay as long as they have wifi, but we have to provide our own projector, screen, etc.
For awhile we were renting a room from an events facility – the room was good, they had wifi, a projector and a screen, but it was expensive, and even when we asked people to pay a bit toward the cost, I usually ended up paying most of the rental fee out of my own pocket.
Carol Stambaugh 5:15 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
We meet the same place every month and on the same day every month. I think consistency is huge in building an audience. People are creatures of habit. However, our meetup is huge and we are looking for our meetups to expand into satellite locations across the state and the valley. (Phoenix). We want to be able to offer many differnt options, but it it is truly depending upon the volunteers stepping up to make those other locations happen. We’ve had a couple of locations bubble up, but the consistency is lacking. At the “home base” meetup, we have a consistent leader (myself) who is always there and some consistent asst orgs.
Location we meet at is Gangplank in Chandler. If you’ve ever been to WCPHX, you may have seen Gangplank. It is a collaborative workspace that has just the right energy and setting for a meetup. We are very fortunate to have this for our meetup. The other satellite locations have struggled because the location is huge. Must have wifi, LCD projection and good space!
Beth G Sanders 6:31 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
We meet at the same place each month. It’s a small business incubator in Downtown Memphis and it’s about 3 blocks from Otto’s condo – good for making it easy for our resident expert to get to meetups. The space is offered free of charge to area tech meetups, which is another reason we continue to meet there.
It’s worked out well, though we have had a few suburbanites who are still nervous about going Downtown at night, but the area is mostly residential and really very safe. (For non-Memphians, Downtown Memphis had changed radically over the past 5 – 10 years, but some folks who live outside the city don’t get out much, so they don’t really see that.)
I’ve been the primary and only organizer and have been determined not to charge, so until the recent changes in meetup groups I paid the meetup.com fees out of my pocket. Memphis isn’t exactly teeming with free places to meet – all of our user groups have the same issues.
Daniel Bachhuber 7:36 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
1) The Portland WordPress Meetup meets in the US Bancorp tower conference rooms every month. Or at least, will have for many months until the end of this month. The Bancorp tower is repurposing our conference room to become offices. We’ll be moving across the street to space I haven’t seen yet.
2) Digital Trends is our generous corporate sponsor at the month, and leases space in the building which entitles them to access to conference room space. It’s free to the meetup group, although I’m not positive whether it’s free to Digital Trends.
sara cannon 9:48 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
Birmingham: We meet for free upstairs in a bar on random Monday nights. its not crowded on mondays so they donate the otherwise closed-off space. People can buy their own beer, and we never have to charge. However, our group is tiny: 20 max .. but the space could hold 50.
We are about to initiate a “third monday of the month” schedule with the bar for more consistency.
Mike Little 11:32 pm on January 23, 2013 Permalink |
I run the Manchester WordPress User Group in the UK, and when I took over the group it was never in the same place and not even on the ame day each time. Attendance was sporadic with just three of us being the lowest.
We were fortunate to have a member who helped start MadLab, a local not for profit community space for people who “do and make interesting stuff”. So we have a fixed venue with reasonable facilities and a fixed day of the month (third Wednesday) and attendance has steadily increased ever since. Last meeting we had around 40 attend (out of 200+ in the meetup group), with more people joining all the time.
The fixed meetup location and predictable day has made a huge difference to the attendance.
Edward Caissie 1:39 am on January 24, 2013 Permalink |
I organize the WordPress GTA Meetup group. This is my second WordPress meetup group (I served as a co-organizer of the first group for nearly two years.) One of my first priorities was setting a consistent date with input from the group. We were meeting the third Monday of the month last year, but this year we have changed to the second Monday of the month. A group discussion and consensus was taken.
We have two different venues we meet at. The first venue is for our round-table discussions / social (holiday related) gatherings which is a local restaurant. Free WiFi and good food, drinks too if your inclined. The second venue is a meeting room in a nearby Comfort Inn. Relatively easy access with free WiFi and complimentary coffee/tea service (and at a fee … which is mostly taken from my pocket, but I struck a deal for the room with the manager at a significant discount).
The first venue was close to home and offered a great first and second place to start the Meetup from. Unfortunately, the cost of most city services (library, community center, etc.) are actually more than the motel charges … and the motel meeting room is available all day as well as the evening so provides a decent co-working space for those members who have to travel a distance to attend.
Are there better places, I would imagine so, but to date we as a group have not been able to find one willing to sponsor or provide an area for at least a lower cost … free would be ideal but we will keep looking.
Konstantin Kovshenin 9:03 am on January 24, 2013 Permalink |
We had a hard time looking for a place for the Moscow meetup and tried several locations, including Starbucks. We pretty much settled on Saturdays in the morning and our current venue is a tech center called Digital October which is pretty awesome. Finding the spot was not easy, a lot of phone calls and a few in-person meetings.
Ze Fontainhas 10:36 am on January 24, 2013 Permalink |
http://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Lisboa/ meets usually at a fantastic coworking space, called Cowork Lisboa (which also hosted WordCamp Lisbon’s hack day). They were supportive from day one, seen that many coworkers there are already WordPress developers. We get free (and decent) wi-fi, free coffee and drinks and usually have a few snacks in BYO mode.
We didn’t so much choose or find the place as it was a natural venue from day one, and intend to keep on meeting there as long as it exists.
Andy M. 5:09 pm on January 24, 2013 Permalink |
1.) Where does your meetup meetup? Do you meet at the same location every month, or do you move around? Do you have multiple locations that you regularly use?
We started in pubs for social gatherings and small group presentations. As we grew, we ran into problems with our group disturbing other patrons. So we moved to a branch of the public library with organizers paying out of pocket to cover the expenses ($70/month for a 2-3 hour meetup). After that, for a short amount of time we had free space at a downtown venue. But due to overwhelming demand, they’ve limited us to booking once every 3 months in 2013.
We’ve had no luck with universities or colleges.
The WordPress Developers group has been better. A local coworking facility let us use their space after hours. This year, Rogers is providing space and equipment once a month.
Ideally we’d like to have a permanent space throughout the year, so we don’t need to constantly deal with these logistics. The Rogers setup is a good example of what we’d love to have for the main group. Consistent timing and consistent venues make it easier for members to fit the routine into their schedules.
2.) How did you find and choose your current space?
We’re meeting at the library for the time being. It’s the most accessible option, with the lowest cost — $70/month vs. $200/month for other community spaces that also have wi-fi. We’re bringing in sponsors to help cover venue and equipment costs. Unless a business comes forward to offer space, we’ll continue operating like this.
For the Developers group, Rogers actually approached us with the offer to help.
For the record: We have some guidelines for our meetup sponsors, pretty much in line with the WordCamp sponsor guidelines.
Caspar Hübinger 6:08 pm on January 24, 2013 Permalink |
The Potsdam Meetup meets at the Daily Coffe, a café/bar in downtown Potsdam. It was just the next best and cosy place with good food and a large corner table, so we picked it and have been sticking with it up to today. As we‘re a very small group (a dozen people at most) we like to keep things simple and reduce tech to the minimum. Whoever is speaker for the night brings a notebook plus everybody have their mobile devices, iPads etc. We‘re pretty much regular guests—and very loyal
—so we just pay for our meals and drinks, no fee or any other costs attached. Lovely! 
toherangi 6:57 pm on January 24, 2013 Permalink |
I’m currently seeking a meeting space for our local meetup group which has not long started.
Not sure if it is an option in the U.S. but here in New Zealand we have local Community Centres maintained by the local district councils. They offer spaces that can accomodate small groups of 10 right through to large groups of 200+.
The good thing is that regardless of the the size of the space needed, not-for-profit groups (in our local area) are only charged $15 an hour which IMHO is very reasonable.
The only issue is that not all of these centres have WiFi, but in this day and age of mobile broadband this can be overcome quite easily.
alternatekev 6:55 am on January 25, 2013 Permalink |
We use a coworking space that I was involved in from a few months before it opened. We’ve never been charged for the space and we also used it for the hack day after WC Denver. The space is called Creative Density and is at http://densitycoworking.com
paolal 3:19 pm on January 25, 2013 Permalink |
We are just starting, and as we ( the co-organizers ) work at different co-working spaces, each one with the possibility to host a 20/30 people meetup, we decided to use a different place each of the first three months.
We can use the spaces for free, and didn’t decide yet if after the first three we’ll keep rotating or settle on the best one. I’ll come back to update the thread once we have learned a bit more.
digisavvy 4:51 pm on January 25, 2013 Permalink |
I’ve been organizing the Pasadena WordPress meetup group for just over a year now. Truly among the frustrating things is finding a consistent venue to meet at. I may have some continuity with a local church however, but we bump around each month… Kinda sucks. Libraries haven’t been too forthcoming either.
Deborah Edwards-Onoro 6:20 pm on January 26, 2013 Permalink |
Our Metro Detroit WordPress group just started meeting this past fall at a local university. One of our members teaches there, and has reserved venues for us at no cost to the group. The university location is pretty centralized to our metro area, has easy access from the freeways, free parking, free wifi, as well as projectors and screens we can use.
Tracy Rhodes 3:29 am on January 27, 2013 Permalink |
The Reno (NV) WordPress meetup group (started about 2 years ago) uses the Reno Collective as a meeting place (http://renocollective.com/). The Collective is a tech-oriented shared workspace facility run by one of the original organizers of the meetup group. We meet each month on the second Thursday at 6 pm.
Piet 7:08 am on January 27, 2013 Permalink |
We hold our monthly Beijing WordPress Meetup at the same venue: the Open Sauce Café (yes, correctly spelled). For the first three Meetups we had to pay a fee for water, snacks and the facilities (beamer, 3 screens), but since 2013 we have invited them to become an official sponsor of the event, which they happily accepted.
We chose this particular venue because the Beijing Linux User Group also is organising their regular events there and they are very happy about it.
In my opinion libraries or universities have nothing to gain from your presence, so sooner rather than later they will back away from their earlier commitment to you.
My advice for people that have a hard time finding a suitable venue is to find a bar/restaurant/coffeeshop with additional space for these type of events. Many venues that offer these kind of facilities are very happy with the additional promotion value they can receive from popular events.
Chris Lema 1:46 pm on January 28, 2013 Permalink |
I just began a reboot of the San Diego WordPress meetup – now in north county rather than in downtown. I didn’t kick off the reboot until we had a consistent location – which we secured in a local Fire Station. Through a local bond a couple of years ago, they created a very large and well-lit media training room that seats 48. We have it reserved for a monthly meeting for all of 2013 (and it’s looking good from there). The trick was having the request originate from a local member who works at the station. His direct communication with the Chief made it possible. We started meeting again this month and it was filled up!
Jon Brown 9:39 pm on January 28, 2013 Permalink |
We hold out monthly meetups in a room provided by the Maui Economic Development Board called Malcolm Center (http://www.medb.org/malcolmcenter/). MEDBs mission is to diversify Maui’s economy with a focus towards technology and hitech so we mesh well there. The room is available for rent, but we get it for free as do a few other non-charging meetups. That’s one of the conditions for our free use, we can’t charge. It’s a great facility for a tech meetup. We were introduced to the facility through a Social Media User Group already using the room for a monthly meetup.
So my advice. Look at other meetups and where they meet, look at government and NGO sponsored organizations that mesh with you’re meetups mission. Coworking spaces or bussinesses willing to host are great too, but we didn’t have either of those available here.
Dustin Filippini 9:46 pm on January 28, 2013 Permalink |
In Milwaukee, we use a local Makerspace/Hackerspace/Coworking Space called Bucketworks. They are a non-profit and are meant to do things just like this. Look for one of these places in your area if they exist. http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/ lists many of the ones out there. We are lucky enough to have our place offer to host all meetups free of charge. They advertise a $20 charge, but have let most meet for free. They usually have 2 to 3 each week that meet there. It’s great because a lot of the local tech community does work out of here or meets here for other meetups. We also used the venue for our WordCamp in 2012 and will again in 2013.
Michael Torbert 9:47 pm on January 28, 2013 Permalink |
We’ve tried restaurants and universities. Both have their share of issues for us.
Typically we have two meetups each month.
The main one is a lecture-type meetup that is either in a large conference room (at our old office) or else in a local coworking venue that is very supportive (this also serves to attract new members to the community).
The second one is more of a social format where people can network, show off their stuff, talk about whatever is happening with WordPress or tech, or whatever they want. There is no agenda, people just do what they want. This one is held at our office lounge where we have a tv with a computer people can use to show off their stuff or whatever they want, and have a few drinks while they socialize. People also find this to be a good time to be able to ask others for help on their WordPress sites.
Getting a venue for the lecture format at times is a hassle. Typically, we’ve had issues using local universities (even though there are a lot of them). They aren’t particularly accommodating, although I suspect if we knew the right people it would be better. Usually it’s hard to reserve any space (without paying a lot of money) and the space we get generally isn’t very good.
Since we don’t have access to a large space, this results in us having to put a cap on the number of attendees, and we have to charge $5 (which goes toward food) to make sure people show up who RSVP so that people on the waiting list aren’t screwed out of coming that otherwise could have with noshows. If we had a huge classroom that could hold 100 people, it would be a non-issue since there’d be no waiting list and more people could come, also without having to pay $5.
declanon 10:59 pm on January 28, 2013 Permalink |
Where does your meetup meetup? — We meetup at an office space in downtown Ann Arbor. We meet at the same place every month. Our meetups are always the last Wednesday of the month.
How did you find and choose your current space? – The office space belongs to one of the meetup organizers.
Kathy Drewien 12:16 am on January 29, 2013 Permalink |
Marietta (Atlanta) We meet the 2nd Wednesday every month at a low fee co-working venue. Our meetup requires a $10 fee prior to RSVP which limits no shows. Attendance varies from 10-24 each month. Sometimes the costs are covered, sometimes not. Yet it all balances out over the year.
Scott Hack 4:32 am on January 29, 2013 Permalink |
Louisville, KY — We meet on the second Tuesday of the month at the same venue ( so far ) we are only 4 months old. We use a co-working space that was started by one of the local universities. One of our members belongs to the space and gets us the space for free.
Wine and WordPress? Yes Please. - WP Daily 1:02 pm on January 29, 2013 Permalink |
[...] around global meetups and how organizers are getting the best participation and interaction with their venues and even the refreshments that are offered at the [...]
Melodie Laylor 4:56 am on January 31, 2013 Permalink |
I’m organizer of the WordPress Hampton Roads Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/WordPressHR). We meetup in Virginia Beach in a meeting room at the main branch of the public library. We used to meet at coffee shops or cafes with free wifi from our launch in Feb. 2011 until Aug. 2012. I finally settled on the VB library meeting room last Sept. for numerous reasons:
1. It has plenty of room to grow (capacity 75 or 150)
2. Familiar location
3. There are Reservation fees but they’re nominal ($10/hr for one room, $20/hr to open two up into one)
4. Free wifi, LCD projector and screen
5. Food and drink is allowed
6. The Virginia Beach library rents meeting space to anyone, not just Virginia Beach residents or nonprofits
7. It’s permissable to charge for events
8. It’s sizing up to be a reasonable venue for an eventual WordCamp…there’s also a 247-seat auditorium available for only $25/hr though the two meeting rooms are probably adequate
We now meet on the 4th Tue. evening of each month unless there’s a scheduling conflict. When we met in coffee shops, it was on a Tue. or Thu. mid-afternoon each month, and many of the meetups were informal networking, Q&A, co-working, etc. If a projector and screen could be had, there could be a presentation, but it wasn’t always feasible. With the library spot we’re all set for presentations. The goal for a long time was to have two meetups a month, one formal, one co-working, so I plan to add back an afternoon informal get-together each month as well.
Grant Landram 7:47 pm on February 5, 2013 Permalink |
In Seattle we hold our meetups in the basement of a tech incubator (TechStars). We have a connection with the person that runs the space and it’s been a great spot for over 2 years now. It has great WiFi, and just enough space for our large meetup.
We meet consistently on the 2nd Thursday of each month, which I think has provided stability and consistency, as we’ve seen our numbers grow continually over the last 2 years.
http://www.meetup.com/SeattleWordPressMeetup/
We also have a sub-meetup (developers) who branched off almost a year ago. They hold their meetups at a local bar, in their basement where there is wifi and a projector. One of the organizers knew the owner and arranged for the space in exchange for bringing in more business on a Tuesday night.
ramseyp 6:53 pm on February 26, 2013 Permalink |
Where does your meetup meetup? Do you meet at the same location every month, or do you move around? Do you have multiple locations that you regularly use?
We’re a large meetup group and we hit capacity at each meetup. This wasn’t always the case. When the Austin meetup first started, we meet at a coffeeshop or a bar. It worked great as we were largely a social meetup. The meetup didn’t last long, though, until @skeltoac started it up again at a coworking space. Interest was revived once this happened because the space offered us a consistent place & time. This was (and I believe still one of the most important things) the key to increased attendance. After a year, we maxed out the space. Meetups, once announced, hit capacity within a few days. We hunted for a larger space & soon found one at a new coworking space, but with WordPress’s popularity growing, our membership kept growing and we’d still max out attendance with a day or two of announcing a meetup.
What we do, currently, is have multiple meetups in different parts of Austin. Two of them are our large meetups, averaging between 50 & 70 people per event. Both are at sponsored locations with ample seating & audio-visual equipment. One is in a coworking / startup space and the other is in a business with a large meeting room. These meet the 1st & 4th weeks of the month. Inbetween we have smaller meetups that are just starting out. We worked to secure regular spaces for them so they’d be easier for people to plan for.
How did you find and choose your current space?
We found our space through networking in the community and building relationships with different people, businesses and organizations.
Corrinda 11:11 pm on March 28, 2013 Permalink |
Denver WordPress Meetup
Where does your meetup meetup?
Currently we meet at the Denver Press Club
Do you meet at the same location every month, or do you move around?
We meet at the same place. There is parking, it is central to downtown, there is a full bar and they server dinner and they provide A/V equipment and wifi that space holds up to about 50 – 60. We pay for the space and get a deal through one of the board members.
Do you have multiple locations that you regularly use?
We’re always looking for and at spaces. But I think it beneficial for the organizers and attendees to try to stay consistent. We do a couple of social events every year and those are usually in a different location and a different format.
How did you find and choose your current space?
One of the future organizers is on the board. We look for a space that can hold 30 – 50 ppl. has wifi, has a projector and screen or the equivalent, easy parking, food & beverages and is centrally located in the Denver Metro area.
A note on costs. We have found it difficult to find space that fits those criteria that is free. We been in a variety of restaurants and a hotel with event spaces that were happy to give the space at no cost as long as enough people purchased F & B but guests weren’t purchasing enough. We’re always on the look out though.