Supporting Meetups with Low Content

Meetups are an important part of the WordPress experience. It’s good to meet people, build networks, and learn new skills. But what if you feel like your Meetup is stuck? The Marketing Team has put together some ideas to help.

MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. are an important part of the WordPress experience. It’s good to meet people, build networks, and learn new skills. But what if you feel like your MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. is stuck? The Marketing Team has put together some ideas to help.

What are some Meetup Formats?

  • Invite speakers from other Meetups to deliver their session remotely, using Zoom or Hangout.
  • Play talks from WordPress.tv. during the Meetup.
  • Lightning talks are a great way to help new speakers and encourage participation.
  • Q & A sessions at Meetups are always a good way to help the audience with speciifc questions and find out where they are.

Meetup Topic Categories

WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.

  • New PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party
  • New Skill
  • New tech/system
  • Design
  • Localization
  • WordPress Security
  • Changing Themes and The Struggle with Shortcodes
  • How to use the CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. in WordPress Themes
  • Page Builders: The Good, The Bad, The Needs Improvement
  • Hackathon Night — Bring your worst problems, we’ll fix them.
  • JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. Libraries and WordPress Theme Development
  • Leveraging the REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. in your WordPress Site

WordPress Customization

  • Design customization
  • Design for AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility): Color Blind, Nearsightedness, and Vision-impaired
  • Internationalizing And Localizing Your WordPress Theme
  • Customize WordPress Child Themes and it’s importance

WordPress Experience

  • New experience that you learn throughout the journey of WordPress
  • Support
  • Giving back
  • Community
  • Backup Solutions
  • Best Practices
  • Site Speed for Developing Environments (3G, 2G)
  • Must-needed plugins for nonprofits, small business, blogs
  • Moderated Forums: Why have password-protected on-site forums instead of a blog or Facebook Group?
  • If SEO is more than a plugin, how do I start to rank?
  • Content Marketing: Long-form versus Short-form
  • Building Your First Plugin
  • The Importance Of GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ To Every Developer
  • GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ and my thoughts!

WordPress For End Users/ Bloggers

  • Support
  • Must-needed plugins for blogs
  • Project Management Tools for the Freelancer blogger
  • How often should I blog?
  • PH What? An Introduction to the beginner.
  • What is WordPress Really? An introduction to LAMPLAMP LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP – a stack of free software programs that can function as the environment for running WordPress..
  • Teaching Tech to Kids
  • WordPress Development for Beginners: Getting Started

WordPress as Business

  • Why Accessibility Matters to a Small Business Site
  • Support
  • Project Management Tools for the Overworked Freelancer
  • Partnering Up: Building Sites and Gaining New Client Work with Meetup Friends
  • If SEO is more than a plugin, how do I start to rank?
  • Content Marketing: Long-form versus Short-form
  • Building Your First Plugin
  • Mentorship Night. Let’s pair up and keep ourselves accountable to continuous learning
  • Empathy in Tech – Why Marketers should learn Dev and Devs should learn Marketing
  • WordPress as a Platform for Apps
  • Optimizing site performance
  • How to maximize conversion rate of your WordPress Plugin
  • Growth hacks: How to grow & sell premium WordPress Plugins
  • Things you can do to promote your WordPress Plugin at zero expense.

How to WordPress (Tutorial)

  • Training (ie Speaker Training – see curriculum )
  • Unique something for developers that most of the people dont know
  • Googling as a Resource for Solutions
  • How to ask for Support
  • How to Convert into httpsHTTPS HTTPS is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. This is especially helpful for protecting sensitive data like banking information..
  • How to apply conditional logic to your forms
  • How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress
  • No Stupid Question Night. Seriously. Ask. Let’s chat.

Ways to make these talks work for you.

Full-Length Presentation

30 minutes, followed by a Question and Answer period. This is great for a deep dive into any topic. Try to mix up the type of talks each month.

This is great way for speakers who have experience talking to jump in, but newcomers also always have something valuable to say. It’s also a great way for a speaker to try out something that they want to pitch to an upcoming WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more., and get feedback on what to revise.

Lightning Presentation

10 Minutes followed by a Question and Answer: The Q & A can take place either right away or after several lightning talks.

This is a great way to make sure topics stay focused. It also keeps interest in the meeting if the main talk is from more of a technical angle and the lightning talk is more from a user angle or vice versa.

Super Lightning

5 Minute Presentation: Questions at Happiness Session at the end of the evening
This is essentially a top tips type of presentation. It moves super fast.

It’s also a great way for new speakers or new members of your Meetup to feel comfortable speaking. It’s low pressure.