Deep in the heart of Texas

Last week Mary, Gary, Matt and I (Jesse) flew down to Texas to connect with Meetup organizers there. Our first stop was a Central Market in Austin, where we had some tasty snacks and talked with about 22 great people. It was a little hard to hear, but Meetup organizers aren't afraid to speak up. We got feedback from our recent features launch, suggestions for new features for the web site, listened to the joys and challenges of running Meetup Groups, and stayed late to answer lots of questions. A new Organizer Meetup started afterwards, to keep the good connections going. It was awesome meeting such a dedicated group of folks working hard to Keep Austin Weird. (Don't worry, that's a compliment.)

We didn't get a lot of time to hang out and explore Austin, but we did grab some great Mexican food (a theme on the trip). And we discovered Mary's secret talent for recognizing repurposed fast food restaurant buildings. Also, we learned that Austin has a lot of police officers, some of whom were kind enough to remind us that even rental cars should use headlights while driving at night.

The next day we headed over to San Antonio, and I for one was blown away by how beautiful the city is. San Antonio (or as Mary calls it, "Austin") has a relaxing "River Walk" that winds through the entire town. We lucked out with some time in our schedule to walk around and enjoy ourselves. I had the best burger I've had in years, and Mary and Matt shared some awesome BBQ ribs (I guess our group happened to have some of the few non-vegetarian Meetup staff.)

We held our San Antonio organizer event in a really cool restaurant, the Blue Star Brewery. We met with a smaller group of people, but had almost 100% attendance. Everyone was eager to share their stories and ideas and help one another with Meetuppy advice, and we all talked for a long time. Afterwards, Chris, the organizer of San Antonio's largest Meetup (Hiking), started up a new Organizer Meetup so people could continue getting together to help each other out. (And Jennifer gave us a great blog shoutout here. Thanks!)

We wrapped up our trip by stumbling onto an awesome Spanish-speaking festival of some kind, with amazing music and food. And, lest I forget, the next day we got to see the Alamo! We had a blast on the trip, and I want to thank all the Meetup organizers and members who met up with us. For anyone reading this who's never been to Texas, y'all should visit straightaway.