Jesse: June 2008 Archives

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.

Hi everybody,

As we mentioned in an earlier post, we're launching a lot of exciting new improvements to Meetup. While that post was a broad overview, here is a more comprehensive list of what exactly is new at Meetup.

Spring Cleaning

We redesigned the web site! It now has a cleaner look, with less clutter. Here's a detailed list of the main changes:

• Member home page: now lists all your upcoming Meetups
• Member home page: pins Meetup Groups you organize to the top
• Meetup Group home page: New design, with "What's New" given prominence.
• Meetup Group home page: You can edit your main headline directly.
• Meetup Groups section: Mailing Lists and Message Boards are two different side links.
• Meetup Groups section: There is a side link shortcut for organizers to schedule a Meetup.
• About Us pages: Easier-to-find Table of Contents, and a Recently Updated Pages box on every page.
• Calendar page: Clearer views, and a single day now stretches its box to accommodate any number of Meetups.
• Members page: Streamlined down to one view. This will make it easier to potentially add member searching.
• Photos section: Photo URLs change automatically.
• Group settings: Added as a direct link on the left side. All settings are now grouped into six simple pages.
• Organizer Resources: Organizer Help & Tools is now called Organizer Resources. There is now only one page, with eight clear choices.
• Promote page: Organized into three sections.
• Find a Meetup: "Meetups by City" and "Meetups by Topic" are now combined into one central resource to find a Meetup.
• City Calendar: Neater format, and added a fun photo sampler of (public) Meetups coming up that week in that city.
• City Calendar: Meetup Groups tab page lets you filter your search by topic.
• Terminology: "Meetup Groups" are the groups on the site, that host in-person "Meetups."
• Terminology: "Shouts" are now called "Greetings".

Click below to watch the Meetup Spring Cleaning video! (5 minutes, will open in another window)

Meetup Places

Organizers: want to find a place to hold your Meetup? Meetup Places lets you find venues that have been used by other organizers and read reviews made by Meetup Groups.

• Organizers decide which venues to make searchable. Share your existing saved venues or add and share new places.
• Search for venues by location. Enter in a full street address, the city/state or zip code or drag the marker on the map.
• See how well a venue's been rated and read reviews. Find out before you go if it's the best for your meetup.
• Are any other Meetup Groups scheduled at the same venue? We'll let you know.
• Has a venue shut down or moved? Update the info and we'll let everyone know about it.
• Know that the venue has wi-fi or is pet friendly? You can share this and additional attributes with others.

Click below to watch the Meetup Places video! (6 minutes, will open in another window)

Payments

Organizers: want to cover your costs, reserve a venue, or even pay yourself? We've integrated with Amazon Payments to make it easier for organizers to charge members to attend their Meetups. This is the list of features you'll find if you select the Amazon Payments option:

• Organizers can require that members must pay in order to RSVP
• Refund policy - Organizers state it, members accept it
• Organizers and members can see detailed transaction information
• One-click refunds
• Ability for organizers to manually add offline payments
• Also note: you can still choose to use Paypal instead, which didn't change

Click below to watch the Meetup payments video! (10 minutes, will open in another window)

Additional Features

• Organizers can set RSVP deadlines
• Organizers can ask their members questions when they rsvp
• A convenient printable ticket with all the Meetup's information, available for members and organizers to print out and bring to the Meetup

Meetup API

• The Meetup API allows developers to use the Topics, Groups and Events hosted and created on Meetup.com in their own applications and mashups.
• Any Meetup.com member can request an API key and start playing with the API right away.
• We're committed to making the information at the core of the service widely available -- while of course respecting the privacy of our Meetup groups and members.

Meetup in Other Languages

• By the end of the summer, Meetup will be translated into Italian!
• We have plans to add more languages in the future

Share your feedback

• Share your feedback in the New Features forum.
• Need Technical Assistance or find a Bug? Post it in the Help Forum
• Have a great idea or suggestion for making Meetup even better? Stop by the Suggestions Forum.

Hi everyone,

Last week we posted screenshots and a description of the new features coming soon for Meetup. For those of you craving more detail, here are the features presented in video format. Each video takes you through the new features by showing real screenshots of the site, along with our voiceover descriptions. Click on the image to get to each video, which will pop up full-size in a new window.

Site redesign: 5-minute video, hosted by Jesse:

Meetup Places: 6-minute video, hosted by Viviane:

Payments: 10-minute video, hosted by Maya: