The Official Meetup HQ Blog

Hackathon @ NewHQ!

by Tamara

Last week Meetup's Dev Team hunkered down for a two-day Hackathon. By definition, a "Hackathon" is creative time set aside for Developers to collaborate on short-term projects and create prototypes of potential websites, applications and products.

At the end of the second day, everyone showed off what they'd built, which coincided with a party to celebrate our recent office renovation.

For a behind-the-scenes look, check out Kathryn Fink's fantastic video:

Here's a quick rundown of how much creativity came from two days of caffeine-fueled programming:

Meetup BFF computes how compatible you are with another Meetup member. It calculates a BFF index based upon Meetup Group memberships you share, photos you're tagged in together, your interests and your Facebook friends.

The Meetup Photo Copier helps you export photos you've taken at your Meetups to other photo sharing sites.

Hungry/Thirsty is a way to find Meetups that serve free food and drinks.

The Meetup Tribune is a print newspaper (and corresponding site) that displays upcoming Meetups by category.

PhotoCropper allows you to customize how your profile photos are cropped.

The "Stalking Horse" app identifies members with whom you've attended the most Meetups, and then recommends more of their upcoming Meetups to you.

The CS Stats display catalogues Meetup's Community Team activity. It shows how many messages we're receiving, how many replies we're sending, and various other stats about the nature of our inquiries.

SnackbotMUP takes a photo of HQ's snack cart every 15 minutes and automatically tweets it.

 

 

Dog Hunting uses an Arduino with a Bluetooth shield to track Lola and Doug's movements (our beloved office dogs), and then displays the results on a heatmap.

 

 

 

I n case you're wondering, Lola (on the right) covered more square footage in the office than Doug (above).

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the Dev blog for all the details on these hacks and more.

 

Tamara is on Meetup's Community team.

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Interview: Big Dave of the Tri-County Adventures Meetup Group

by Tamara

Recently we heard from an amazing Organizer: Big Dave of the Tri-County Adventures Meetup Group in Boca Raton, Florida. It turns out that the group recently hit 1,000(!) past Meetups, and he was understandably proud of this accomplishment.

He's been running the group since March 2007, and they stay busy year-round; as their description notes, "We welcome you to the winter months here is South Florida. That means an average temperature of about 75 on a daily basis. We love to be outdoors in the winter and will be planning some great events."

We reached out to Big Dave for some words of wisdom about his organizing success.

How did you get started doing this huge variety of outdoor activities?

In the beginning I started with planning events to places that I had always wanted to visit. South Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach) has so much to offer year around. After about a year we started to collaborate with other small groups to create alliances and increase our numbers to events. It was during this time I met another organizer from Sporting Out. They offered many outdoor sports and activities. We collaborated on about 50-60 outdoor events during the spring/summer season.

How did your Meetup Group come about?

In 2006, there were only 2-3 really large groups that were offering a variety of events. I joined a group formally known as 'South Florida Travel and Adventure' which is now known as The Bison Club. It was in that group that I went from a member to an assistant Organizer. At the time I lived in Miami and we wanted to expand the same type of group mentality and events that The Bison Club was offering so I started my group. So I am a spin off Organizer from this group. We were very fortunate to have started this group when there were very few groups in the area.

Were you surprised to find yourself leading a whole group of strangers, or did it come naturally?

Summer Holiday Meetups!

by Tamara

Can you even believe it's July already, and the year is halfway over??  Summer's officially here, and it's time to start getting out and enjoying it.  Happily, July is full of holidays the world over, which means fun summery celebrations, and fun summery Meetups.

Today is Canada Day, which commemorates the day that three former British colonies were united into a single nation. The Canada Outdoor World Seekers (COWs) in Toronto will go on a lovely hike, from fields to a beach. Ottowa's Center for Inquiry is having a potluck meal before a local fireworks show; while Canadians and Canada Fans in Edinburgh is meeting at a bar for a movie-and-DJ night, with the potential for members to come draped in a Canadian flag (hope they get some takers!).

July 4th is America's Independence Day, and the Chicago Scuba Meetup will be picnicking and diving at a quarry; the Las Vegas Campers are camping for 3 days in the mountains of the amazing-sounding  Hualapai Mountain Park; and the Tokyo U.S. Expat Meetup Group will be settling into their new country with a picnic in the park.

 

France's Bastille Day is July 14, which marks the date that citizens stormed the Bastille fortress-prison, a symbolic act leading to the eventual end of feudalism. Bastille Day Meetups include: Paris Urban Adventures having a "monochrome-clothing" picnic before a fireworks display; The Sydney French Language Group members attending a hotel's fabulous cabaret/dance party; and the Boston Euro Social Meetup Group enjoying a street party, full of live music and dancing, food, and of course wine!

We here at Meetup HQ wish everyone a safe July, filled with memorable times and relaxation. Happy Meetups!

Tamara is on Meetup's Community team.

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Meetups that go bump in the night?

by Tamara

It's Friday the 13th! Eeek! Will you be stress-filled and looking out for leaning ladders and black cats until the safety of Saturday the 14th rolls around?

Personally I'll spend some of it watching the obvious movie(s) at home with friends, but check out what some appropriately "darker side of life"-themed Meetup Groups have got planned:

Nashville's Horror & Suspense Meetup, only three months old and already popular, will be at the Full Moon Tattoo and Horror Festival. They'll be enjoying a horror film festival attended by a few guest stars, including Malcolm McDowell and P. J. Soles--Organizer Derek describes her as "the blonde one of Jamie Lee Curtis's two friends who got killed by Michael, thinking it was her boyfriend." 

DFW Friends of Halloween, of Plano, TX, is an almost-one-year-old Meetup Group for people who "think about next Halloween starting November 1st." They'll spend Friday the 13th walking through "Zombie Manor," a local haunted house. Many of their Meetups are child-friendly, so here's hoping that having a strong stomach is a family trait!

And the Paranormal and Supernatural book club will hold their May Book Discussion. They've been meeting up since 2009 (congrats!), and are so dedicated that four books are on the agenda this month, including ones by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Laurell K Hamilton. But as Organizer Julie says, "As always you don't have to read them all to attend the meeting, so read as many as you can or feel like." 

So if you're up for it, take a look around for something fun and unusual to do with your Friday the 13th! If you miss this one, you'll have to wait until next January for another. :)

Tamara is on Meetup's Community team. 

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Bonding over Bikes

by Tamara

As a woman, finding a great group of female friends can be hard, especially over the long-term.  Everyone's interests change, some start having families, some move away.  Meeting women with whom you share a bond can be even harder when your hobby is as male-oriented as motorcycle riding.

So when Lillian Schleif started her San Diego Female Sportbikers Meetup Group just over two years ago, she was in search of new friends with whom she could develop her new-found biking skills, in a "less aggressive," all-women environment.  Now the group has over 120 members; meets up for rides all over the greater San Diego area multiple times a month; and includes clinics devoted to riding skills, tracks, and bike maintenance. 

They organize joint Meetups with a brother group, The San Diego Sportbike Meetup Group, but as far as their membership goes, it's an all-girls club. 

The San Diego Union Tribune profiled Lillian within a recent piece honoring the area's vast motorcycle community, including its response to a terrible local crash, in which four riders were killed by a motorist. 

The ties amongst motorcycle club members can run very deep.  As Lillian said in the article, “My husband didn’t ride, and I was such a beginner, I would make him follow me in the car in case something happened, and that was very boring for him. So I thought, ‘I’ll start a meetup group and see what happens.’ ”  And she's ended up creating her own local community of female biker buddies.  :)

Great job, Lillian and group!  Have fun and stay safe out there.

Tamara is on Meetup's Community team.

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Meeting Up on the Open Seas

by Tamara

The sailing world might ordinarily seem to be an intimidating culture for a newbie to delve into, but the Got Wind and Water Meetup Group, based in Alameda, California, is working hard to lessen that impression.

While acknowledging the huge gulf (so to speak) of experience that exists between people who grew up in a sailing family, vs. those who've always been curious about boating but have never had the opportunity to try it out, this 500+ member group is about getting everyone out on the water.  Members without boats are able to join an existing crew and to become an integral part of the sail. 

The group's Organizer, John Cabrall, recently wrote a terrific piece for a regional sailing blog, in which he expressed his opinion about the Meetup platform's function -- to enable a group to become stronger and more active by creating a symbiotic relationship between its online presence and offline events. 

"The Meetup concept is to connect online, then meet up offline. The focus is not the online profiles of members. The focus is NOT a friends list, or a wall, or a database, or list of links. The focus is getting together offline in events that are focused on the activity itself. What is online is the result of those activities. Comments, photo albums, a calendar, upcoming events… even video."

He went on to describe the events of one of his group's recent Meetups, charmingly named the "Beer Can Race."  :)

Congrats to John and Got Wind and Water for your success, and we wish you many more happy sails together!

Tamara is on Meetup's Community team.

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In the News: You never forget how to ride a bike!

by Tamara

As everyone knows, the urge to become a couch-potato after work is a powerful one, and starting a formal "exercise program" feels so daunting.

But Tom Bilcze and the other members of the Akron-Canton Spin Off Cyclists Meetup Group, many of whom have undergone bariatric surgery, are committed to starting a new chapter in their lives, one that involves support, friendship, and regular bike rides throughout Akron and beyond.  They branch out even further on the longer, twice-a-month weekend rides - into Ohio and Western Pennsylvania!

Recently this lovely group was the subject of a story in the Akron Beacon Journal, in which Tom talked about their "no-cyclist-left-behind" policy, namely that "If you ride with us, you're going to go the speed of whatever the slowest cyclist in the group is."

What a low-pressured way for your members to ease into a healthier, more active lifestyle!  Great job to the group for the service you're providing to your community.

Tamara is on the Community team at Meetup.

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