Re: [UG-ADMINS] How do you generate enthusiasm?

I haven't been in the game long but I do look at other meetup.com groups quite regularly, not just PHP. I can't see the actual turnout but judging from the RSVP's, what Andrew said rings true:

Meetups without a speaker tend to do worse; social meetups (perhaps not the lasergaming kind, that seems to be a different animal) worst of all.
Also: we haven't had a meeting where people left right after the speaker was done, it's always drinks & networking after.


PS: I'm taking your comment on the writeups as a compliment, Joshua! One of the harder things about that has been that you have no clue that they're read at all..

-- 
Ramon


On Oct 9, 2013, at 11:08 PM, Joel Clermont <[email protected]> wrote:

> Thanks Andrew. Great suggestions on the title. I'll definitely give that more attention in the future.
> 
> As for discussions, I'm torn. We've done round tables/discussions several times in the past and the feedback was extremely positive. Many people like engaging and feeling like they're heard too. There definitely are some who view the meetup like a classroom experience: show up, sit down, listen, leave. I guess I have to decide if I want to cave in to those people or nurture a more social, self-sustaining, community-oriented group, even if it means potentially smaller attendance.
> 
> We should do another cross-group promotion since we're not that far away. Maybe we can discuss more at the Madison PHP conference in November. I assume you'll be there.
> 
> Joel Clermont
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Oct 9, 2013, at 3:51 PM, Andrew Shell <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> We've had a similar problem.  You post events and you don't have nearly as
>> many folks come as you'd expect or like to have.
>> 
>> Here's what I've found.  Titles are 90% of what matters.  If they're
>> getting an e-mail from meetup they'll glance at the title and make a
>> decision right away if they're interested in going or not.
>> 
>> The title has to convey that the topic is relevant for what they are
>> working on (specific problem or platform) and that they will leave the
>> meetup learning something that they can use.
>> 
>> Looking back at the last 20 meetups or so here are trends:
>> 
>> The worst for attendance are "social" meetups.  If someone doesn't think
>> they are going to come away learning something specific they'd much rather
>> stay home.  For a while we were alternating talks with social meetups and
>> one guy quit the group saying "I thought this group was about PHP, I guess
>> not"
>> 
>> Although better then social meetups (although not by much) are
>> "discussions".  People don't seem to want to come and discuss a topic.
>> They want to hear an expert tell them what they need to know.
>> 
>> The best attended meetups are keyword focused "Doctrine 2", "E-Commerce",
>> "SilverStripe 3".  This really is hit or miss though because some topics
>> don't land.  For us we didn't have a particularly large group for "Laravel"
>> 
>> In the middle you have topics that succeed based on the perceived value.
>> 
>> Successful:
>> 
>> I've been hacked! Now what?
>> Code Reviews: The "Secret" to Building Quality Software
>> Rapid Prototyping: Workflow
>> 
>> Less Successful:
>> 
>> Coding Styles, Tools, and Workflow
>> Lean and Agile (Yes, this is about code, not a fitness program)
>> 
>> Looking at those topics it's clear why some landed and others didn't.
>> People are afraid of being hacked so they need to know how to prevent it
>> and how to recover from it.  They want to build quality software and want
>> to know what the "secret" is.  This technique is called creating a
>> "knowledge gap" and is worth looking into.  Rapid prototyping because they
>> want to do what they already do quicker.
>> 
>> The ones that didn't land don't have a very strong hook.
>> 
>> Hope this helps.  It's something we're constantly working on.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Andrew
>