Why we need more Hacker Meetups, by Ian Hogarth of Songkick | Hacker News Reader

Why we need more Hacker Meetups, by Ian Hogarth of Songkick

uk.techcrunch.com

39 pointsdanw15 comments

I've been planning to make it out to one of the London meetups, but it becomes a little problematic that by the time the meetups are announced all of the cheap plane tickets are already snapped up.

I've been kicking around getting the same thing going here in Berlin and have talked to a couple of the locals. We've got a couple of good business oriented meetups, but not one with a real hacking atmosphere. I'm always the weirdo that can't keep his laptop closed for the whole time. ;-)

If you see this and are based in or around Berlin drop me a line (and aren't already tracking one of my various feeds), and if we get something going we'll be sure to get you on the invite.

Don't think about it. Do it. See what happens.

Worst case is they are poorly attended and fail. In which case, learn, reset, and try again. Use a different approach (free beer & pizza generally works, or some sort of interactive/engaging/competitive experience).

Building momentum and traction becomes easier with each iteration. If you can stay alive long enough, good things can happen. Output is a function of input.

It may be worth doing a presentation at BarCamp Berlin (http://barcampberlin3.mixxt.org/, 13 October 2008) to launch the endeavour and get going. Better still, you can do an event ahead of BarCamp and talk about what you have done and are doing, not what you will do.

Lastly, there are many talented groups/people in and around Germany who will be interested, appreciate, and attend such an event. London does/should not have the European monopoly.

Yep, already in the Mixxt group for BarCamp Berlin.

Poorly attended is fine -- you can have an interesting gathering with just a few folks. More what I've been trying to do is to make it around to the other entrepreneurs meetups to make sure that there's not something with a similar character already going on -- there's no sense in splitting things up. Business & Beer and OpenCoffee are quite a different atmosphere, WebMontag is the last one on my checklist, which I've missed due to scheduling conflicts the last couple goes around.

As a London based hacker this chimes with me. There are groups such as the BCS that are supposedly there to nurture IT networking, but their events schedule looks a bit dry.

I've found some of the entrepreneurial networking events (OpenCoffee and Geektails) to be interesting, but you don't get much of a chance to talk about the technical challenges at those.

I'm looking forward to coming along on the 4th anyway. But update the "news" section on the Facebook group with the details please!

Updated! Sorry about that.

I've been going to a Hacker meetup for the past few months here in the Silicon Valley. It's totally a refreshing experience to build relationships with the community. I also helps me stay motivated and excited about building my app!

If you guys are interested:

SV Facebook Hacker News Group http://www.new.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=10089105...

Silicon Valley Hackers and Founder Meetup http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737/

I hear ya. It's been a blast.

I have a hunch though that if things keep growing, we're going to need a bigger space to get together in.

Any offers?

In certain places, there might be enough people to have a Hacker (centric) Cafe, like super happy dev house, constantly. Imagine it -- coffee, high speed wifi, a library, talks, ramen, small meeting rooms, late hours, whiteboards.

Have you seen this?

"Building a Hacker Space" http://imakethings.com/Hacker-Space-Design-Patterns.pdf

.. this is something I'd absolutely love to set up.

Are you in the Bay area? I think I can contribute some help; I have a lot of friends that are looking for a space like this. Gabe and Andrew (from Kirkland North) and I have been hosting these dinner parties that attract quite a few people: the secret seems to be good cooking. I could cook for a few 'fundraising dinners' to get the ball rolling (for, say, a deposit on a lease), though I don't think I can be a main person on the project (have a lot of hardware hacking to do...)

Unfortunately not.. I'm in Melbourne (Australia).

I love the idea of luring people with good food though. :)

If you want to get something rolling in your area, maybe hacking society is the answer:

http://www.hackingsociety.org/

Why the link to the comments anchor?

That's strange, I'm sure I submitted it without that since that's a pet peeve of mine. Any mods feel like fixing it please?

fixed, thanks

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