Ask YC: Would HN readers be interested in a HN events site? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Would HN readers be interested in a HN events site?

42 pointsiamelgringo28 comments

So, I run the hackers and founders meetup here in Silicon Valley every couple of weeks. People really seem to like getting together and having a beer with fellow HN readers: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=566583

I've noticed that it can be really hard to get something like that launched, unless you can get your announcement on the front page of HN.

While that works for larger metro areas, like SV or the recent HN gathering in NYC, smaller areas like Padova, Italy it can be a bit challenging to get a HN meetup off the ground: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=566583

I own the domain www.hackersandfounders.com. Currently it just points to the Hackers and founders Meetup page, but I've been toying with the idea of building a Craigs list style community meetup listing. Would the HN community be interested in something like that?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

View on HN

Would it be too much work to also have a listing of everyone's startup? I've thought about scraping profile pages or simply allowing people to freely add their information.

I know TechCrunch has this sort of thing, but there is a lot of clutter and also it would be nice to have, say, 50 listings on one page with brief information about each.

How could you avoid clutter? Tie it into HN so that when a user who is associated with the startup earns karma, their listing gets placed higher.

Starting 2 years ago, every month or so all the security people in Chicago meet up at a bar (usually Hopleaf). Our turnout started around 15, and now tops out 40-50. The idea has since spread to NYC, San Francisco (I made it out to a BaySec last month), and Boston.

There are already Ruby and Python users groups in Chicago, but I can't bring myself to go watch a presentation about coding when I could be playing with my kids, drinking, or both.

If there were a casual hacking/startup meetup in Chicago, I'd definitely go. If there was a site to coordinate one, I'd participate. I've gotta believe there are more startup people in Chicago than there are security people.

For Thomas: there are some; they all end up dying. The Jelly bar nights are the closest to one, but they're very high on freelancers.

Adding to that here's a few things we've learned about hosting good meetups from starting Jelly in Chicago...

Consistency is #1 - have it on a consistent day and time at the same place every time you do it, especially in the beginning. Its easier to spread it by word of mouth this way and easier to catch people who just show up because they heard about it

Having it in a public place with the possibility of food and drink is incredibly important

Do not publicize it to anyone but your friends and acquaintances, keeping it to people you know is a good group filter. The way it grows is everyone who comes invites their friends too and you meet their friends, friends of friends etc...its a simple quality filter that can grow very quickly. friends vouching for something is the best way to verify that its worth your time as well. To this end, twitter is easily the most useful tool for this type of meetup (this may be a chicago thing as all sorts of people flock to any event on the radar since we only have a few)

That said, welcome everyone who shows up.

NO PITCHING NO SELLING, HAVE FUN, good business relationships come from people you know and like not people you sell too and trade cards with

Have the meetup even if only you and one other person show up and keep having it, people will come eventually and even if they dont you still hung out with a friend for a while. People get discouraged if you let the meetup lapse. A new person showing up to zero people will have a negative reaction but showing up and meeting 2 people makes it a worthwhile night for them. Meetups are like startups, sometimes in the beginning you just have to do it even though no one seems to care or be paying attention, hang out with smart/good people and the word will start to spread

Two conflicting takes:

* We don't set a hard and fast date (although we try to keep the time and place regular). NYSEC does a "second Tuesday of the month" thing; there's more security people in NYC, but our attendance is often 2x theirs. What we do instead is a mailing list and a website, and we poll the group members about what the best date is. 8 months in, we switched from Thursdays to Wednesdays, for instance, and got a significant boost in attendance.

* We publicize. Why wouldn't we? Sure, you want good people there, but the idea that there even is a "group filter" is a deterrant to newcomers. And what's more important than a group filter is attendance.

I actually don't think showing up and meeting only two people makes it a good experience for a newcomer; I think it ensures that newcomer isn't coming back next time. Better to skip a month or two than risk new people having that experience.

i should add that its important to determine what the people who start the group want from it in the first place... ever been to a tech cocktail, silicon prairie social, or social media camp event? The lack of quality interaction that exists there is one of the reasons we choose not to go crazy with publicizing

second tuesday of the month or whatever meets the consistency principle, note that you didn't switch until the event was established

the number of people needed to make it worthwhile depends entirely on the frequency with which you have the event

What do you think led to the success of your meetup?

Glad-that-you-asked-let-me-tell-you-what-I-think.

* We held it in a public place. Three other cities tried to clone ChiSec, but held it at office buildings. Think about a first-time guest: there's no risk of embarassment walking into a bar and not finding anyone. But knocking on an office door at 6:30PM? None of those meetups lasted more than 2 dates.

* No RSVPs. I was going to go to a Chicago Ruby meetup a few months ago. Then I saw the RSVP list. A few mojitos in my living room started to look a lot more attractive. Not to mention: it's 6:15P the night-of; what, you don't want the people that just found out to show up? Every time I've ever had people over, it's always the ones I rope in at the last minute that make the party.

* No presentations. Find the best presenter you possibly could, and at most 60% of your regulars are really interested. But next month, you're not going to get the best presenter you possibly can; you'll succumb to the Unix User Group Syndrome and host a talk on "Systems Administration Programming in Awk".

* No sponsorships. We get asked. Of course we don't. This probably doesn't even bear explaining.

My other suggestion is, go quarterly, not monthly --- at least at first. If you do 4 back to back monthly meetups, and attendance starts at 15, dips to 8, then 10, then 8 again, you've set a bad precedent. If you can build up a quarterly meetup and get 20-30 people in the room... well, if you pick the room right, 20-30 people actually feels like a crowd.

"* No presentations. Find the best presenter you possibly could, and at most 60% of your regulars are really interested. "

I really like to learn new stuff, and I like teaching others what I've learnt too. Learning online is cool, but you don't get to ask as many questions.

What about, say, 15 minute talks, always with demo code, always task based, no API-walkthrough talks ever? I've been thinking about a London Python group along those lines...

What I'd like to do about this in Chicago is to arrange free classes. My office has a really excellent conference space, but in a different city you could book the meeting room at the public library (usually also an excellent space).

We do a lot of training work, and I'm always interested in ways to test new courseware in a casual setting.

That that's what I'd do about wanting to present to local hackers, is book a seperate event for that purpose only. For that event, I'd get RSVPs up front, and I'd use a private space.

Thank you, tptacek. Excellent feedback! Bulletin board material in case I ever want to start something.

I'm doing startupdrinks and freehackers in Montreal, Canada

there's a website where people can register and see upcoming events http://techentreprise.com/Montreal/events

there's also local version for major tech hubs.

imho, the events are very easy to get off the ground (although I'm not the typical user case, since I had montrealtechwatch which had a big readership base)

Me and my friends created groupieguide.com for managing these kind of things. We would be more than happy to help setup something like this.

Ping me, let's talk and set something up.

I think its a great idea! I know that I'd be willing to travel a distance if I only knew about these events ahead of time.

With every other site that is releasing their API, I think it's time HN News release it's own API.

I'd be interested in something in the Denver/Boulder area. In fact I'll volunteer to help organize something. I do agree with tptacek's view that the key is to be as casual as you can, while still keeping the cats somewhat slightly herded.

Let me know if you get something together; I'd be interested in a Denver meet.

Definitely in favour of that!

Also, it would be nice if it got linked from the front page, like the green icon and "Search HN".

Yes. Maybe you could add a poll to this thread?

Sorry, too late.

Just make sure you also twitter about the events, because I am not going to check out another web site on a regular basis.

I migrate between Calgary and Kelowna and Vancouver. Would definitely be interested in something like this.

how about holding them near public transportation? (ie caltrain) There were times I wanted to go, but sometimes they were just a bit too far.

Actually, I think its a great idea. You were talking about this at the last H&F meetup I think.

anyone in Waterloo Canada?

Yes.

Sounds ineresting.

It is time for HN to grow far beyond news aggregation.

Startups database and events would be great additions.

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