Oh cool, didn't realize you were in LA. It depends on what you're trying to do, many of the meetups are highly specialized.

JSLA (www.js.la) is one of my favorites. NodeDTLA (meetup.com/NodeDTLA/) is great, and those guys recently spun off a new one: called techDTLA (meetup.com/techDTLA).

Joe Devon (@joedevon on twitter) is a good guy to know. He organizes CTO events in the area, and a PHP meetup (meetup.com/laphpdev).

There are also hackernews meetups, PM meetups, DBA meetups, undirected coding sessions, and lots of others.

Feel free to email me (my username @gmail) if you need anything.