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Five Suggestions To Improve the NY Tech Meetup
I’d like to share/propose five suggestions to improve the NY Tech Meetup. I’ve attended a good number of the monthly event and you can review my past coverage. Many people have shared comments about the meetups with me and I have some suggestions as well on how to make the monthly meetup even more effective. These are all minor tweaks which could have a great benefit for the group as a whole. I have already addressed several times the need to improve the actual demos themselves, these suggestions are for the overall Meetup.
Suggestion #1 – Vary The Meetup Leader
I’d like to see variety in who is the evening’s leader. I’d love to lead a meetup and I am sure there are others as well. It’s not to say Scott is doing a bad job, but the meetup is about NYC tech and there’s many people (company professionals, bloggers, journalists, developers, etc.) who could rotate around too. My proposal is to have a different leader each month.
Suggestion #2 – Location
This is something I’ve heard several times since the move to IAC over the past two meetings. Most have shared with me that the location is very inconvenient. I think the Cooper Union spot was easier for public transport overall.
Suggestion #3 – Remove $5
Considering this is the largest tech meetup, I don’t understand how we can’t get a sponsor each month to take care of the door fee. Assuming 500 people show up x $5 = 2500, get a sponsor to pitch in that amount and they get one of the 5 minute demo slots. This might make the meetup feel less rigid.
Suggestion #4 – Missed Meetings Results in Probation
This meetup is always overbooked, yet not everyone shows up. I suggest a policy that you get one miss, after that you are prohibited from signing up for the following three months. This way those who signup will actually attend and those who don’t will no longer be allowed, thereby leaving slots open for those that do want to show up.
Suggestion #5 – Increase the Networking
Better nametags would be a good start – would be nice to have a professionally-made nametag with name, company info, etc. and color-coded so others know what we do. At a minimum, color-coding would be great. Also, instead of putting names on the post-demo portion of the meetup, list the company name. Lastly, add a space for those hiring and those seeking in the after-demo portion. Combined with color-coding, this will allow parties to matchup as needed.
Sometimes it seems like there is not enough time to talk to everyone at these meetups other times there is no on to talk to. Your suggestions are Great! Unfortunately, I get the feeling that these meetups are getting more controlled and we are seeing more of what someone wants us to see rather then what we want to see. Of course it is wrapped up in a pretty blanket so we can say we didn’t realize it.
Doug K.
#1 – Leader
This point would be more relevant if the host of the Meetup played a more active role in shaping the process, but the event is almost entirely about the people presenting.
Scott plays a very important and simple role– keep things moving and keep things from getting off track. He jumps in with the occasional question of his own, but his questions are almost always tuned towards clarifying something important (”so, what is this again?”)
He does an excellent job at this, and I don’t see how someone else could improve upon this without changing the nature of the Meetup itself.
Perhaps a trusted guest host, once in a while, would be a good change of pace– but Scott is the man, and he makes sure each event is worth coming to.
#2 – Location
I agree about the long hike over– but the space is so beautiful!
And there aren’t those awful site line issues that the Grand Hall suffers from.
I could go either way with this. The new location is inconvenient, but inspirational just to look at and be inside.
#3 – Remove $5
I doubt they charge $5 because they need the money– I think they wanted to make the event not-free so as to deter random people who don’t know or care about the subject matter enough to pay $5 to participate.
#4 – Missed meeting penalty.
Amen. Might be tricky to implement but something along these lines would be great.
Suggestion #6 make it in Devon :p
Darren – is Devon that small area near Queens? :)
yeah just a little hop across the alantic :p
Scott does a great job, and he should still be the leader because he and his team must have a somewhat streamlined process for the meetup, HOWEVER…
Leader is one thing, MC is another.
Sometimes I don’t know if he had a bad day, but he’s too disrespectful with the presenters, and his jokes are way out of line, which has made me and others not want to come back, it just makes us think there’s no point going there to get bashed by the MC.
You could invite MCs of other meetups, the people at the NY Video 2.0 meetup have a great great MC, and they have really cool dynamics in terms of making everybody participate and network, that meetup is growing, and being smaller they also have sponsors already and stopped charging $5 per meetup.
I hear that a bit as well Gubs. Call it MC, Leader, whatever – not sure why we can’t let some others share the light and get some visibility.
The video meetup is growing – i’ve seen it continue to grow month over month.
I would suggest to Scott and Dawn to go back and look at all the startups who have presented and check their rankings on the Internet. Bring a few of the most successful ones back (Amie St., Drop.io come to mind) and as well showcase two or three of the best new startups. This type of Meetup would get more press and would be good for Silicon Alley in general!
Maybe do this every four or six months! Mix it up a little!
Everyone complains about the demos, the venue, the lack of networking, etc. This is just a growing pain that happens when a group grows in size and diversity. You’re never going to please everyone.
At a NY Tech Meetup, you can run into bloggers, developers, suits, 9-5ers, jobseekers, freelancers, students, entrepreneurs etc. Everyone is looking for something different.
The NY Tech Meetup has transformed over the past year as a result of it’s audience. It feels more structured, corporate, and less forgiving b/c that’s who’s in the audience.
Since Scott has implemented the “cheer when you see something you like”, how many times has the audience cheered? The “what’s to stop Google from building this?” and the “are you going to build a facebook app?” are just as bad as the “what’s your business model?”.
Honestly, I think it just needs to get back to the technology / innovative experiences that people are creating. It’s a Tech Meetup, not the Gong Show.