Longtime lurker, first-time meetup organizer.
I’m planning a small-scale college-organization oriented meetup (CSH at RIT, this April 10 or 11, upstate NY in Rochester) and wonder if anyone has any tips, howtos, best practices, and what not to do so I can go into it prepared.
Size-wise, I’m guessing it will be ~two tables and a small number of folks (unless I get huge numbers of RSVPs).
I haven’t organized one (yet), but our last few in Dallas have been at a suburban library that happened to have a large meeting room with kitchen. Not that every library would, but don’t overlook public facilities in a city you live in, unless CSH already has a room. Tips-wise, early notice and promoting on whatever (sigh) Discord the likely attendees haunt is good. If you have some reliable types with unneeded switches/caps/boards to spare, a giveaway is a really nice draw. Oh, and make sure you leave pens and cards or even blank slips of paper for folks to describe their boards (make, model, caps, switches) as well as put down their preferred handling (e.g. yes/no to touch or pick up).
+1 Discord for local community.
In my area, we have a little Discord bot thing that will notify people about the upcoming event and then you can say whether or not you want to attend. We also have a meetup channel that people can chat in (usually post meetup) to ask questions etc.
You might be on the hook to bring Sharpies, Name tags, pens, and post cards. People never remember to do that. One of my slight pet peeves is when people bring their boards and just put it on the table with no card or not or anything explaining what is in their build.
Great to see a small meetup happening!
I’ve done a few meetups in the past, so hopefully here is some useful advice:
Name Badges - For a few dollars at your local office supply store/depot, stick on name badges and sharpies can be a great way for people to identify themselves by both their online and real name should they choose. It’s always nice to put a face to a name.
Index Cards - While you’re at your local office supply store/depot, a stack of index cards next to the sharpies and name badges at the entrance would let attendees to write information about their boards to let people read what the board is about e.g. switch, plate material, keycaps, keyboard name, etc. This also allows people to write distinct, “OKAY TO TOUCH/HANDLE” and “PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH” notes by specific keyboards
Food Policy - Food allowed? Not allowed? Pros and Cons to both.
Continuous Advertisement - Wherever you are sharing that the meeting will exist, I highly encourage posts often as you never know who will be on when that may miss/see messages. Unless you’re already expecting to be past capacity.
Giveaways/Sponsorships/Advertisement - Even if it’s a small meetup, many vendors in the community have historically been very community orientated and friendly to community meetups. It doesn’t hurt to see if any of them would like to sponsor the event with a giveaway of switches or something small in exchange for advertisement (or reserved table if they are attendees).
This is all that came to my head immediately, but if I think of more I’ll send another post. If you have any specific questions, you’re welcome to reach out to me on Discord on PM me here on the forum.
Best!
Went to the one you hosted in SJ @ Guild House a few years ago and what a great turnout that was. Made some core memories. Glad to see you pop into keebtalk!
mine’s just always the safety / cleanliness of my board so i’m not pro-food/drinks or at least keep the keebs display away from food/snacks. and ofc a little bit of theft/loss concerns. cant hurt to remind everyone to be mindful/respectful of everyones belongings 
index cards to describe the build and also indicate if Touch / Pickup is OK (if you let people pick up the keyboard up off the table) oh Huey/@Manofinterests alr covered this yep
other than that Discord, Instagram, here, and maybe submitting your event to Mechanical Keyboard Meetups to get traction
These are good points, thank you both.
How long do meetups tend to last? A couple of hours? All day? I have absolutely no idea about the scope of them, having never been. I do have a vendor who’s offered to build/wire/assemble boards on site for giveaway at end, so having that as an interactive member of the community doing interesting things and talking to attendees might be a good draw and draw out the event, timewise.
I’d say 3-4 hours is a good enough time slot for more local meetups, especially if anyone comes in later and not at the very start.
Hey all long time no post. Regarding the RIT meetup, in deference to Terence McKenna and Alfred North Whitehead, It underwent the formality of actually occurring. It went great! and it was about 3h including setup and teardown. I just wrote it up on my blog, with lots of pictures.
Looks fun and informative. I still haven’t ever hand wired a board. I would have loved to be there to get some hands on inspiration. I’ll have to check out Joe’s videos when I get time. I think I’ve watched a few previously.
You should try it, at least for a numpad or macropad/functional artisan display. I find the low barrier to entry for unique layouts to be intoxicating. Some find the process it to be simply tedious and unpleasant, but in either event you definitely come away with a more intimate understanding for how our little toys work.
I’m so happy to hear that your meetup was a success 
It genuinely warms my heart seeing pictures of people together in a room surrounded by keyboards. Especially with all the cool funky things like the typewriter (I absolutely LOVE when there’s that one person that owns and brings a working typewriter) and the Shift Happens book (I’m guessing that one was yours).
You guessed correctly. That, and all the keyboards on the table facing to the right in the picture above were mine. I figured I had to prime the pump… and… why own keyboard if not to show it off 
The things I brought:
