Dawn at Futamigaura, Kawase Hasui, 1933
Going into the summer, there have been a lot of people in the chat looking for others in their local area and trying to organize meetups. There have been first meetups in Copenhagen and NYC. I think this is a very fun initiative, so I wanted to help out by making two posts to help people coordinate.
In this first one, I’ll provide a link to a Google Form where people who volunteer to be organizers in their area can fill in information about an upcoming meetup. There will also be an FAQ. The deadline for sending me information about planned meetups is June 23. In the next one, I’ll post information about upcoming meetups.
Also, feel free to use the comments to find other readers of the blog in your area, even if you don’t feel comfortable organizing. (But the minimal qualifications for being an organizer is the capacity to pick a time and a place and to show up there, so nearly all of you can do it if you want to.) It is also ok to just coordinate in the chat or the comments and meet up with a few readers without sending me information on the Google Form, if you want to keep it small and informal.
I should also preface this by saying that I’ve never done this before, so we’re all learning. The guidelines I share here are adapted from those used for ACX’s meetups. If this goes well, I’ll do it again once or twice a year, and together we can learn how to make this fun.
If you want to organize a meetup in your area please fill out the organizer form by June 23. The form will ask you to pick a location, date, and provide a link to a Luma event (which takes at most five minutes to make). See this document for which areas already have organizers.
I’ve never organized a meetup myself, but what I’ve heard from others is that it is fun and fairly easy. The basic requirement is to pick a time and a place and show up with a sign saying “EF Meetup,” or something similar. You don’t need to have discussion plans or a group activity. If you want to make the experience better for people, you can bring nice things like nametags, food and drinks, or games, but this is not required.
As for location, parks work well if you think there will be a lot of people, cafes work fine for fewer. Ask around in the comments or the chat if you want help from other local readers deciding on a good spot.
Here’s a short FAQ for potential meetup organizers:
We’re all learning here, so if you can pick a time and date, input that into a Luma event, and then show up in person, I think you are ready. There might be some mistakes here and there, but as the owner of my favorite café says, it is mandatory to make mistakes. It will be a chance to learn more about how to create more social connections, and you’ll be doing something fun for other people.
If you think you are underqualified, your volunteering won’t take the job away from someone more experienced. But a lot of cities might not have a qualified person, in which case I think we would all rather have an unqualified person sign up than have nobody available at all.
You give me the information, and on June 25, I’ll post it on Escaping Flatland.
Since I’ll post the list of meetup times and dates on June 25, please choose sometime after that. You’ll probably get more attendance if you schedule for at least one week out, but not so far out that people will forget—so early July to early August would be best. Weekends are usually good, since it’s when most people are available.
No idea! In Copenhagen, which has ~200 readers, seven people showed up. In NYC, where there are ~2000 readers, I think there were about 20 (someone correct me!). If it looks like your area probably won’t have many attendees, maybe bring a friend or a book so you’ll have a good time even if nobody shows up.
A good location should be easy for people to get to, not too loud, and have basic things like places to sit, access to toilets, and the option of buying food and water. I know city parks and mall common areas have worked well for others. On the first trial meetup in Copenhagen, some children came along, so know that if you pick a bar or something, you might be excluding people who want to come.
For first meetups, the recommendation is to just let people show up and talk. If you’re worried about this not going well, here are some things Scott Alexander recommends at his meetups:
Have people indicate topics they’re interested in by writing something on their nametag.
Write some icebreakers / conversation starters on index cards (e.g. “What have you been excited about recently?” or “How did you find the blog?”) and leave them lying around to start discussions.
Say hello to people as they arrive and introduce yourself.
No.
But some of the attendees might be interested in doing regular meetups, and as the organizer, there will be a social expectation that you take responsibility for gauging that interest. If you don’t want to organize regular meetups, make sure to get people’s attention and ask if someone wants to take responsibility for future meetups.
It is a good idea to gather email addresses of people who are interested in meeting up again. I also know that it is common to start local chat groups in, for example, WhatsApp, to coordinate meetups and share information with other readers locally.
I’ll join the meetup in London on July 18! (The event will be linked in a follow-up post.)
The reason I started this blog was to use it as a search query to find interesting people to talk to. That was one of the better ideas I’ve had, and I’ve been blessed to meet so many of you. From my experience, having talked to several hundred of you, I suspect many of you would like each other.
Here is the Google Form if you want to propose a meetup.
/Henrik