My mind is a bit blown at the amount of MoT Meetups happening right now. In January over 500 people have gathered. The attendance is way up and many have waiting lists.
I'm on my way to the MoT London meetup, it has close to 150 RSVP'd and another 80-100 on the waiting list. The energy and hype from the organizing team (Gary Shannon, Parveen Khan, and Robbie Falck) for this event has been amazing!
It's hard to know exactly why meetups are doing so well, my hunches are:
- more people going back to office/hybrid
- we are well and truly over COVID
- new year, new resolutions and positivity for 2025
- meetups are just the right amount of networking
- being free helps
- for MoT we've put alot more effort into supporting and promoting them, restructing our website and doubling down on better communication
- the quality of meetups and talks are better
- companies supporting with venue and food makes a huge difference
- we're over the AI bubble and realise we need community more than ever now
Of course, this is our current experience. It will vary for everyone and what "stage of community" they are at. I must also remind myself that this hasn't happened overnight. We've been building for many years and particularly in the past year we've made many positive changes to how we are approaching what we are doing.
Meetups are essential for any industry. They bring people together and people can make friends for life. They are more accessible. Help surface ideas. Enable new voices. Connect companies with people. Help people find new opportunities and employment.
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