I would prefer that these were not titled "Airbnb Tech Talk: xxx." I always click on them thinking I'm going to learn about Airbnb infrastructure, which is not the case, and the title then feels like just recruiting/advertising for the company.
Mixed feelings here. Personally I see the prefix of AirBnB as a signal that the tech talk is going to be pretty good because you guys (!) are known for getting great speakers, and (2) the technical level of the other people at the event is going to be relatively high so the nerding out is likely to be good. This is based on my past experience of the tech talks. I also know the food is going to be excellent (kudos to your chefs).
However, I could totally see how others may find prefixing your company's name on these a bit obnoxious.
TBH, the thing that concerns me most is that these are posted to HN since they are very SF specific. You have to live here. I'm subscribed to a fair number of tehcnical meetup.com groups and I'd hate to start seeing everyone of note being posted on HN because it would make the frontpage noisy.
A lot of the HNers that are interested in these tech talks have probably already seen previous postings and been to at least one of the talks. That being said, you should exploit email notifications as the correct venue for generating interest in these. If I've signed up for one or more tech talks, it's likely that I wouldn't mind hearing more about them. However to this day I've never received and email about any of these and always become aware of these via HN.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts - RE: Talks not being local, I agree with the comment below about livestreaming.
RE: email, we do have an email list. However, we really don't want to spam people, so instead of opting you into it automatically, we make it opt-in here: https://www.airbnb.com/techtalks.
It sounds like we may have err-ed too much on the side of being non-spammy, and this list is not very discoverable. I still don't want to automatically opt attendees in to the list, but given what you've said I think we'll pass around a signup sheet at the next tech talk.
I don't share the GP's feeling, and I think I speak for the majority. It's very boring to express mild appreciation and general high regard, but much more interesting (to one's self) to express irritation with an internet stranger. I myself would not be posting if not for being irritated with the GP.
I think it's fine... I've been to one of these in person and hope to attend more. I think the presentations are high quality, and having watched a few online I know where I'm landing when I click on that link. I'm not opposed to a bit of branding in the title/link.
