

Show HN: Open source aggregator for the hottest startup events in your area - acpk
http://startupri.org

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vitovito
Hi! I run AustinUX.org, which is something similar for UX events in Austin,
TX, and I've talked with Ross Karchner, who used to run DC Tech Events[1]
using his own "eventgrinder" software, as well as other people/groups in
similar situations.

I really like that it's not a "platform," where I have to have an account or
RSVP to you and then separately for the event. That's the last thing an
aggregator needs to be.

I can offer some advice based on my own research for a future Austin UX
redesign.

If you're just naively accepting various Meetup and Eventbrite organizer
feeds, I think you need curation options. I don't add every event that every
design-related meetup puts on, for a variety of reasons.

Lots of events don't have Meetup or Eventbrite listings. ATXDribbble and
Ladies That UX ATX organize primarily on Twitter. UX Book Club Austin and my
old meetup organizes on Facebook. Being able to link to multiple links for an
event is useful.

Keep Austin Stylish, a fashion site with a similar calendar for fashion
events, and Dance Deets, a dance events site, both have lots of events that
don't have any online presence at all, they're just flyers in boutique windows
and club walls. Being able to have an online URL for events without canonical
URLs is useful _in these particular cases._

Showing more information is useful, as well. In my experience, the priority of
information should be:

\- "Where am I?"

\- "What's going on today"

\- "Is there an active community here"

\- "What else should I be paying attention to"

\- "Where are things this week/month"

\- Plus being able to just add some things to my calendar without RSVPing

\- RSVP to things properly (and add them to my calendar)

"STARTUP RI" and your newsletter call to action are not the same as saying
"Hi, this is an uncurated aggregator for startup and tech events in Rhode
Island."

Also, all of RI? Isn't that a whole state? Will you really drive across the
entire state to go to an event? Geography is important, practical geography,
like neighborhoods, areas people work and live, etc. South Austin, Central
Austin, North Austin, East Austin are all different. You don't show enough
context to know where things are. (I'm not saying a map with pins.) You also
don't provide enough context on why I'd want to attend the event. "Writing
Your Business Plan [in] Providence, RI" tells me nothing about what will be
covered, who is hosting, why, etc. I have to click through all of these links
and that's not really saving me any time or trouble. Same for your "Startups"
and "Resources" links, ideally I'm going to become part of these meetups'
communities. Giving me a list of the ones you track (and why) is useful.

You don't break up the dates enough. One of the few things I really like about
Plancast is that it breaks up into "Today," "Tomorrow," the next few days this
week, "Next week," later this month, next month, etc. The conditions under
which someone can attend an event or not is very individual. You need to
provide as much context as possible.

There's a list of v2 stuff, too, but that's a start.

[1]: Offline, here's an old IA link that has content:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110807113142/http://www.dctech...](https://web.archive.org/web/20110807113142/http://www.dctechevents.com/)

~~~
acpk
Vitorio - Thanks for the comment! I love your idea on "Today", "Tomorrow", and
and "next week", as those changes are currently on my staging branch!

In regards to geography, most of the Rhode Island tech people I know work in
Providence as it is the main city. Rhode Island, the home of the industrial
revolution, is a great state, but it's so small that many of my old colleagues
drove from other states (MA and CT).

However, I would love to break up the events by "topic" so would you be
available for a quick Google Hangout?

Regards, Andrew

------
acpk
Before we add more features and a city selector to it, let us know what you
think!

\- @andrewcpkelley

------
webmaven
Where's the source?

~~~
acpk
Michael - At the moment, I'm using Crunchbase, Eventbrite, Meetup, and
Eventbrite.
[http://github.com/acpk/startupri](http://github.com/acpk/startupri)

