

Ask HN: Organizing a (Ruby) User Group - g0T

I'm currently organizing a first Ruby user group in Nairobi. While I have checked on what similar user groups are doing, it'd be useful to hear from people who have organized/participated in such meetups. I'm interested in how you were able to lay the framework for the meetings and maintain the initial enthusiasm. Is it necessary to invite speakers at this stage?
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BillSaysThis
Depends on the make up of your community. In my experience, though, nothing
gets a new group going better than several strong speakers in a row (that is,
over several consecutive meetings). I relaunched a (non-Ruby, semi-technical)
group and went from 10 attendees at the first meeting to 60+ in less than a
year of every other month events by doing this.

If your community is one where the people feel comfortable just getting
together to hack in the same space, perhaps speakers aren't necessary at every
event. But I encourage you to try to book speakers and hold hack sessions only
as a fall back.

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g0T
Thanks a lot. I like the idea of having speakers at the meetings. We intend to
complement this with hack sessions and (open) discussions as well.

