My area had plentiful IRL tech meetups before 2019. You could find meetup groups for specific languages and technologies, or just communities of enthusiasts who were learning or hacking together.
These days, it's very hard to find events in my area that aren't online. And the online events are usually prerecorded videos and marketing pitches. Even extremely popular areas (like web dev) have basically zero IRL presence within a 50-mile radius.
I keep waiting for the community to rebound, but I'm not sure it ever will. I've started a group of my own, but it's also very slow to grow.
Have IRL meetups and communities in your area rebounded to 2019 levels yet?
