Meetup Guidelines

We have fairly strict guidelines as to the types of meetups that can be posted here.

Please familiarise yourself with the forum rules - in particular, the relevant rule here is #25 "Meetups and Seminars".

Social networking events, ie. a bunch of people getting together at a cafe, restaurant, pub, park, etc to chat about property with no agenda or sponsorship or promotion, is welcome and encouraged by all members.

If you want to organise a meetup, in my experience posting a question "who wants to meetup?" isn't going to get you very far. Best to choose a venue, a time and date and just make the announcement. It will either suit people or it won't - trying to organise a meetup in a democratic manner simply doesn't work because not everybody is able to make a commitment until the last minute and so won't be able to offer any meaningful suggestions.

Don't be offended if people pull out of your meetup at the last minute - life and work commitments often get in the way and people's priorities change at the last minute. It would be ideal to keep people up to date with last minute changes by posting updates in your thread (and changing the thread title if necessary) - and make sure you give people a way of finding you on the night (or a mobile number to call) - especially if the venue is going to be busy.

When choosing a venue, try and pick a location which is ideal for a bunch of people talking (often loudly), you don't want a noisy venue with loud background music or you'll spend all of your time yelling. You don't necessarily want a venue where you're stuck in the one spot and can't mingle (although if you're going to a restaurant, this may be tricky anyway).

Also keep in mind that some restaurants don't let you do split bills, and trying to organise a shared bill for a large group of people is almost impossible, or at least a major pain.

As a matter of courtesy, before announcing a meetup - please check for other meetups in your city and try not to organise a meetup in the same week as another meetup.

I would even extend this to familiarising yourself with regular recurring meetups which may meet, say, on the 2nd Wednesday of every 2nd month ... it would be best to avoid clashes with such events, even though the next meetup might not be posted yet. If in doubt, check with the organiser of that other meetup before posting yours to ensure you don't clash.

Since people are not likely to attend two meetups in the same week, it diminishes both meetups by trying to have them in the same week - even if they are in different parts of the city, some people are prepared to travel fair distances to attend a meetup, so don't just assume you'll only have locals. It's usually much more interesting to have a larger group of people to chat to anyway.

Naturally this recommendation does not apply to meetups in other cities / states.

 

Yes, finding a good venue is key to a successful meetup and I think is the most difficult part about the entire exercise.

 

You can just post in the Networking & Meetups forum for general discussion.

My advice though (based on many years of experience): don't try and organise a meetup by committee / vote ... just pick a date and a location and advertise that. If it suits people, they'll come. If you don't get many people, reconsider A) the venue, B) the date (clashes with other events? people are often busy then?) and C) the way you promote it (give plenty of notice, but not too much).