How to Organize a Successful Meetup: A #CMWorld Twitter chat with Rich Schwerin and Dennis Shiao

A few years back, I needed to find a playgroup for my daughter and me. I tried various forums and message boards but had little luck. That’s when someone suggested I check Meetup.com. I am amazed by the number of groups that existed. Family, tech, food, and sports – if you were looking for other like-minded folks in your neighborhood, Meetup.com was where to go.

But can Meetups help further my career? 

Turns out the answer is “yes.” 

Just ask Rich Schwerin and Dennis Shiao. Rich is Senior Content Strategist at Autodesk. Dennis is a freelance marketing consultant. They both have impressive Meetup resumes.

Prompted by Kristina Halvorson’s book, Content Strategy for the Web, Rich joined a few content strategy Meetups in San Francisco. He enjoyed them, but commuting to the meetings grew tiresome for this San Carlos resident. So Rich decided to organize his own. 

Fast forward one year. Rich extended an invitation to Dennis to attend his meetup. Shortly after, Dennis realized he was hooked. Dennis enjoyed connecting with local marketers and wanted the conversations to continue. 

Inspired by his experience at Rich’s Meetup, Dennis founded the Bay Area Content Marketing Meetup. He started an engaging community from scratch, and today, the group touts over 500 members.

This duo knows their stuff. That’s why we invited them to help lead the #CMWorld Twitter chat. The excitement of bringing people together makes putting together a meetup worth it. But organizing one is harder than it looks. So what does it take to organize a successful meetup? We discussed it with our CMWorld community. What follows is a brief overview of the hour. 

Do you have a topic you’d like to see covered on the #CMWorld Twitter chat? Tweet me and let’s talk!

What are some experiences Meetups offer that no other medium can?

A2. Meetups can offer more a “friends” experiene than professional orgs. From my experiences, professional groups’ events tend to be a little dry adnd formal, and they’re always trying to upsell you on a membership or something else. Plus, since they’re so overtly (cont) #CMWorld

— Taylor Barbieri | 文珠玲 (@Taylor_Barbieri) February 12, 2019

A2: I think people are more honest and forthcoming face-to-face. A great opportunity to find out what problems people are facing (so you can solve them). #CMWorld

— Mike Myers ? (@mikemyers614) February 12, 2019

A2: When we did events for the agency I worked for, we focused on quirk. For instance, all of our networking events were at a speakeasy somewhere in #Seattle. We made it fun! #CMWorld

— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) February 12, 2019

A5: What if we think of it like a large brainstorming session—but with people outside of our team?

Oh, the perspectives we’ll get! And the loopholes we’d otherwise miss. #CMWorld

— Narmadhaa (@s_narmadhaa) February 12, 2019

See more answers to this and other questions in our Twitter Moment.

How can marketers use Meetups for content marketing purposes?

A5: Ask people to give input on your content strategy. Ask them to review content assets. People like to give their professional input and a meetup is a safe place to gather feedback.#cmworld https://t.co/6DFMJh8MmO

— Buddy Scalera (@BuddyScalera) February 12, 2019

A5:

– Visual content at the event (i.e., live videos, vlogs, etc)
– Post-event content (blog posts explaining what was discussed at the event)
– Collaborative content: marketers can network with individuals and create collaborative content with them!#CMWorld

— Marketing Millennial (@MrktnMillennial) February 12, 2019

Dropping in late! A5: They’re great for networking, they can be a way to build thought leadership if your brand hosts them and/or your team are speakers and presenters #CMWorld

— Kristen Hicks (@atxcopywriter) February 12, 2019

See more answers to this and other questions in our Twitter Moment.

How can marketers use Meetups for content marketing purposes?

A7 Stop using the event to sell the other attendees your product #CMWorld

— Dorothée Lefering (@DoroLef) February 12, 2019

A7: Please, no more Death by Powerpoint. Experts: You know too much. Don’t cram it all into slides. Be selective. Fewer words, fewer slides, more visuals, tell us a story.

Q.E.D. @TEDtalks has a whole playlist on how to make great presentations https://t.co/BQBjFttWyp #CMWorld

— Rich Schwerin (@Greencognito) February 12, 2019

A7. Not having open discussions or access to the experts. I think sometimes Meetups can be cliquey or “too good” for the attendees. That needs to stop because it doesn’t help the attendee, the people putting it on, or the experts who are there. Be inclusive! #CMWorld

— Patrick Delehanty (@MDigitalPatrick) February 12, 2019

If you want to take a closer look at Dennis’ Meetup journey, he has documented it in several blog posts.

• Lessons Learned from running a Marketing Meetup
• Three Years of Bay Area Content Marketing Meetups

Have you ever been to a Meetup? What did organizers do well? Is there anything you would have done differently? Let us know in the comments below.

Enjoy in-person events? Then sign up for Content Marketing World and meet over 4,000 marketers from around the globe. Code SM100 saves you $100 off Super Early Bird rates. But don’t wait – these prices end February 28! 

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