GETTING TO KNOW ETH MEETUP COMMUNITIES

Exploring pain-points, solutions and trends for 2019

The Protea team has been exploring various community initiatives in order to find strong value propositions for the community framework that we are developing. Since the very beginning, Ethereum Meetup Communities have been one of those initiatives. In a previous article we explored how the meetup ecosystem had evolved and the nature in which these gatherings were run. After providing a high-level analysis of this knowledge-sharing network around the Ethereum protocol, we decided to look deeper into the significant pain points that most meetup organizers experience in driving their own individual communities forward.

We interviewed close to 20 organizers from various meetup communities around the world, comprising of different sizes and goals. We asked them questions about their local blockchain community in the area, meetup information and the way in which they handled collaboration, sponsorship, co-organization and cross-pollination of meetups. We then took the meetups that had their own solutions to common and/or prominent problems and cross-referenced these findings to give everyone further insight in running future meetup events effectively.

One commonality that came up in every single interview we held needs to be mentioned, as I feel it highlights the core value that has led to the wider community ethos and success — All meetup organizers share the passion to build and uphold free and quality events. They all aim to foster a strong community, driving participation in innovation and new research for all those curious to invest themselves in the Ethereum space.

Ethereum encompasses a wide-range of technical and economical knowledge that can be taught at all levels of expertise. As meetups had originally formed to share the fundamentals of the tech with attendees, most of that information has since been made accessible online or well-delivered a few times over in prior meetups. Nowadays there is a wide array of meetups. Some are very niche in their focus, others are broad. Some start out with a niche focus, and grow into a broader offering as their community grows and evolves. This adds another layer of complexity, as the knowledge-base of members can progress beyond what is offered at a meetup, making retention challenging.

Any meetup community will encourage diversity but with diversity comes difficulty in filtering meetup content based on what type of attendees you’re catering for.

Yes, you can’t please everyone. And that’s ok!! There is nothing wrong with not being able to cater for everyone. Be confident in the purpose of your meetup, and attract those that see value in what you are doing. Learning to accept this, lets you deliver what you are best at delivering. The only thing to keep in mind, is that there is a risk of over-stretching a meetups culture to the point where it alienates newcomers. Ideally anyone wanting to learn about what you offer, should be met with open arms.

Keeping your attendees engaged across the board can be enhanced by encouraging seasoned members to give back to the community by educating newcomers or mentoring them throughout their learning experience. This benefits both newcomers and those giving back.

If you do prefer to attract a diverse crowd, consider running meetups that specifically cater to different sub-groups of your community. For example, each month try hosting a large event for newcomers and a more intimate specialised event. Alternatively consider combining different offerings in a single meetup that are run in parallel.

A pain point closely related to the expertise level that meetup communities are trying to cater for, is content quality. When your community branches out into more technical areas, the standard of quality content needs to be upheld in order to reciprocate a good level of engagement. If your meetups rely on speakers, finding someone well-respected to attend your meetup in-person is not easy week in and week out. In a perfect world your meetups would consistently have good speakers, challenging & exciting coding exercises and still share information at the right pace keeping everyone engaged.

To ensure a consistent flow of quality content, consider diversifying your offering. Meetups are not just about speakers, presentations, live coding and lectures. Don’t be afraid to mix it up — have gatherings that are interactive too. Casual meetups that focus on networking and encourage community-generated content that can be shared with other members helps to build a sense of community. Also consider opening the floor to guests or companies from closely related industries where there is an overlap, an example being artificial intelligence. And should you find a topic that is worth exploring more deeply, consider spacing out the content over a weekly or monthly series.

Many people in the Ethereum community are happy to give remote presentations to those seeking the knowledge. Incorporating online presentations easily keeps your content calendar full as the range of speakers and information expands beyond your geographical limitations.

A common path that meetups follow is that they expand from a small gathering to a bigger gathering and then breaks off into specialized sub-groups. With or without expansion, there’s the challenge of finding a sustainable venue, amenities and funding to cover the running of each event. Funding has been a common obstacle that meetup communities face as they turn to sponsorships and collaborations. Without sufficient funding or a set plan in place, hosting consistent meetups are compromised and evidently member retention is negatively affected.

There’s a fine balance between allowing projects to sponsor events that aren’t scammy ICOs, whilst still maintaining a good standard of content for attendees. As not all projects are scams, allowing some projects to sponsor and present at an event aids in funding a meetup and supplements real-life use cases to the technology in question. For smaller meetups, in particular, attracting sponsorship in the first place can be a challenge.

Approach student bodies from universities, colleges and schools. These institutions are often happy to provide at least space for ETH meetups. Further sponsorship also can be an option, if you develop an ongoing partnership that acknowledges your contributions towards educating students. A consistent, free venue with the necessary amenities to deliver content effectively can go a long way. If academic institutions are no option, co-working spaces offer a space for little to no fee in return for wider exposure to a new network of people.

Sponsorships are great. But they should not affect the DNA of your meetup community. Getting the balance right is tricky. When evaluating a sponsorship opportunity, weigh off value gained vs given.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the DNA of Ethereum meetups is changing as the space matures and grows. Here a few trends we are observing…

Localized meetups are now connecting globally with their own unique shift in focus. It’s possible to have someone presenting at your meetup from anywhere in the world. The opposite is happening too, as online meetups are uniting minds from around the world to discuss the more complex and experimental concepts on a global scale. The demand for online meetups is growing — a trend we don’t see stopping anytime soon.

Diversity is coming and specialization is evident. Think niche meetup communities such as Token Engineering and Curation Markets. Yet we still fall short on welcoming the wider business community. 2019 will be a year, where meetups will provide more and more offerings for the wider business community. We need Product Managers, Marketers, Social Media Experts, Operation Managers, Business Strategists & Co. to enter the space — meetups provide the perfect portal.

As we widen our research into other communities, we’ll continue our research in this exciting new community, which is so close to our hearts. This article will be updated continuously with new insights that we gather, and hopefully will serve as a pillar of knowledge. In the spirit of open source: We’d love to hear from you, if you’ve also done research in this space, which could enrich this article.

A special thank you to the following meetup communities for providing us with your time and valuable insights:

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