Some time within the past decade, I heard of MeetUp and knew some people who were part of it. I never got into it, partly because I had not heard of a MeetUp of immediate interest to me, partly because I was already so busy being on various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others. Since hearing about it back then, I haven’t really come across it much, either from others who have signed up or in any business publication or podcast.
And now, here I am wondering if I’ve missed something.
Recently, I have been looking for technical organization/user group meetings between Boston and Manchester, and one resource that has long been very helpful is the Boston-area User Group Calendar (BUGC). It brings together just about every technical meeting in the area that you can think of all in one place, complete with links to the organizations. When I first learned of this site, I bookmarked it, but gradually did not visit nearly as often for a few years, largely because a change in my life meant exceedingly rare opportunities to attend such events.
Needless to say, I have now signed up. I have joined over a half dozen MeetUps since then, a couple of which are related to events I find out about from other means. I will be attending a few of them soon, and more in the months to come.
I have no idea if MeetUp has had a rebirth or has been thriving all along, or if they have not been doing well and are just surviving. It may be that it has been under the radar all along, dwarfed in terms of business media coverage by the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and others. But becoming a member and using it to find technical and other business networking has been quite the development of late.