Notes from meeting with Natalia Woroniec (Prisma)

Notes from meeting with Michał Ociepka & Karolina Merda (Mirumee)

Planning Toolkit:

Thank you for your interest in helping plan an upcoming GraphQL community meetup! These meetups are vital to keeping the community engaged and fostering continuous learning from each other. While it may seem daunting to plan a meetup, it can be accomplished by following the below steps and best practices with which other planners have had positive results.

Decide what type of meetup format is best for your local community:

• 20-30 minute presentation from a guest speaker(s) with Q&A to follow - most popular!
• Round-table discussion around a particular topic
  • Works best for smaller groups under 20 people
• Panel discussion
• Networking and dinner/happy-hour

1 - 2 months before:

• Select a venue
  • We recommend trying to utilize a room at a local company office that already has chairs, tables, and a screen setup, if possible
• Lock in guest speaker and content
  • Aim for 1-3 total speakers to give a total of +/- 20-30 minute presentations
  • Look for speakers within the GraphQL community - by reaching out via Twitter, LinkedIn, or email. It is even better if someone has a personal connection and can make an introduction on your behalf to the potential speaker
  • Once contacted, you can send them a request in papercall (https://www.papercall.io) to complete info about the topic of the speech, a short description of the talk, and provide their speaker bio
    • Aim for this to be completed at least 2 weeks prior to the event, so that you can prepare materials around this content for the promotion of the meetup
• Promotion materials
  • Use Canva or the design tool of your choice to prepare promotional graphics and invites for the event that can easily be shared. Make sure to include:
    • Date and time
    • Location of the event (parking, local transport, and any information that makes accessing the location easier on attendees)
    • Guest speaker’s headshot and brief bio
    • Topic of the talk(s)
    • Schedule of the event / Run of show with approximate times
      • Dinner/Snacks/Beverages served (if applicable)
      • Talks
      • Q&A
      • Happy-hour or after-party event (if applicable)
  • Set reminders to send out these materials on a bi-weekly basis leading up to the event so that it stays top-of-mind for attendees
  • Consider also sending out a press packet to the community, including graphics for social media and a content proposal for posts
    • Sample press packet (courtesy of Karolina Merda at Mirumee) - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NYEA4ntIEC-JdcT50_kR46Ex2hzsygj3
• Promoting your meetup
  • Start spreading the word for people to mark their calendars at least 1 month prior to the event, but ideally 6 weeks before
  • Publish the event on Meetup.com as it is the main channel of communication with the local GraphQL community, but also on other social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Discord, etc. to build awareness
  • Send out event details to your list of local GraphQL community members to start collecting RSVPs and give a deadline date to RSVP as spaces are usually limited
    • Keep in mind that oftentimes things come up, and not everyone who RSVPs as a “yes” will actually attend the event. It is ok to have more RSVPs than you may have seats available.
• Tips to improve your event promotion:
  • Create recognizable graphics (logo, layout, cover, etc.) that will help build awareness of the meetup over time
  • Utilize different social channels to find what works best for your audience - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, discord, slack, meetup.com, groups, and even Instagram.
    • Set up events wherever you can and run paid campaigns - even a small advertising budget here can help you reach a broader audience
  • Prepare graphics for your guest speakers and ask them to engage with their followers to further promote the event
  • Make connections with other open source communities around similar technologies (both local and globally) - invite them to join your meetup in-person or virtually or to share your event details with their community for a broader reach
  • If you have an extra budget, consider a raffle, contest or giveaway item that will reward attendees and encourage participation
  • Keep your audience informed with weekly or bi-weekly touch-points - emails, social posts, agenda, collect guest speaker questions in advance and be active within the community
  • Use video and live-streaming to help you reach more people and create valuable content that can be reused at a later date to help educate the community on certain topics
  • Use UTM links to define and analyze traffic sources - this way you can discover which social channels generate the best conversion of attendees so you can maximize your efforts
• Budget
  • Define an appropriate & realistic budget that includes any rentals (tables, chairs, screen, AV equipment), food & beverage, and costs to cover guest speaker transportation and hotels (if applicable)
  • Consider finding a company that would like to sponsor the event to gain brand awareness in the community
  • We encourage you to find a sponsor of the meetup that could contribute towards costs in exchange for some brand awareness and sponsorship recognition within the community
    • Keep in mind it may be important to provide data and some facts about ROI to the sponsor to justify the $ ask