Sheffield Digital's Meetup Support

Presentation from Chris Dymond at the 3rd Meta Meetup, describing the areas in which Sheffield Digital can provide support to meetup organisers and the status of new initiatives discussed at previous events.

Transcript

1. .connect .represent .promote The association for the people and businesses of Sheffield's digital industries.
2. How can we support meetups?
3. Content 1. ‘Documentary’ content, like video of the talks, slides and detailed write ups. 2. ‘In-the-moment’ impressions recorded and expressed on social media. (#MetaMeetup) 3. Post-hoc write-ups, containing individual thoughts about what someone took from the event.
4. Promotion • Events Calendar. Add your event to the Open Tech Calendar or connect Meetup.com to it! • Articles and Podcasts. • Social Media • Slack, inc the meetup-ops private channel. • The Events Slide Use it to cross-promote each other’s events!
5. Promotion • A Meetup Directory ◦ We compiled data in an Airtable last year. ◦ We are looking at a plugin (Metabox) which we hope to use for several user-maintained databases, e.g. a freelancer directory. ◦ This is currently in trial.
6. Venues, Sponsors & Speakers • We can help you find these. • Do more to link meetups, sponsors and venues together. • Could we compile a list of local speakers? • Do we record and publish the talks?
7. Codes of Conduct • Remember what these are for: ◦ To protect attendees. ◦ To protect organisers. ◦ To provide assurance to people who otherwise might not attend. ◦ To enhance the perception of the space beforehand.
8. Codes of Conduct • Sheffield Digital Code of Conduct: ◦ Frames our own events. ◦ Provides a template for others to use. ◦ Provides a neutral, external escalation process for anyone to use for their events.
9. Codes of Conduct Codes of Conduct are a bit like ‘disabled access’ - it may well not be obvious to you that you are excluding people.
10. Inclusivity • Inclusivity is not just about CoCs. • Invite diverse speakers. • Think of other needs - access, children, leaving after dark, etc. • Show diverse attendees in photographs, with permission. • Ask.
11. Feedback • Audience interactivity at the event, eg a live poll. • An exit poll, where you have a sheet on the way out. • A formal poll emailed after the event. • Asking the community about particular aspects on Meetup, Slack or Twitter.
12. Cross-promotion • The events slide. • Hold joint meetups. • Organise ‘in the open’ more. • Avoid clashes.
13. Is there more we can do? • Run a campaign to get event organisers to adopt codes of conduct collectively. • Add meetup venue information to the Sheffield Digital map. • Produce a ‘Better Meetup Manifesto’ document • Use the Meetups section to link and list all the available resources.
14. Meta Meetups If these events are useful, we will try to do more. What else would you like us to do?
15. https://sheffield.digital SHFDigital