Metameetup - Sustainable Events

Building community and leading meetups is a great way to give back to your city and get new experiences. But what happens when you need to go out of town? Or when you can't continue investing in a community?

Will your meetup live or die when you stop leading it?

I help organize a meetup in Seattle called Beer && Code, and I am confident that it doesn't need me to survive. Here's why.

Transcript

1. Building Sustainable Events Metameetup – 9 May 2012 David Pierce Aka “How to Cultivate Community That Doesn’t Need You”
2. I Am… Software Engineer Seattle-ite Husband Human @TheDahv
3. An awesome community that doesn’t need me Let’s Talk About
4. How Do You Build a Beer && Code?
5. Know Your Community Know The Vision Know Your Role You must come to know the Zen of Community Building… Community is like grass that grows in a crack in the concrete. It grows by itself, but it grows better when someone cultivates it.
6. …and then you must pass it on good community cultivators can build other cultivators Cast Vision Inspire Others Train the Interested Give trust and ownership away
7. The Zen of Beer && Code Goals and culture are communicated regularly and often
8. The Zen of Beer && Code Language counts “Our” meetup, not “my” meetup
9. The Zen of Beer && Code Leaders replicate themselves quickly
10. The Zen of Beer && Code A meetup built around an idea, not a person Strong Ideas… survive Are scalable Won’t need you if you cultivate well
11. David Pierce e: david.dean.pierce@gmail.com t: TheDahv w: http://www.thedahv.com