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Ask HN: Have IRL tech meetups rebounded in your area?

17 points by legerdemain ↗ HN
My area used to have plentiful IRL tech meetups before 2019. You could find meetup groups for specific languages and technologies, or just communities of enthusiasts who were learning or hacking together.

These days, it's very hard to find events in my area that aren't online. And the online events are usually prerecorded videos and marketing pitches. Even extremely popular topics (like web development) have basically zero IRL presence within a 50-mile radius.

I'm not sure the community will rebound. If the office is dead, tech community is deader. I've started a group of my own, but it's also very slow to grow.

Have IRL meetups and communities in your area rebounded to 2019 levels yet?

7 comments

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breckenedge
Sadly no, but they were going downhill before the pandemic. Where is your community located? I’m in Dallas, TX and used to really enjoy the meetup scene, but they take a ton of dedication to keep going.

As I’ve gotten more experienced in my career, I’ve wanted a new type of meetup that appeals to more than just software.

legerdemain
I'm in the SF Bay area.
breckenedge
I think we’re in that phase similar to 2001-2007ish, where there was a waning of tech meetups, and then a resurgence for a few years as new languages and frameworks really disrupted things.
cableshaft
Non-tech meetups have definitely rebounded.

Tech meetups still seem to be mostly Zoom. In particular there was a local company that hosted an OpenHack night once a month where you could just bring your computer and hang out and work on your personal projects and/or chat with other people there. It got about 20-30 people there usually, provided pizza, and you could bring alcohol if you wanted.

It stopped entirely (not even Zoom) when the pandemic started, and it still hasn't come back yet. I miss it. :/

On the other hand, with most of these being Zoom, I'm able to attend more of them, as I can attend some that aren't even hosted in my state.

screwturner68
The security group meetups are back and popular, it probably doesn't hurt they are held at a bar.
surprisetalk
I’ve been yearning to meet cool people in tech, so I started a conference!

Come hang at Outland on August 26 in Palm Springs, California :)

https://outland.sh