Recording | Meetup 101: A Winning Event Playbook

Learn the basics of how to plan and host successful events.

Building a flourishing community on Meetup is a process, and we are here to assist you every step of the way. During this all-access demonstration recording with customer support professionals, you’ll learn the basics of how to plan and host successful events. If you’ve never scheduled a Meetup event before or if you’re a seasoned organizer, this event is for you!

Watch Alex Marden and Colin-Pierre Larnerd from Meetup’s Community Support team as they practice the fundamentals, explain the latest features, and share insights that will give your next event a boost.

Timestamps:

  • What You’ll Learn (2:21)
  • Planning Your Next Event (3:05)
  • Creating Your Next Event (9:20)
    • Event Scheduler Demo (11:03)
    • Communication Tools (36:40)
  • After You Publish Your Event
    • Event Announcements & Reminders (37:53)
    • Share Your Event on Social Media (38:38)
    • Feature Your Event (39:20)
  • Before Your Event
    • Managing Your Attendees (40:05)
    • Contacting Your Members (41:36)
    • In-Person Venue Preparation (42:36)
    • Online Event Safety (43:52)
  • During Your Event (45:18)
    • Communicating With Your Attendees (48:25)
    • Post-Event Feedback (49:19)
  • Product Updates
    • Coming Soon: Hybrid Events! (50:25)
    • Toggle For Member Photo Uploads (50:59)
  • Q&A Session (51:46)

Top Q&A Questions and Resources:

  •  Is there a way to search for only online Meetup events?
    • Colin: You’re able to search for online events, but we don’t distinguish groups by in-person or online events. A group can host both online or in-person events, and the fastest-growing groups host both. You can definitely search for online events, but we don’t have a way to search for groups that are only online.
  • How can I promote my online event across the country?
    • Alex: The answer is Meetup is not designed to do that easily. The reason why is that when Meetup was first created back in 2002, the focus was on creating real local communities. So when you create a Meetup group, you select a city and state that you are physically residing in and your new group announcement gets targeted to people within a certain radius. The members get to decide how far of a radius they want to receive announcements from.
    • If I’m a new organizer and have no members, should I create an event to attract new members?
      • You don’t have to, but it is highly recommended. Publishing an event increases the likelihood that somebody is going to find your group when they search for it on Meetup. It increases the number of opportunities for our automatic notification system to tell people that your group exists.

Resources:

Last modified on May 30, 2023