NWA TechFest - Social Meetup

Join us volunteers at NWATechFest in the brewery room at GOAT LAB Brewery in Lowell, AR on May 29th, 2024 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm for free drinks and the chance to chat with other STEM professionals in Northwest Arkansas.

Presentation
TBD

Do you want to share your own presentation?
Become a Speaker! (Contact Form)

See our persistent Social Meetup page for more information on our current and future presenters, including some slides and other downloadable content.

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This recurring volunteer-organized event was created to give NWA STEM professionals the opportunity to meet, learn, and grow with one another to create a more connected community.

Schedule

While most of this social event is free-form dialog amongst attendees, there are two times where we will ask for your attention:

From approximately 6:15pm to 7:00pm, there will be short presentations from any attendees who want to give one. It could be a multimedia display projected onto a wall of the brewery. Audio will be projected from a microphone. We are currently investigating providing continuous access to our presentation content after the event, but it is currently unavailable.

From approximately 7:00pm to 7:15pm, event organizers will be focus attendees on a group Q&A session on various topics. Topics could include attendee job-type surveys, attendee preferences for future events, notices other social/STEM groups in the area, and anything else that seems interesting. Attendees be invited to ask questions to the group as well.

Refreshments

NWA TechFest will be providing a limited drink tab for attendees which will operate under a TBD tab name. If you stop by the meetup first, you'll be quickly notified about how to get your drinks paid for. Food is the responsibility of attendees because it gets expensive quickly. Everyone is encouraged to consume water continuously throughout the evening.

Parking

There's parking available at Goat Lab Brewery, but if that runs out then you can feel free to park at The Grove, which is a comedy club owned by the same people that is just across the street to the south. As the meetup grows, carpooling is heavily encouraged.

Organizers

This event is organized by NWA TechFest Inc, a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) non-profit that has existed in NWA for over a decade. We are a people-focused organization and have a variety of invested volunteers who help run the event every month.

Our event organizers can usually be found day-of either wearing NWATechFest branded shirts or hanging out around the NWATechFest table we have set up at the front of the brewery area. A long-term board member, Jonathan Ulrich, is usually a good fallback face to look for in the crowd and should always be listed as attending this event series.

If you would like to join us in organizing this event, would like to sponsor this event, or would just like to say hi, please seek us out.

Notes

- Feel free to come if you are recruiter, but try to keep any hard pitching to the Q&A segment we have regularly scheduled. Don't be surprised if someone asks about salary ranges and benefits.

- Because this event will be in a public establishment, we have no active COVID policies besides encouraging attendees not to show up if they are sick and to wear a mask at all times if they have active health concerns in regards to the virus.

- If you would like to get involved with organizing or supporting this event series, visit the NWATechFest website listed below.

NWATechFest:

https://nwatechfest.org/

GOAT LAB Brewery:

https://goatlabbrewery.com/beer-food-menus