http://www.phparch.com \ August 2019 \ 25Cultivating a Community:Five Things I’ve Learned Running a PHP User Group- Consistency Is Key
“Make them regular—every
month is better than two this
month and none next month.”- Kostadin Golev^6
Besides being consistent with how
often we hold the meetup (we do it
every month), we have tried to develop
a recurring list of sponsors and hosts.
Coordinating between four sponsors
who each buy the pizza once per quarter
is much easier than having 12 different
sponsors to deal with over a year—or
depending on just one sponsor. Using
recurring sponsors allows us to have
sponsors locked in at the beginning of
the year instead of scrambling to find
one each month.
Attendees also appreciate having the
meetup in the same few locations every
year. Chicago is a big city, and finding
the right building downtown can be a
huge hurdle.
- Create a Welcoming Environ-
ment for Attendees
“Someone needs to connect with
the attendees one on one, under-
stand their needs for this Meetup,
and teach them how to use the
meetup to get them met. That’s
what keeps people coming back.”- @SingInTheRine
When I first started attending
the PHP user group in Chicago, I
remember one of the organizers,
Sammy Powers^7 , coming up to me to
introduce himself. Sammy always has a
smile on his face, and he’s one of those
people who makes you feel good about
yourself. I’ve tried to emulate his enthu-
siasm and friendliness at the PHP user
group by introducing myself to as many
attendees as I can. People may come for
6 Kostadin Golev:
https://phpa.me/kotsero-6928
7 Sammy Powers:
https://twitter.com/SammyK
technical topics, but they’ll stay for the
people.
In the same vein, I try to hold myself
responsible for cultivating a welcoming
environment to everyone regardless of
their background, ability, race, gender,
sexual orientation, beliefs, or age. To do
so, we must consider whether the loca-
tions we use have accessible entrances
and ensuring everyone feels welcomed
and included. While we still have work
to do, diversity in our group has been
consistently increasing over the past
ye ar.- Create a Welcoming Environ-
ment for Speakers
Many people who give talks at
meetups are relatively new to speaking.
One of my jobs as an organizer is
to provide speakers with direction,
encouragement, and enough autonomy
to make presenting an attractive pros-
pect.
Bailey Lewis, who organizes a
meetup for TrueMatter^8 , has found
that panels, demos, and audience
participation nights^9 can help take the
pressure off speakers and organizers.
We have started hosting an annual
lightning talk^10 session to encourage
new speakers who might not be ready
to give a whole 45-minute talk a way
to get more comfortable in front of an
audience.
Finally, both Nick and I have found
that being comfortable speaking is a big
help when running a meetup. In the past
year, we’ve both stepped in to give a talk
when we didn’t have another speaker,
and we each take turns introducing
the speaker and making announce-
ments before each talk. Finally, we
provide feedback and help to speakers
as needed, although we don’t have a
formalized process for this yet.
8 TrueMatter: https://truematter.com
9 panels, demos, and audience participation
nights: https://phpa.me/baileysendsword-5073
10 lightning talk:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_talk- Attracting New Attendees
Takes Work
Getting people to RSVP might be the
first step, but it’s typical for only about
50% of those who RSVP actually to
attend our meetups. Other organizers
find that number even lower^11. Don’t
get disheartened though. We’ve found a
few things that work well for attracting
new attendees who actually show up:- We promote meetups on Slack
channels and via social media.
Chicago has a great public tech
Slack^12 with an #events channel
which helps bring in a variety of
people. Reaching out to program-
mers who are new or unfamiliar to
PHP is a great way to expand our
base and increase interest in the
language. - I send direct emails to bootcamps
in the area. We want to help people
early in their career, so I’ve spent
time volunteering (mostly guest
lectures and mock interviews) at
several local bootcamps. I’ve found
the instructors and administrators
love being able to pass on learning
and networking opportunities to
their students and recent graduates. - We always provide free food to
attendees, which takes much work
because we have to coordinate with
companies to sponsor it. However,
it ensures people won’t skip the
meetup because of an empty stom-
ach. If you have trouble finding
sponsors, I’ve found recruiting
firms to be one of the best places to
turn. Recruiters reach out to me all
the time with job opportunities, so
I turn the request around and ask if
they’ll sponsor our meetup.
There are other ways to improve
attendance as well. Horacio Herrera
runs a meetup in Barcelona where he’s
been able to get over 90% attendance by
- We promote meetups on Slack
11 Other organizers find that number even
lower: https://phpa.me/eranstiller-9664
12 Chicago has a great public tech Slack:
http://www.chicagotechslack.com