Thanks for organizing, Zubon. About points 5 and 6, combined: how about floating some topics or projects during the organizing posts announcing the meetup? If there are two or more proposals that have some popularity, we could have pre-defined subgroups. For example, AI and AI risk is a topic that a few people seemed especially interested in, and I would be interested in (though I have weak AI background knowledge).
Me, I’m comfortable having somewhat meandering discussions. One of our meetup best practices suggests that groups have more success (measured in terms of interest and retention) with a project or something specific to do rather than socialization. Maybe we cut in the middle of that with a discussion group rather than resembling a cocktail party. I am also concerned that having something that looks like a homework assignment would cut against our “all are welcome” goal.
So perhaps I could rephrase it as “what do you (general you) want from a meetup?” The link has some ideas that have worked nicely elsewhere.
Thanks for organizing, Zubon. About points 5 and 6, combined: how about floating some topics or projects during the organizing posts announcing the meetup? If there are two or more proposals that have some popularity, we could have pre-defined subgroups. For example, AI and AI risk is a topic that a few people seemed especially interested in, and I would be interested in (though I have weak AI background knowledge).
Me, I’m comfortable having somewhat meandering discussions. One of our meetup best practices suggests that groups have more success (measured in terms of interest and retention) with a project or something specific to do rather than socialization. Maybe we cut in the middle of that with a discussion group rather than resembling a cocktail party. I am also concerned that having something that looks like a homework assignment would cut against our “all are welcome” goal.
So perhaps I could rephrase it as “what do you (general you) want from a meetup?” The link has some ideas that have worked nicely elsewhere.