I’ve lurked on this site since 2010, time to post something. In hindsight I should have taken notes at the meetup, rather than posting this from memory. Next time I may.
I attended the Portland meetup on the 11th.
I’ve been sporadically going to the lesswrong meetup here in Portland for the last 2 years. I can at least mention the demographics. Over the last 2 years when I attended a meetup I was the only female out of the 4 or 5 attendees (unless one of them brought their wife). I was also the only person who was not a programmer. I will admit these 2 things probably influenced my decision to not always attend.
At the most recent meetup, there were 15 −20 people, I’m sure one of the other attendees has a good count. There were only 2 other women. There was also a much broader mix of background/education, not everyone in attendance was a programmer or a CS major. If we kept the turnout like this, I would attend much more often.
The group was large enough we had to split into 2 or 3 groups and people mingled between the groups to meet everyone.
I was involved in or at least listened to a talk about what is possible or impossible and why (mind reading for example). One topic was political system setups that are resistant to power and places to test theories, and there was a short discussion on how to donate to do the most good (helping those in Africa is more cost effective than helping American poor specifically). We all talked about interest or projects we are working on, that was the best conversation starter and lead to many of the interesting sub-discussions.
We also talked a bit about how to get people to come regularly, since that has been a problem with our city’s meetup.
I’ve lurked on this site since 2010, time to post something. In hindsight I should have taken notes at the meetup, rather than posting this from memory. Next time I may. I attended the Portland meetup on the 11th. I’ve been sporadically going to the lesswrong meetup here in Portland for the last 2 years. I can at least mention the demographics. Over the last 2 years when I attended a meetup I was the only female out of the 4 or 5 attendees (unless one of them brought their wife). I was also the only person who was not a programmer. I will admit these 2 things probably influenced my decision to not always attend. At the most recent meetup, there were 15 −20 people, I’m sure one of the other attendees has a good count. There were only 2 other women. There was also a much broader mix of background/education, not everyone in attendance was a programmer or a CS major. If we kept the turnout like this, I would attend much more often. The group was large enough we had to split into 2 or 3 groups and people mingled between the groups to meet everyone. I was involved in or at least listened to a talk about what is possible or impossible and why (mind reading for example). One topic was political system setups that are resistant to power and places to test theories, and there was a short discussion on how to donate to do the most good (helping those in Africa is more cost effective than helping American poor specifically). We all talked about interest or projects we are working on, that was the best conversation starter and lead to many of the interesting sub-discussions. We also talked a bit about how to get people to come regularly, since that has been a problem with our city’s meetup.