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Meta Meetup Minutes

Alastair Lockie edited this page Apr 14, 2016 · 37 revisions

Agenda for next meetup (all welcome to contribute):

  • Formalise process akin to Moscow.js? See https://github.com/MoscowJS, particularly speaker & organiser
  • Offload video production to Pusher?
  • Further fleshing out of Computer Science 101 events.
  • Use of slack
  • Local events promotion
  • Meta-meetup frequency

12th Nov

Minutes of Last Meeting

  • Sponsorship; was good but let's limit it a bit more.
  • DO NOT WANT any kind of control over content.
  • Bring somebody from further afield which we couldn't normally?
  • Have alternate meetings sponsored?
  • Tom Parslow to contact speaker from Norway and ask if they would come if we pay for them to come?
  • Speakers on hot topics should get good attendance so may be worth the money

Venue

  • No objections

Hosts

  • Everyone from last time plus Rosa

Future topics

  • Fundamentals of computer science (James Hugman?): maybe a series of lightning talks for the evening? Add an event in March, add gist for topics that people can vote/volunteer on.

Website revamp

  • Yann already building a yeoman generator for metalsmith. Let's keep the same design.
  • GraphQL talk not up yet, Julian has been chased. ADD THE UPCOMING EVENTS AS SOON AS THEY ARE CONFIRMED!
  • Calendar widget
  • A bit embarrassing to ask for a PR; most people don't have time/headspace. Something more self service would be great.
  • Prose.io gives you a web interface for Github Pages.

Videos

  • Big applause for Graham Smith for keeping up :)
  • Hannah (Yann's gf) has 300gb of talks that she's willing to put up. Graham Smith to liaise.
  • Is it worth it? Not a lot of viewings but can be valuable for the speaker themselves.
  • Add to JSWeekly etc

Attendance

  • Publishing up front could help!
  • 'Tags' for beginner/intermediate/advanced talks? - Just indicate expected audience

Diversity/Schedule

  • Better to keep to every 2 weeks.
  • Good to reach out to more women to come and talk.
  • Rosa to reach out to contacts in She Codes and Codebar
  • Julian to reach out to contact in FLOSSIE
  • Use sponsorship money to bring more women speakers from further afield (highlight motive to sponsor)
  • Everybody to try and find one woman speaker who they want to come and talk.
  • Code of Conduct (adapt http://confcodeofconduct.com/) and announce why we're doing that - also ensure we have a point of conduct (Ali and Rosa volunteered)
  • Order soft drinks as well
  • Consider contacting a catering company
  • Look at middle eastern mezzes

Organisational help

  • Get visibility of issues!!! AL to publish and tell people during meetup

AOB

  • Adblock: use a cdn (there's a raw github cdn now!)
  • The Unit might sponsor (Ali L to chase up)
  • Next metameetup Q1 2016
  • Tom Parslow keen to do another ES6 golf. Tom to organise on a separate night at the skiff.
  • Add invite page to slack
  • Add link to wiki on homepage



16th July

Schedule

  • Thursdays. Every fortnight (keep as is)

Venue

  • 68 Middle St.
  • Should we change? - fuck no :)

Hosts

  • Dan Neame

  • Nathan Buckley

  • (Non-buff) Remi Shergold

  • James Hugman

  • Fabien O’Carroll

  • Mark Everitt

  • Ali L will be fallback host if somebody needs to drop out

Action (Ali L): Assign hosts for nights Action (potential hosts): Volunteer to host for topics you are interested in

Genre/scope of topics

  • Other languages as well? Should we rebrand as a general purpose meetup? (No)
  • Keep it fairly focused and relatable to JS - criteria = will an enlightened JS dev dig it?
  • Let’s try some more avant garde talks and see how it goes

Future topics

  • Fundamentals of computer science (James Hugman?)
  • AI (James Hugman?)
  • BioNode (call for volunteers)
  • Spark (call for volunteers)
  • One off night on softer skills. How to manage? How to do public speaking? etc. (Ali L)

Format

  • Talk then Q&A works well
  • Multiple talks if double booked
  • Sponsored nights allowing the company to provide the speaker as well (call for volunteers to find sponsors)
  • More workshops/hacknights (call for volunteers to organise)
  • Some of the longer talks can go on too long. 40 minutes is long enough. (Ali L & others to include in Information for Speakers etc)
  • Rebrand “show and tell” to “lightning talks”

How should we organise speakers?

  • Put talks in the calendar at 7pm! (Ali L)
  • Colour coding for ‘date under discussion’ (Ali L to investigate)
  • Slack channel for Async. (Ali L to create)

Videos

  • Make Google+ account to have unlimited Youtube (Graham S?)
  • Better sound would be good (call for volunteers/Graham S)
  • Yann to send through list of videos he still has

Website revamp

  • Ghost or Metalsmith? - Leave with jekyll for now
  • Visual refresh (call for volunteers)
  • Contact page (especially for speakers - call for volunteers/Ali L)
  • Embed the videos (call for volunteers/Ali L)

Facebook page

  • Yann’s girlfriend to help set up, then Ali L to administer

Lanyrd vs Meetup.com

  • Julian to investigate setting up Meetup.com page

BDF

  • Tanks Round 2 (1 bot per person!)
  • PlayCanvas hackathon - aaunel
  • Nodecopter
  • Minecraftbots
  • Music visualisation generator
  • Need a decision by Sun 19th (tanks round 2 is default)

Get more girls involved

  • Discuss with codebar and other “women in tech” nights (call for volunteers/Ali L)
  • Do another Nodeschool and other hack nights (call for volunteers)
  • Fear of “nerd check” (all to be aware)
  • Website grades -label beginner talks (call for volunteers)
  • Ask female attendees how they found it (everyone/Ali L)
  • Draw up a Code of Conduct (call for volunteers/Ali L)
  • More female speakers! (call for volunteers)
  • Anonymous feedback section on website/other mechanism? (call for volunteers)
  • May have to find funds to attract female JS speakers from London (call for volunteers/Ali L)

Sponsorship

  • Moar! (call for volunteers/Ali L)
  • Brandwatch & others

AOB

  • Quarterly meta-meetups! (Ali L)
  • Draw up a Mission/Values (call for volunteers/Ali L)
    • Make sure women feel welcome
    • An indication of which topics will be welcome
    • Open source bias if practical (this includes speakers)

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