Meetups

FoC is a big community, with members all over the world. We organize various meetups for folks to visit and share what they’re working on, both in-person and online.

Virtual Meetup

Each month, typically on the last Wednesday in the morning (Americas) / evening (Europe), we host a 1-hour virtual meetup on Zoom.

Here’s a playlist on YouTube with all our past meetups.

Attending

Everyone is welcome to attend! We usually have about 10-20 people with a mix of regulars and newcomers. We announce the meetup a few days before it starts in the #announcements channel. You can also subscribe to our Luma calendar.

Presenting

Everyone is welcome to present, and all forms of presentation are welcome. Most people share demos of their personal projects, though we’ve also had people share something they’re excited about, or teach the group about something, or just host a brief open discussion on some topic. We have a standard format (outlined below), but we’re also open to other ideas if you want to try something new.

Each month we make a new thread in the #present-company channel for anyone who wants to volunteer to present at the next meetup. We pick 3 people to present on a first-come basis.

Each presentation is 15 minutes total. Time is split evenly between presenter and audience. We use a “chess clock talk” format, where the audience is encouraged to interrupt at any time. We track the time spent presenting vs audience questions, to make sure both sides are given their fair share. This format makes the presentations feel lively and engaging, with lots of back-and-forth between presenter and audience.

Come prepared! 7:30 is not a lot of time. If you’re demoing a project, here are some tips:

• Start with a minute of context. Who are you? Why did you make this? How far along is it?
• Don’t just show off what features exist. Instead, demonstrate how to actually do something. For instance, if you’re showing a programming tool, show us what it looks like to build a little program start-to-finish.
• Rehearse your presentation to figure out the pacing. When people just “wing it”, it feels bad.
• Watch some of the past meetups to get used to the format.

London Meetup

There’s a dedicated group of FoC members who host regular meetups in London, England. The turnout is great, and the quality of demos here is top notch. If you happen to be in the area, you should really come out. More info here.

Host Your Own Meetup

We encourage people to host their own local meetups. We’ve had dozens of meetups in cities around the world. There’s nothing you need to do to host a meetup — just find a venue and make an announcement on the Slack. (Recommended that you use both the location-specific channels and also #present-company). Feel free to use our community logo and other brand/identity to help promote your event, and to invite people from outside the Slack too. And of course, please make sure everyone in attendance adheres to the community Code of Conduct.