What's the hardest thing about hosting a meetup?

@abadesi we've done several for Product Hunt Boston (https://producthuntboston.com). I'll give you some context first. We want to keep the Meetup as accessible as possible, so we keep it free. Got a pizza place to sponsor half the food cost and beer/cider companies to do promotion there. We're not set up to accept money/donation, but have expenses to keep the domain name + materials for the event. We had the venue sponsor pay for the rest of the expenses, but that can be challenging to do things fast. Once you get all the logistics problems like the venue (with live stream equipment, able to be open to the public, large enough) solved, you still have to make sure the content and networking are top notch. For us, it was a part-time job leading up to the event (planned over 2 months) and almost a full-time job the week of. We had a lot of fun finding and helping the startups presenting to get better with resources and advice (me for design/product, @michaelsheeley for eng/business/marketing, @nicdupuis8 for marketing). We've tweaked the format over the first few Meetups to have an open networking time for attendees to meet each other and the presenting startups at their tables. During the pitch portion, we encourage discussion that will help teams solve their current biggest challenge. Judges and audience members also ask questions. A fun voting round wraps up the festivities ("If you had $1,000 to invest in the startups who presented, how would you invest? Why?"). More networking + move to a nearby restaurant/bar so people can keep talking. We don't want to compromise on the experience, which is why we've had to reduce the number of events we host per year. Our ultimate goal is to foster makers and startups to meet and grow in the Boston community. I see three ways you can help: - Help us connect with other venue sponsors who can take care of some logistics and give us a small operating budget to be reimbursed by - Create a space for PH Meetup Hosts to learn from each other's events - Have someone from the PH team attend! Much like Indy Hacker Meetups or Stripe Atlas events. You could also help capture stories for social + PH articles 😉 Please let me know if you can help on any of these fronts for our Fall event! (and thanks for asking 🙏)

@abadesi I'm probably not the best person to ask because I love challenges! Hahaha. Our event has grown in complexity each time. One of the things I am working on is measuring the results of the meetups. I suppose I need to send out a feedback survey of sorts. One challenge has been to get the products that want to pitch IRL to let me hunt them on Product Hunt. I've started to make this more of a "required". We will see how it goes. It would be great to have someone from PH come down to Miami for an event. A fireside chat if you will. There is a lack of education here about what Product Hunt is, and how it benefits the South Florida startup community globally to have an active Product Hunt community locally. I have found everyone at PH to be very helpful and super supportive. Thank you!

@abadesi my biggest challenge is knowing how many people will show up. It's hard predicting it based on weather or location.

@abadesi making sure attendees who register turn up 😂