How to Make Your Meetup Memorable (Spoiler: Make it Fun)

Cold pizza. Warm beer. A sales pitch. Honestly, do any of these sound like a “good time?” We don’t think so either. That’s why, at Sentry, our events are exactly the opposite (see: Sentry Scouts. We strive to create fun, interesting, exciting events that you actually look forward to after a long day of coding and drinking La Croix. (Check out the Sentry Scouts commercial. You’ll love it.)

Sentry’s own Developer Evangelist(a) Chloe Condon joins Jessica Deen, Microsoft Cloud Developer Advocate, on the newest episode of The Open Source Show to chat about improving the ol’ standard meetup model. Chloe shares her pressure-tested tips and tricks for organizing and hosting events that keep all attendees awake the entire time.

Watch, and learn (and take notes, there may be a quiz). You can also watch additional episodes of The Open Source Show on the Microsoft Developer YouTube channel.

Those are some great, actionable tips, right? Chloe says, “You’re welcome.”

Also, now that you’ve watched the video in full you can relax, because there’s not actually a quiz. We got you pretty good on that one, yeah?

In the spirit of sharing knowledge, we suggest taking a look at videos from past Sentry Scouts Meetups for examples of effective moderation and balanced panel structure. In The Open Source Show, Chloe mentions the benefits of fun openers (without resorting to cliche ice-breakers). Please enjoy this fine example of how we kick off each Sentry Scouts — PowerPoint karaoke.

Of course, we’d love to host everyone at the next Sentry Scouts meetup. See you there. Or here, on the internet.