Have You Tried Meetup.com?

Meetup.com In Toronto GTA Area

Have you tried Meetup.com?  It’s a system where you can find and attend meetings and events with others in pretty well all sorts of different topic interests or themes.  There are different business, social as well as special interest groups and Meetup.com pretty well runs all over North America.

Here is the GTA (Toronto area), there are lots of different Meetup groups.  I’ve attended hikes and played outdoor volleyball with Meetup groups that focus on outdoor social activities.  I’ve also attended restaurant events with other groups that do mostly those.

I’ve also attended special interest groups like one on real estate investing and another one on online marketing.  I’ve even been a keynote speaker for a few Meetup groups that utilizes outside speakers like myself.

Meetup Groups In Variety Of Themes

One of the Meetup groups I’ve become most active in over the last two winters is one that focuses on ski outings.  I’ve even become the resident ski instructor for that group and have taught many students on the slopes through this Meetup group – example is the photo above where I’m teaching a ski class through a Meetup.com group.

I’ve even organized several events including ski days, overnight trips to Quebec and other social functions such as trips to Canada’s Wonderland for the Meetup ski group.  I’ve tried to combine some of my other outside interests to form events with this group as well as do joint events with other Meetup groups as well with some success.

My Own Meetup Groups?

I’ve come to a point where I’m seriously considering on forming my own Meetup groups.  It’s basically about $75 per six months as an account holder with Meetup.com which is based in New York.  Each account allows us to form up to three different Meetup groups.

I’m thinking of using this to maximum potential by forming three different Meetup groups for different target audiences.  The first would be a general social group.  But since there are many social Meetup groups already in the GTA, I would aim to do different types of events that are not usually found with the other social groups.

The second Meetup group I would form is one involving different speaks presenting on business and personal development skills.  I would also emphasize a business networking component with this Meetup group since many folks like to use Meetup as a networking outlet.  I would also use this group as a venue for presenting my own keynote presentation talks as well as other outside speakers.

The third Meetup group might be a niche social group for childfree individuals since I find there’s a real shortage of venues for this social-demographic, of which I’m part of.  I think there’s a real need for some sort of organized group for adults who have chosen to live a childfree lifestyle and a Meetup group just might be a great way to start one.

Another possibility for the third Meetup group would be one centred around dogs, especially little ones like the Lhasa Apso dogs I have.   The possibilities are endless but of course, I would want to settle on themes that can attract enough people to make the Meetup group worthwhile.

One of the things I like about Meetup.com is that I can run joint events with my own three Meetup groups as well as groups run by other people I know as long as the events have some connection to the theme of each specific group.  For example, I can see a health or personal investment presentation event equally appropriate for the social as well as business Meetup groups.  This will help cross promote certain events to make them more well attended.

No matter what the topics or themes are, Meetup.com provides a great way to meet others with similar interests.  It’s a great social outlet but after checking out many different Meetup.com groups, I must say that not all of them are great.  They are only as good as how well the organizers of each Meetup group runs various events.  This is why I want to make sure that I have all my stuff organized before creating any new Meetup group.

If you have any experience with Meetup groups, please feel free to share below in the comments section.