Open keywordnew opened 6 years ago
First reaction: this is a good idea, meetup's calendar view sucks, especially if you haven't joined all the meetups
Second reaction: there are so many tech-related calendars in Vancouver, that seem to all fall along different dimensions of startupy-ness and salesy-ness
I think we should have our own calendar focused on our own events, at the least for our own coordination purposes. However, I think we should also make sure our events are in https://www.startupdigest.com/digests/vancouver and on a consistent ticketing platform. (meetup? something else?)
With the API we can retrieve upcoming meetups within our group: https://www.meetup.com/meetup_api/docs/:urlname/events/#list
Meetup API would work for all right now: PyLadies Vancouver, Code & Coffee YVR, and NodeSchoolYVR 👍🏽 We could extend the current site, and not have to rely on an external calendar. At least for now.
Second reaction: there are so many tech-related calendars in Vancouver, that seem to all fall along different dimensions of startupy-ness and salesy-ness
Can this problem be mitigated by coming up with some guidelines around which meetups can make it onto the calendar?
Salesy/startupy meetups are typically run by businesses. Community meetups are run by the community but often supported by companies (massive thanks to all those companies that sponsor without much of a salesy agenda 💛).
I see this leading into the question of which meetups we can support. For example, if we chose to encourage only community-driven meetups, then those are the meetups that make it onto the calendar. This would go into our charter.
A really hard rule to write down, but probably a good rule of thumb to follow is reciprocation - support this group (whether that's volunteering at a meetup, help promote it somewhere, providing space, etc.) and we will support you (in the calendar.) Maybe this creates a barrier for newcomers though, and I can't think of how to mitigate that.
One thing I've recently learned - a lot of the other citywide calendars have VERY VERY SLOW review times - I've had a few last minute submissions get approved several weeks after the event actually happened, which is...not very useful. Hopefully we can do better
The calendar would include both meetups within it's support network and without.