How to Host an Effective Meetup

TGIF, GUYS!! I am beyond grateful and excited to share my experience hosting my very first blogger meetup this past weekend. There was so much anxiety and anticipation for this event to run smoothly and also effectively, and let me tell you, this day went far beyond my expectations! For quite some time, I had been tossing around the idea of organizing a blogger/creatives meet up. Considering this is the industry I aspire to work in, networking and creating real life connections are so important to me. Just as in any profession, bringing together like-minded individuals not also enriches that community but also generates purpose. I wanted to share with y’all the steps I took to approach such a meetup and hopefully encourage you to facilitate one of your own 🙂

Pick a date: 

• I wanted to choose a date that ensured optimal attendance. However, I made the rookie mistake of pushing back the meetup date every time a person could not attend the prior date. After two months of push backs, I finally made an exec decision on a date. At that point, my only option was to hope that people were able to attend. Luckily, 4 amazing ladies joined me!

Find a venue:

• This is also a tricky decision to make because you can never be 100% sure with exactly how many people are going to attend. Even for those who confirm, usually only a fraction of them actually follow through. With this in mind, I made a cap of how many were in our reservation. Oh yeah, make a reservation! I decided on one of the most Instagrammable brunch cafes in LA:  The Butcher, The Baker, The Cappuccino Maker. I knew the food was yummy, their outdoor seating space was amble for a larger group, and that we would be served quickly, (ya don’t want a bunch of hungry people all together, ha!). I also made a reservation a bit earlier in the day, so we could actually talk intimately vs having to yell over the noise of a packed restaurant. The cafe was flexible with the reservation and they even allowed me to arrive a bit early to decorate our booth.

Decide on your focus of discussion:

• Although, I wanted the conversation to feel natural, I also wanted to go beyond the surface level. Nothing too structured, but as we had bloggers, YouTubers, and a photographer in the group, I wanted everyone to share a bit of their journey, their intents, and expectations thus far. We all shared our achievements and struggles in this social media world and turns out we all had sooooo much in common. Not kidding, by the end of the day, we legit felt like a bunch of best friends. (I will touch on this a bit later.)

Prep for the event:

• I wanted to put together fun little goody bags as a token of my appreciation for those who made it out! I went for a Breakfast at Tiffany’s teal and gold theme. I made sure everyone had fun succulent stickers, succulent notebooks (you’re not a blogger if you don’t love succulents, ha, JK) pens, and lip balm. For some reason I was more nervous of the reception of the goody bags than the actual event itself but all this to say, the girls loved them!

The day of the event:

• Get to the venue early to make sure everything is ready
• The morning of, send a quick reminder to all attendees with the meet up time and/or parking info.
• Have a positive mindset that the meetup with be a success! I know for me, I had a moment of doubt right before I left; “what if no one shows up?” AHHH, but once I accepted whatever will be, will be, the day seemed to progressively get better.
• Exchange contact information and actually keep in touch!
• Plan for the next meet up! I wanted to gauge how well this meetup went before I planned for the next one but like half way through our breakfast, the other ladies had already suggested we meet up once a month! So that is our plan!

*I could not have asked for a better day! As different as we all were, we connected on SO many levels. I am entirely grateful for this group. Like legit, so grateful. I really did not know what to expect for this meetup but honestly, it was enriching, fun, helpful, and much much more! Xo