In-Person by Default: Principles & Practices for Building Developer Meetups

Meetups often die the same way. People show up once, have a fine time, and never come back. Code & Coffee is a nonprofit that runs 300 meetup events a year across 30 cities for a community of 80,000 members, on an annual operating budget under $6,000 and with almost no paid marketing. It only works because people return for an actual community, not just another audience. This session is about meetup and community design. Steve will show how Belonging, Trust, and Safety translate into specific decisions rather than values on a slide: the intro-circle ritual run at every event, the cadence rule organizers have followed since 2017, and why Code & Coffee events are social by default instead of built around endless talks. Steve will also cover the unglamorous operations: where to find a free venue in your city, what to ask a sponsor for, and what to offer in return. If you have ever wanted to organize a meetup community, run events, grow a developer community, or have simply been waiting for someone else to start the meetup you want to attend, this talk is for you. You will leave with a repeatable meetup event format you can adapt and a concrete first step you can take toward building community.