Starting a meetup: key things we've learned ...so far

At the start of 2024 we were looking for meetups in our local area where we could connect with other people working in the world of design, innovation and user research. We wanted to exchange knowledge, make valuable connections and nurture our curiosity for innovation. When we couldn't find anything that fulfilled the brief the Nightingale team tackled the question: 'Should we organise our own meetup?' 

This was swiftly followed by:

• How do you get started?
• How much does it cost?
• Will people come?
• Is it worthwhile?

Let's give it a go and see what happens!

We did just that, organised 4 events in Nottingham - with an average turnout of around 28 people, learned from 8 fascinating talks, made valued connections and gained interest from a number of organisations wanting to support and sponsor the meetup. 

Here, we revisit the questions we had at the very start and fill in the answers with the knowledge gained from our experiences so far...

How do you get started?

1. Define the purpose and target audience

We wanted to provide a regular, free, informal, gathering for people working in the development of products and services (including design researchers, user researchers, UX designers, founders, entrepreneurs, product managers and developers) to learn about design, innovation and research through practical talks and open discussion.

2. Come up with a name

This was hard. We had to chuck a few ideas in the bin (NIRD!) before we landed on 'Design and Innovation Nottingham'. The Nottingham postcode begins with NG so D-I-NG was born. We felt DiNG reflected the light bulb moments associated with innovation, was not too formal, but not too silly either.

3. Figure out branding, booking and marketing 

We kept the branding simple and designed it in-house, drawing on the talents of our team. We chose the colour scheme of green and red from the Nottingham city crest and, of course, a light bulb.

While it's a free event we wanted to have an idea of numbers of people who might turn up. We created a booking page on both Eventbrite and Meetup to maximise reach and make it easy for people to find us. 

To market the events we set up a dedicated X/Twitter channel and created a webpage for DiNG on the side of our website. We created short videos and visuals to launch and promote the meetup and regularly posted on the X/Twitter and Nightingale's social media channels - with a link to the Eventbrite booking page. We recently surveyed our attendees and found, however, that most of them found us through Linkedin or through friends/ co-workers. The DiNG X/Twitter channel has less than 10 followers - we'll use this information when planning our marketing approach in 2025.

4. Plan a series of dates and book a venue

Our mantra as design researchers is 'do your research' before developing anything new whether it's an app, a new service, or a tech product. So we gathered information from meetup organisers in our network to understand the practicalities of running one. In terms of event frequency we learned that a balance between creating momentum and avoiding burnout is key. A monthly event could equal burnout while anything less than once a quarter wouldn't gather much momentum. We planned a series of dates spaced out at 6-8 weeks apart. 

Building on the experiences of other meetup organisers we chose a city centre venue we felt was well known in Nottingham, flexible enough to feel cosy with a small turnout but with space for more. Venue hire comes at a cost - find out more about costs below.

5. Invite speakers

Start with people you know. Draw up some guidelines that describe the style of talks you want at your meetup, the target audience as well as practical information like length of talk. Our guidelines state the following:

Each meetup has two 30-minute talks. Our aim is for the audience to learn in a practical way from the successes and failures of others, so the focus should be on your own experiences (good and bad!), what resources you drew on and what you’ve learned.

We've been blessed with some amazing speakers at our events in 2024:

At our first meetup Innovation consultant - Dr Chloe Sharp shared practical tools for innovating in a recession, while UX Designer - Elsa Bartley talked us through some key lessons learned from her experience.

Our 2nd meetup explored innovating for sustainability: Horizon User Researcher - Tanvi Vats explained the 'Right to Repair' landscape and designing for reparability, while SPARCK Head of Design - Paul Bailey delved into 'innovating better, with less'. 

At our 3rd meetup Nightingale CEO - Frances Brown shared how they partnered with The High Street Experts, secured Innovate UK funding and discovered tools to drive revitalisation of UK markets. University of Nottingham's Simon Castle Green and Dom Price explained key challenges faced by robotic technologies in the real world.

Our 4th meetup focussed on the practicalities of design and innovation. NEC Digital Studio's Becky Mallaband shared experiences of user centred design from her background in research and public sector. STEAMHouse's Patrick Bek gave insight into overcoming barriers to innovation. 

How much does it cost?

The main cost is the venue. In our experience commercial venues (e.g. offering event space and a staffed bar) cost around £500 for a weekday evening. We set aside a budget to get the meetup up and running and then once we had demonstrated there was an appetite for it, invited organisations to sponsor an event. We learned that organisations like universities often have spaces they are happy for you to use for free, especially if your meetup aligns with their goals.

Another key cost is hospitality. Our initial research indicated that providing free food and a drink created a welcoming atmosphere and acts as a natural icebreaker. We felt this would support the style of meetup we envisioned. At DiNG attendees can help themselves to a free drink on arrival and free pizza in the break between the talks. It seems to really help conversations flow as people get up out of their seats to get a slice of pizza and chat to people on the way. 

Other costs to consider are setting up a Meetup group page (around £100) and sometimes Eventbrite can charge a small amount per event (around £7) - although recently this has been dropped. 

Additional costs we have incurred include the printing of flyers/ posters advertising the event and laptop stickers to giveaway. What we learned was that flyers and posters have limited reach - we could probably have just printed off a handful on our office printer for almost no cost. We also discovered that no one gets excited about laptop stickers anymore! So our advice is don't bother with gimmicks and giveaways. 

Are people interested?/ Will people come?

An average of 28 people attended our meetup events this year. The conversations we've had with attendees provide evidence that people are delighted to have something in the local area they can go to that supports their interest in design and innovation. So yes people are interested and will come - even in the middle of a British summer heat wave!

A key thing we learned was that only around 50% of people who book a place will actually come on the night. It's a free event so this is understandable and as long as you're aware, you can effectively plan how many chairs to set out or pizzas to order.  

Is it worthwhile?

Absolutely yes! Aside from all the nuggets of wisdom learned from our speakers, the connections made and advice exchanged among attendees, we've had evenings filled with laughter, encouragement and support. 

What next?

We'll continue to experiment and build on what we learn and are excited to see where DiNG goes in 2025.

The DiNG team at Nightingale are busy securing dates, venues and speakers for next year. If you'd like to find out when the dates are released, sign up to our newsletter, or follow DiNG on X/Twitter, Eventbrite or Meetup.

We'd love to hear from you if you're interested in doing a talk in 2025 - please get in touch.