Starting tech meetups in your own area

[jojo2k]

Hello! I like technology and people, but it feels there are few activities in my area where people with similar interests can meet. Nerdy stuff in my area is all just trading card game meetups and the only tech-specific thing in my area appears to be for professional networking for people in the tech industry. (And despite it being "local," the meetings are conducted online... what?)

I've searched event finding websites and Facebook, but I don't see a whole lot going on in these realms near me. My city is smaller, somewhere around a million? But we have colleges with plenty of tech courses, plenty of tech businesses and even a few computers shops (some of them local/small!), so I feel like there are probably people around me who might be interested in joining such a group, it's just that I may have to be the one to start it.

Does anyone have experience in helping with local computer-y tech-y meetups in your cities? I'd have to come up with some specifics if I wanted to get this off the ground I imagine, like focuses, topics, times, venue, etc., but if you have any advice whatsoever in these matters I'd appreciate hearing it. I think it would be cool to have a group that focuses on projects and maybe collecting, though I wouldn't want it to just turn into some swap meet - it'd be fun to maybe have different kinds of programming challenges, retro PC LAN parties, perhaps people could present on different topics they're passionate about, repair/project get-togethers... Any thoughts on running it? Advertising it? Venue ideas?

And of course all of this is to facilitate building community, getting people to meet each other and seeing where things go from there. It'd be sick if down the line a group like this could help the wider community in other ways, who knows.

Thanks for any help! And this is my first post here so thanks for letting me on here! (PowerPC 4ever btw)

 

[mmu_man]

I think there was a talk about spawning your own event, maybe at VCF, not sure…

I'd start by looking at related places/events locally:

List of Hacker Spaces - HackerspaceWiki

wiki.hackerspaces.org

Labs | FabLabs

A platform for connecting Fab Labs and their users from around the world.

fablabs.io

Carte des labs

More than 450 fablabs, hackerspaces, biohacklabs... spotted around the world by Makery's journalists.

www.makery.info

Repair Café - Fixing Together, Worldwide

Repair Café is a global initiative that promotes the culture of repair. Join us in fixing things together and contribute to a more sustainable future.

www.repaircafe.org

a list of demoscene events – demoparty.net

www.demoparty.net

 

[Scott]

A few folks and I have talked about the possibility of doing this in Pittsburgh at some point. It's a nice happy medium between Chicago and New Jersey plus we have a lot of Mac folks who seem to be concentrated in the general area (Columbus, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh) and it wouldn't be too far for folks from Detroit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, or even NYC or Baltimore/DC.

There's a new retro museum called the Bloop Museum in the suburb of Penn Hills. I've met its curator twice now (at VCFMW last fall and this past April at VCFE) and need to get out there to see it this summer.

Pittsburgh also has a pretty rich computer history given we have Carnegie-Mellon University (renowned for robotics and technology) and a really strong group of colleges and universities in general. CMU was once a prototype testing site for Apple. We also have a lot of schools like Winchester-Thurston (private preK-12), North Allegheny (big public district), and Fox Chapel (also rather big public district) that got big into ed tech early on. Historically we also had the Pittsburgh Computer Store on Smithfield Street downtown and Mac Outfitters in Cranberry; both predated the Apple Store concept.

Since the steel industry dried up in the 70s, Pittsburgh has rebuilt itself as a tech, medical, education, and banking hub. We're also no stranger to holding big events; the NFL Draft was here this past spring and we hosted the G20 not too long ago.

I've been thinking we make this an Apple specific event, much like how Kansasfest is Apple II specific (though I want this to be ALL Apple, maybe cut off around 2006 when Intel came around). The first VCFSE in 2013 was very Apple-centric so the formula can work.

It's probably too late in 2026 to get something going unless we wanted something in the fall, but I'm thinking we should aim for something around June of next year if we do this since that's kind of between VCF events.

 

[stepleton]

You know about the museum in New Kensington, right?

I lived in Pittsburgh during the G20 (which was 2009, so a little while back...). All the buses set up their signs to alternate between their route number/destination board and "PITTSBURGH WELCOMES THE WORLD". I got a chuckle at seeing an out-of-service bus heading back to the depot saying "PITTSBURGH WELCOMES THE WORLD/TO HARMAR GARAGE"...

 

[Scott]

Oh wow, I had forgotten about that little quirk.

I've heard of the museum in New Ken but haven't been there yet. It could be an option for this.

We did host David Pogue once at Carnegie Science Center (now Kamin Science Center). He was in the Omnimax theater (now the Rangos Giant Cinema) and had a great meet and greet afterwards (including book signings). He sang some of his song parodies, too. Woz lectured at Heinz Hall once too.

 

[stepleton]

The New Ken museum is one of the best computer museums there is, I think; it has an amazing collection, and I visit whenever I am anywhere nearby. You are lucky to live so close! There is not a lot of Mac stuff in particular; a couple Macs and Lisas in the micros collection. The most impressive bits are the "big iron" on the ground floor, I think.

Woz spoke at CMU when I was there in the 2000s. He autographed my Mac Portable and said "this was a great machine".

 

[JDW]

[Woz] said "this was a great machine".

Woz is smart, unlike the tech media who largely lambasts the Portable while so conveniently forgetting what Portables were like in the mid-to-late 80's and how much those portables sold for. Modern media mislabels it a "laptop" which is was not. And while it was much more competitive when released in 1989, the fact remains that Apple started design work on it at least two years prior to that.

Consider how similar one of Mac Portable's competitors was at the time...



(Note the trackball at right, floppy drive at right, thick back side, and while a different shape, it even had a handle too. More pics here:

Atari Stacy 2 - Old Crap Vintage Computing

WikiDisassembly and LCD replacementICD Pro on SD cards

oldcrap.org

Might be fun to have a tech meet-up for people who own 1980's "portable" and "luggable" machines. That would be a thrill and help illustrate what I just said. Seeing the other machines and knowing when they were released and for what price helps put it all in perspective.

 

[KennyPowers]

There's a new retro museum called the Bloop Museum in the suburb of Penn Hills. I've met its curator twice now (at VCFMW last fall and this past April at VCFE) and need to get out there to see it this summer.

Bloop is less than 5 minutes from our house (I could walk there), and we've been helping him out when we're able. He has a large collection of stuff and a LARGE building that's gradually being built-out to display it all. You should definitely come check it out, and maybe come geek out at our place when you do

I'd definitely be up for an organized Pittsburgh area event too.