Dustin Nguyen
Photographer, Art Director, and Consultant in Hà Nội, Vietnam
Read more: tổ chức hội thảo
Enter Meetup.com.
Although not new on the internet scene, Meetup.com has prospered as an online social networking site that facilitates real world group meetings in locations around the globe. Founded in 2001 by the triumvirate (and you thought only Google's Brin, Schmidt and Page owned this moniker) of Heiferman, Meeker and Kamali, Meetup was developed under the premise that the world wide web should focus more on localizing engagement activities. Simply put, the web should foster the ability to merge online networking with off-line face-to-face meetings.
As one of the fastest growing social networks of the early 2000's, the company quickly earned their stripes as an effective grassroots support tool for a variety of political and fundraising group activities. Most notable among Meetups early adopters were then Presidential candidate, Howard Dean, Senators John Kerry and John Edwards and the campaign re-election committee of President George W. Bush.
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Since then, Meetup has evolved to include special interest topics ranging from book clubs to small business marketing strategies - and just about everything in between (among the most interesting we found was a group devoted to exploring how to "Use Golf as a Business Tool"). Meetup's main source of revenue comes from organizers who pay a nominal fee to have their groups listed. Despite early criticisms, Meetup has continued to flourish while adding a great many features that aid in producing quality events, workshops and even less formal coffee-house meetings.
As of today, Meetup boasts over 6.5 million members hosting over 72,000 groups with over 61 million RSVPs (and counting).
From free, highly localized exposure to the Meetup community and a well conceived RSVP management system to tools that accommodate the printing of name tags and table top cards, Meetup did what my website couldn't do. Sure, I have an RSVP form on my site but everything beyond that was manually coordinated using excel spreadsheets, HTML generated email, follow up phone calls and hand printed registration materials. To me, migrating over to Meetup was a no brainer.