The author recounts the disappointing history of tech meetups filled with startup pitches and irrelevant content. Surprisingly, a resurgence of high-quality systems programming meetups in various cities has sparked interest in creating new ones. The author shares guidance and encouragement for those interested in organizing their own events. Highlighting the challenges faced and the importance of finding the right speakers, the author goes on to detail the birth of NYC Systems, a language-agnostic meetup focused on engineering challenges, not product pitches. The struggle to find a suitable venue indicates a lack of understanding among companies about the value of quality content over branding requirements.
https://notes.eatonphil.com/2024-07-07-systems-meetups.html