The Meetups we see in the Dallas area are impressively insightful and they are providing real value to those who attend. Tonight’s session we ventured to was called “Building Bots in AWS”. The format was an half hour discussion about how to study for Amazon Web Services certifications then followed with an hour of guided instruction on how to build a Chat Bot using Lambda in AWS. From groups of engineers studying for AWS certifications, Agile enthusiasts debating Agile frameworks, and Product Managers discussing the evolution of their roles, we have seen how Meetups drive collaboration across organizations.

The intelligence level at these Meetups is quite impressive. The audiences range from entry level CS graduates to 35 year tech veterans. You can find all of them participating as a think tank focusing on a trending topic for a few hours straight. The solutions that are thrown out and the recent best practices give different organizations new ideas and validation for tech trends they are mauling over for their own adoption. Here are three values that we have seen from shadowing the smart people at these Meetups.

1. Best Practices : As you are leading new initiatives for your organization, it can be difficult to build your case for adopting tools and processes that are new on the market. Executive and business stakeholders buy in may take a little more convincing than you just saying it’s a good idea. By attending these meetings you are able to witness how other tech focused teams are putting new technologies to work. Even better, you have an avenue to ask them live questions about the adoption and pit falls of the technologies. We see teams bring examples of how they prototyped and ruled new tech in or out for their organizations to these Meetups consistently.
2. Team Building : As teams learn together, they bond. However paying for high end training that is relevant can be expensive. These Meetups provide a great venue for you and your team to explore new topics for free. It could be ideal to take the team out for tacos then head over to the MeetUp and sit together.
3. Recruiting Opportunity : As we mentioned earlier, these rooms are full of smart engineers that going to events to educate themselves. What a great avenue to meet new potential employees for your team. If you have open positions, you usually can ask the Meetup moderator to let you post an open position on their forum or stand up during the meeting and announce your role. Come early or stay late, you will be able to strike up conversations with likeminded tech folks that you could see hiring.