I attended my first tech meetup last month and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. It was such a great opportunity for me as I got to connect with so many amazing people, the talks were amazing and so much learning all in one day. I'll share my whole experience in the last, let's first get to know what are these Tech Meetups and why are these meetups organized.

What exactly are tech meetups?

Tech meetups are basically social events or a common place where developers, students, working professionals, and some great hosts come together and share their experiences and learnings. There are many discussions about new technologies and new technological trends.

What happens in these meetups?

These meetups feature a variety of enjoyable activities, some excellent talks, fantastic networking opportunities, free food, and of course free swag. You get to connect with like-minded people. There are quizzes and there are prizes for the winners too.

Why are these organized?

The primary goal of these meetups is to bring like-minded individuals together. These meetups help in building communities. These meetups assist in raising awareness of various cutting-edge technologies and other trends.

Why you should attend these?

These meetups are a great source of learning and the best way to connect with people. I believe that connections formed in person are much more powerful than those formed online. Therefore, if you have the chance to interact with people in person, take it. Another excellent source of knowledge is the talks that are presented by outstanding hosts. They discuss learnings from their personal experiences and about some new tech stacks.

I am a beginner, can I attend too?

You can, indeed. In these meetups, there are a lot of beginners present. When I went to my first meetup, even I was a beginner too. Additionally, as a beginner, going to these meetups can be a great opportunity for you as you'll get to interact with individuals with a variety of tech backgrounds. There are many working professionals who can give you some good career advice over there.

Where do I find out about these meetups?

Try to maintain an active presence on social media, particularly LinkedIn and Twitter. You can easily find out about these meetups over there. Stay active in various tech communities too as these communities often organize their own meetups.

My first meetup experience.

I'll be sharing my first meetup experience now. I'll break this up into three parts:

Before the meetup.

My first meetup was organized by HackTheMountains. So, they had criteria like only 50-60 people will be selected from all the registrations. I was really excited after I got my confirmation mail. I was very anxious and nervous too because this was my first tech meetup. None of my friends received the confirmation mail, so I was going to attend this meetup alone.

I was thinking a lot of things like, "I don't know anybody out there, what would happen?" and "What if everyone judges me?" Later came to realize that everyone experiences this for the first time and that it is all normal.

At the meetup.

When I reached the location, I saw there were a lot of new faces. I went inside and sat in one corner which was one big mistake that I made. After a while, a group of two to three people approached me, and we briefly introduced ourselves and had a little convo.

So the meetup started after some time and the first activity was a networking arena. We were handed out a page on which we had to introduce ourselves to every person in the meetup and write down their socials on the page. The person who completes this wins swags.

Personally, this was the best networking opportunity for me as many fear talking to new people. I introduced myself to everyone and that's when all my nervousness came off and I finally felt confident.

Later we had talks on Chaos engineering and React. It was great to learn about chaos engineering because I knew nothing about it. Later we had lunch and some quizzes which were pretty fun too.

After the meetup

After the meetup, I ensured to connect with every person from the meetup on their social media. I shared pictures from the meetup on my social media, and it was a wonderful experience overall.

Learnings.

The main learnings I got from this meetup were-

• Always try to take the first initiative in a conversation.
• It's okay to feel nervous, try to show some confidence this one time and it will help you in the future.
• Try to talk to every person out there, get to know about their work, get to know about their leanings and experiences, and try to really get to know them rather than building a profitable connection.
• Ask questions even if they are really small. There is no such thing as a dumb question. It's just that these so-called dumb questions are the questions for a majority of people and can be solved by researching them.
• In these meetups, make an effort to be noticed. Use this as an opportunity to go share your experience on stage since the majority of them are apprehensive about speaking. By doing this, people will remember you better.

At the end...

According to me, having the correct friends and mentors will make your tech career lot smoother and more enjoyable. These gatherings can assist you in finding both.

Also, this tech sector is pretty huge, with new technologies coming every new day, you can get overwhelmed sometimes. However, by surrounding yourself with the appropriate kind of people, you can ensure that you catch up on things far more quickly.