We love tech events. But often the one-to-many talk format is a bit hit and miss. Sometimes you learn lots of wonderful new things, but frequently the talks are too long and of questionable quality.<p>Watching someone go over the basics of a library/technology/etc in a real life presentation generally didn't provide a lot of value to us. Instead, we always found the best parts were in the questions and discussions at the end of each talk - except this time was often cut off in order to make room for the next talk.<p>What we wanted was a smaller, more intimate event aimed at talking through the technology side of building startups. One didn't exist, so we decided to do something about that and created Many to Many.<p>Many to Many is aimed at fostering group discussion instead of the traditional 'one person talks to audience' format. There are 3 discussions topics per event, each discussion leader will open with a short (5m max) introduction, before opening up to a half-hour group discussion. The idea is that everyone shares their experiences, asks questions and learns from each other. We've been running this event since last July, and have had some amazingly positive feedback from people.<p>The event is mainly aimed at engineers interested in web/mobile startups in London, but we happily get designers and product people attending and leading discussions too! The event is free, and being a startup event, naturally pizza, beer and soft drinks are all provided :).<p>The next event is on Thursday 20th of March, and is held near Old Street, London, UK, the leaders and discussion topics this time are:<p>- Ollie Glass:
"Turning hacks into products"<p>- Rob Elkin
"Communication between developers"<p>- (final discussion leader TBC)<p>If this sounds like something that interests you, please do sign up on:
http://www.manytomany.co.uk/<p>Thanks!
Another great twist on the meetup is the <a href="http://houseofgenius.org" rel="nofollow">http://houseofgenius.org</a> format. One of the challenges to open discussion is the way in which people conform to roles and hierarchies. In House of Genius gatherings, there is a veil of anonymity that helps release participants from these roles. The result is addictive. You find developers, VCs, political leaders, artists, and other successful people sharing and learning in ways they can't find through any other avenues in their lives.
This is a nice idea. We had tried this once in Bangalore, however, there was two major challenges.<p>1. Not enough people asking great questions.
2. The answers to questions was only vocal, with no presentation or material to back it up.<p>The first was easily solved by seeding a few question in the public to get things moving. However the number 2 was a major problem. Many people were not able to connect to the answers/discussions.<p>I would love to know if you are able to solve the 2nd problem.<p>Thought I would share my experience.
Fab! Certainly interests me. I've signed up for the announce list. I don't work for a startup but we're pretty small and "start up" like.
I've been feeling the same frustration regards meetups recently, so definitely share the sentiment.Unfortunately, while I work with developers quite often, I'm not actually a developer, but I'd love to participate in a meetup where it's more discussion focused.<p>If you decide to address other topics such as business, marketing, management. I'd love to be a part of it.
Very interesting idea, thanks for sharing.<p>My question would be how do you make sure the quieter members speak up and it's not just the same people talking all the time? Is this something the moderator just has to watch for?