Set a frequency, try many groups, start talking, ask questions, and get coffee.

1. Decide How Often to Go

In Portland, OR, where I live, there are often one or two dozen tech events per week. I love meeting people, hearing others going through similar software joys and sorrows, and nerding out together.

I would happily go to one event per day, and I’ve been there. But there’s more to life. So I loosely aim for two to three events per month. And if you don’t gravitate towards networking, all the more reason to set a target frequency.

2. Try at Least Ten Different Groups

There’s a wide range of vibes across meetups, so try like ten before deciding meetups are not for you. Although my focus has been AWS/MERN/MEVN-ish, I’ve had good conversations at Erlang and Machine Learning meetups.

There are several themes of tech meetups:

• Languages or frameworks like JavaScript or React Native
• Job fields like DevOps or Data Science
• Code schools like Alchemy Code Labs or PDX Code Guild
• Companies or providers like Google or AWS

After going to a bunch of Portland-area meetups, these are a few of my favorites:

• Portland DevOps GroundUp
• Full Stack Vancouver
• Portland Python User Group

You never know who you’ll meet. I’ve met future bosses of mine both at a code school meetup and at a DevOps meetup. The former mostly had students in attendance and the latter mostly seasoned pros.

3. How to Start a Conversation

There are many clever ways of starting a conversation. That’s not me. I just walk up and say, “Hi, I’m Yann.”

It feels random, but I just remind myself that others feel nervous and uncomfortable too. Conversations that start like that often turn into collaborations and friendships.

4. Questions to Ask at a Networking Event

What kind of projects are you working on?

What tech stack do you work with?

What cloud provider do you use?

Is your company using AWS Lambda or any other serverless services like that?

5. How to Stay in Touch ☕

After a few minutes of chatting, I usually get out my phone, and say, “You want to connect on LinkedIn? You can enter your name here.”

If I feel like it, I schedule a coffee right then. “I’d love to hear more about that. Maybe we could grab a coffee?” “Sure.” “Great, how about Monday?”

LinkedIn lets you sort your network by Recently added. This can be helpful later on when you try to remember when and where you met someone.

That’s it. Let me know if you have any other tips.