Potential Meet-Up Format/topics

[Jeffrey Heavner]

Hey BiggerPockets community! I hope you all are doing very well! I have a quick question:

It has been a while since attending a local real estate investors association (REIA). Each time I visited there has always been a guru of some sort promoting their $795 product(s) or $1995 bootcamp (ugh!).

I want to start my own local investor meet-up; however, there will be no gurus, just investors, or people who want to become investors. What are some ideas that I could implement? What type of format to you guys like when you've visited a meet-up? Here's what I'm thinking so far:

 10-15 minutes: meet and greet (networking, business card exchange, shaking hands, etc.)

 20-30 minutes: Have a professional come in to speak about their service (home inspectors, surveyors, county officials--such as building code inspectors, etc., etc.)  

  20-30 minutes: training session on a particular topic (flipping/rehabbing, multi-family, how to "pull comps" to arrive at a price for a subject property, how to runs ads on facebook, how to use the GIS, etc.)

10-15 minutes: floor time for any wholesalers or investors with properties for sale, funding needs, potential partners sought, etc., etc. 

5 minutes: wrap up

Thoughts? Ideas? 

Maybe this thread can turn into a format/idea(s) for other people wanting to hold their own meetings without the gurus. 

[Eric Thomson]

@Jeffrey Heavner, my grandma was part of a small investment group years ago. One thing they did that I liked was a sort of round table Q&A where they could each pose a situation they were facing and get advice/input, probe the group for contractor recommendations, etc. it wasn’t very formal, and may not work well with a larger group. Otherwise, I like what you’ve got.

@Mark Sewell, can you give me info on the group you mentioned?