How to start a meet up in my local area?8

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Question: how should I go about starting a meet up in my local area of Brandon , Manitoba, Canada? Who should I invite to it? Should I charge money and get pizza or some other kind of food? Thanks in advance!! Oh yeah I should mention  we do have meet ups but they are 2 hours away and b/c I have full time job I can never make them, so I wanna start my own local one!! Also how do you get them to actually attend and not just sluff you off?

Nathaniel Seekins · Answer

@Dustin Shoemaker

Ryan's done a good job outlining how our local meetup was born.  As he said, don't get hung up on the logistics.  Your primary focus should be networking with other folks in your market.

Find a local place that costs nothing (bars, restaurants, etc. are good, especially mid-week when they're slow and would appreciate the business).  Then post a meetup on the BP event page (you'll have to be a plus or pro member to do so) and if only one person shows up to that first meeting then hey, success!  You've got someone to talk REI with!  Also, go back through the forums, see if anyone has talked about meetups in your local area and reach out to them directly, inviting them to your event.  Just don't do promotion on the open forums or you'll endure the wrath of @Mindy Jensen :)

It will snowball from there as long as you are consistent.  Same time, same place, without fail.  With meetups, consistency is key.  Not everyone will be able to attend each time but if it's always at the same time and place, people can start to put it on their calendars.

Please feel free to PM me if you wish.

Ryan Murdock · Answer

I wouldn't let this discourage you. Many of folks at our meet up are not BP members but the ones that are have attracted other investor friends along with them.  It's amazing how quickly a group of like minded individuals can form simply through word of mouth once the ball gets rolling.

Grant Rothenburger · Answer

@Dustin Shoemaker We use eventbrite so people can RSVP and we know ahead of time how many people there will be each month.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

@Dustin Shoemaker I'm in the same boat as you. I live in a town of 9,000 and we've never had a real estate investors group. The nearest one meets in a town two hours away in a different state.

I have wanted to start one for several years and finally decided to just do it. I put a message out on our local facebook classifieds page asking if anyone was interested, and I shared it with all my facebook friends. I had about 25 people contact me. So I created a facebook group (Park County Real Estate Investors Group) and posted that. I now have nearly 50 people signed up and several others that don't use facebook.

Yesterday I posted an ad for our first meeting. I've had 10 people RSVP but expect as many as 20. I'm holding it at a bar, which will cost me $75, but I'll use a free venue next time.

I haven't held any meetings yet so I can't gauge how many will stick it through but I'm optimistic. I've heard it's common to get less than 10 per meeting. I plan on having a speaker or leading a topic each meeting based on member requests. This first one will be a quick overview of investing topics so people can choose what they want to learn more about in the future. For my second meeting I am inviting someone to speak about asset protection (setting  up LLC, umbrella insurance)

If you decide to start one, let me know how it goes. Maybe we can learn from each other.

Dustin Shoemaker · Answer

That's great advise  Nathaniel and Ryan, but when I search BiggerPockets for investors near me I don't know if it's because I'm not a pro member but I only see three other people in my area that are Bigger Pockets members, but saying that now, I guess three is a good start if they came out! Thank you for your input!

Ryan Murdock · Answer

@Dustin Shoemaker

@Nathaniel Seekins recently started a meetup in our area. He advertised here on BP and hosted the first one in his living room just to gauge interest. The following meetings have been monthly and at a bar here in town. At this stage there is no fee or real agenda but it's been a great way for local investors to get together to trade referrals and war stories. We may head towards trying to get relevant guest speakers if momentum continues to build but right now it's pretty informal. Don't get too caught up at first trying to put together an elaborate event. Just pick a time and date and make it happen.

How to start a meet up in my local area?8

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