REI Meetup Preferences

[Sabrina Sanchez]

We host a monthly real estate related meetup in Worcester through "Simplified REI Meetup." We have been having them every 3rd Wednesday of the month and many people from Biggerpockets have attended ours. We have one coming up on Wed, Jan 18th at a brand new location and I wondered what people preferred :

Does food matter? 

Do you prefer a presenter?

Do you prefer networking the whole time vs listening to a presenter and then networking a little?

What about virtual meetups? 

Do you prefer virtual over face to face interactions? 

Feel free to add anything that you have found valuable at other REI meetups.

[Nicole Heasley Beitenman]

I love this post! I've been attending meetups around NE Ohio since 2016 and run 2 of my own. One has been operating since January 2020 and the other since December 2021.

1. Yes, food matters. You're likely hosting this event at breakfast, lunch, or dinner time. If people have to go home and eat first, your odds of getting them back out of the house to attend your meetup will tank. I recommend having options for folks to order a drink as well. It creates a more social, energetic atmosphere that loosens people up. 

2. No, I do not prefer a presenter. If someone wants to learn about insurance, taxes, lending, or whatever, there's probably someone in the room they can find who does one of those things. If not, they can get a few references from other attendees or find a book or podcast on the topic. Finding a presenter every month creates more work for you, they tend to get repetitive, and if people aren't interested in the topic, they're more likely to skip your event. Now, if your group is big enough, you might be able to get a sponsorship program going and turn the meetup into another source of cashflow. Then I'd be singing a different tune. And I'd keep presentations short (15 minutes max).

3. Networking the whole time. I've already shared my opinion on presenters.

4. We tried going virtual when our venue was shut down by Covid. It didn't go well. Very poor attendance and you can only have one topic of conversation happening at a time. I don't recommend. 

5. Face-to-face all the way.