I'm a new investor and have only been to a couple of meetups. With my experience so far and being in the early stages, I like having a presenter. I've been trying to learn as much as I can through all the avenues I can find. For me, sometimes it's nice to have someone dedicated to a certain topic, that way you can ask questions directly to the topic and talk about them and hear other people's questions and thoughts about it as well. It's one thing to watch a seminar, youtube video or listen to a podcast, but it's another to be able to ask direct questions and be involved in the conversation in the topic you're trying to learn about. The more involved you are in anything, the better you will not only understand it, but the better you will be at it.
Too long and people can loose interest. Whatever the topic is, it should be directed at the highlights of what it is and how it works and give a few real world examples from the presenter and to make it even better, get examples of people's investments, leads from the crowd to get even more involvement. If people are new like me, they can get more involved and get more of a realistic idea as to what to expect and how things work that they might be struggling with.
Another idea is to have a role play session. Could have people try to talk to "sellers" and present different options for financing or how to talk to banks or whoever.
Yes, food helps. Like Nicole said, if it's dinner time and people eat at home, they're going to be less likely to come back out. Even if it's a sandwich platter, it's something. I go to the gym at 5 in the morning, work all day and come dinner time I'm ready to eat. If I go to a class and there's food there, I'm all for it.
