Quickstart 1-pager

The organizer’s handbook collects the wisdom of the NetSquared local community, who collectively hold over 450 events per year. You can go deep into any topic. But if you’re just beginning as a local organizer this one-page guide will get you started.

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Choose a location

Location! Location! Location!

Finding a venue is your first goal. Most cities have free or low-cost venues available for community events.
Some example venues:

  • cafes or coffee shops
  • co-working spaces
  • office space that’s available after-hours

Organizer’s handbook: venue spaces page.

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Choose a meeting time

When will you hold your event? Day? Nights? Weekends?
Most organizers choose to hold their events in the evening after work.

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Selecting your topic and format

Successful meetups feature a variety of formats, but these are the most popular:

  1. Case study presentation or panel of experts talking about a nonprofit tech topic
  2. Tool-focused event (ie. “5 online tools for measuring social media success”)
  3. Crowdsourcing Change/group consultations

Topics will depend on the needs of your local community and the speakers you can find, but these are perennial hits:

  • Social media for nonprofits
  • Introduction to email newsletters
  • Online fundraising and crowdfunding

Organizer’s handbook: formats & topics; speakers.

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Promote your event

NetSquared local organizers get free access to meetup.com, a powerful event management and promotion tool.
We also provide promotional email templates, promotion of your events via NetSquared.org, and social media support.

Organizer’s handbook: growing your community; using meetup; email messaging.

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Documenting your event

Once your event is over it’s time to share the awesome-ness with the world!

  • Ask the audience to tag all tweets with a hashtag (we use #net2 and most cities use something like #net2CITY NAME OR STATE)
  • Take photographs and add them to our Flickr group.
  • Blog the event and post it to NetSquared.org

Organizer’s handbook: event follow-up

More tips

The organizers handbook will help you find a co-organizer, solicit sponsorships, expand your audience; NetSquared logos; NetSquared slide decks; and more.

Questions? Please email net2@techsoup.org or ask on the google group.