The One With Meetups

The summer holidays are over and meetup season is back! And I think that is great.

I’ve always been a fan of meetups. Köln is a great city for tech-related meetups, there is always something interesting going on at any time. Back when I worked in the center of the city we used to joke that as a tech person you don’t really need to cook dinner ever, you could just go to a different meetup every day of the week and eat pizza there. It seems to have taken everyone (organiser and attendees) some time to get back into a kind of routine “after Covid”, but I guess we’re back in full swing now.

I personally like to go to lots of different types of meetups. I’ve been to language-specific user groups, fancy meetups at big companies with a well-known speaker giving a long talk, and Open-Space/Lean-Coffee-style gatherings. They all provide different opportunities to learn something new and connect with like-minded people.

I went to a few Scrumtischs recently, both in Köln and Bonn (which have an overlap of people, of course), kind of triggered by an upcoming project where I will be in a role that has probably some similarities with an Agile Coach. And I thought I could use some inspiration, fresh ideas, and some new connections, maybe. I did even do a session at one of them. Which went into a very different direction than I planned, but it was very interesting nonetheless. Open Space at its best, I guess.

Aside from the learning aspect, I really love to connect with new and old people at events like this. Today I’m going to another Scrumtisch in Köln with my former favourite coworker. I think meetups are always a great opportuniy to meet up with a former coworker who is still interested in the same things as you, knows your background, and can give you some new perspective on the things you are pondering right now.

Which is one reason why I’m really excited about hosting a meetup again! I helped organise a few at Studitemps, but it’s been a while. Now one of my codecentric coworkers from Köln and I are bringing cc’s “tech&talk” to Köln. This meetup series has been hosted at various of our branches for a while, and since our office in Solingen is a bit out of the way for us and other people from here, someone (I don’t know who and when, it was before I started there) suggested hosting it in Köln, too. We’ve found a beautiful location at Ebertplatz and a great speaker for our first event. It’s going to be UX focussed but for everyone who works in tech. There will be pizza, then Stefan will do the talk, and then there’s lots of time and a fully stocked fridge for socialising and networking afterwards. If you want to come, sign up here and we’re very happy to see you next Wednesday!