ChallengeThere are numerous designers who live, work, and play in Brooklyn, and plenty of meetups that are hosted within the confines of Manhattan.
But we felt like there wasn’t a consistent platform to allow for our design community to have a voice to connect with each other locally in Brooklyn, NY. |
Finding Our Voice and PurposeI have never been a big new year’s resolutions kinda gal, but I wanted to do something purposeful with my free time that can make a difference to the people that are around me.
To get set up, we needed to:
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Each of us has a voice. Our meetup is the platform and stage to feel empowered to teach others what you love to do, learn with curiosity, and make connections that our members otherwise wouldn’t have discovered themselves. And with that circle for trust, and play, and learning… our community was born.
Event formatsWe started small and leaned on our inner circles to get local speakers to sign up for a variety of topics. As we grew out our speaker base, we started to notice themes across the board – inclusive design, user research & data, mixed reality platforms, interaction design and principles. We have also expanded virtually during the pandemic to continue supporting our community in need of connection safely from the comfort of their own home.
Speaker talks (6/year) ● Lightning talks ● Stories & Experiences ● Portfolio Reviews ● Workshops/Panels Social events (6/year) ● Happy hour socials ● Artwalks/exhibitions ● Mindfulness/Local spotlight ● Joint meetup events Design Hackathons |
UXPA PrattUXathon
One of the biggest events we hosted was a full day design hackathon in conjunction and partnership with the UXPA PrattUXathon in Feb 2019, with over 50 participants, 10 teams, and 10 mentors, judges, and volunteer/organizers and behind the scenes sponsors and social media to generate buzz around the event. That was a project in itself!
Outcomes
Since establishing ourselves in 2017:
- We went from awkward strangers to now having repeat faces who have also expanded their roles to run the group with us
- Orchestrated volunteer roles and involvement, and enabled our speaker's personal growth; Pushed on their comfort zones to provide opportunities for members to practice public speaking
- I have been recognized and featured in a meetup.com live event panel and held a panel convo with 500+ meetup organizers to offer advise on how to homegrow, market, create, and grow their own community groups
- Kept our members safe and strong when they need it the most virtually during the shifts in pandemic
- Celebrated our anniversaries with an opener lightning talk on how we rooted with a small idea through to expansion
Up next:
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