Moving to a new city is now less intimidating thanks to Meetup.com which make it easy to meet people with similar interests. After moving to Bellevue in July, newcomer Debbie Peters, attended a First Friday Meetup in September at the Bellevue Art Museum organized by the Eastside Social Meetup group and found a whole new circle of friends. ‘The Eastside Social Meetup events is one of the better organized groups on the platform and there is usually something on their calendar every week worth attending. I have gone to the movies with the group in Redmond, attended their Halloween party in Kirkland and got see to places I had never been to.’
Any member of a Meetup group can organize an event so, Debbie, who has previously organized networking events in New York, Johannesburg, Lagos and Harare, soon began organizing events of her own. The first Meetup she organized was the ‘The Bellevue Bar Hop’ in October which was so over-subscribed that on the group’s first stop that night at Joey’s Restaurant, the manager got annoyed but ended up apologizing and gave the group a bottle of champagne. Next Debbie organized a well-attended a music night at Bake’s jazz club, which turned out to be a more accommodating venue which great band. She is organizing a game night and travel talk at Lucky Strike, Bellevue and says she selected the travel talk just to give attendees something to break the ice.
“I usually to attend only business networking events but as a new girl in town I didn’t know anyone in Bellevue and needed to make friends so I joined the Eastside Social Meetup group. Members of the group include other recent transplants to Bellevue including spouses of people who moved here to work in the tech industry as well as local residents who enjoy group outings. I joined Meetup many years ago and as a person who has lived in several places I find it useful in establishing a social life. When I moved to Seattle 6 months ago, I hear a lot about ‘The Seattle Freeze’ and Meetups are a useful tool for bypassing that. I have also attended other Meetups in Seattle and Bellevue, and Bellevue Meetups are better organized in comparison. It is a smaller city so easier to navigate and has classy venues. It is also nice that I know people when I attend events now because I did not know anyone when I moved here. At first, I used to attend everything I could but now I am more selective as I am busy with work and volunteer activities. There are Two other popular Meetup groups I recommend joining in Bellevue are the Monday networking evenings at Stone Lounge and the business venture group. As an organizer I first research my venues by visiting them and then speaking to management in advance so that things go smoothly on the day. I focus on after-work events for professionals and I stick to downtown Bellevue only because it is central so everyone can get there easily. At the last event at Bake’s jazz club one of the members complimented me on choosing classy venues. I will only organize Meetups once in a while as long as I am still having fun doing it, so I am not a prolific organizer and I avoid doing events where I have to collect payment because it requires too much admin’.
