I've been running GolangSyd for about 8 years now, and previously Sydney Python for about the same amount of time. I found finding sponsors to be one of the hardest things. One of the last Sydney Pythons in which I gave a talk on machine learning had ~250 people attending (PyConAU at that time had roughly as many people I think). So large that the pizza bill was way more than the host (who was the sponsor as well) had anticipated, so we were no longer welcome at that venue. And said host is a well known billion dollar Aussie company.
Thankfully for GolangSyd, my cohosts have been extremely talented with finding sponsors. This gives us a lot more opportunity to do weirder things like https://gogogogogo.casa .
Running meetups are hard work, full stop. On the other hand, I've gotten to know some people very well and some of my best collabs have been thru these meetups. Running a meetup was a way for me to overcome my own reluctance to socialize.
I've hosted the Thessaloniki Python meet up for the past ten years. I had a relevant discussion in the latest meet-up, two weeks ago:
Some of the members were asking why I don't find sponsors, get some food and drinks, a bigger venue, and try to grow the meet up. I realized at that moment that I don't want to.
I don't like the business part of technology, I'd rather have a meet up of twenty people building cool random things with Python, than two hundred job-seeing networkers. I know it's a bit of a false dichotomy, but I've found that sponsors turn the event businessy quickly.
This is all to say that, if you're organizing a meet up, you should decide what you want from it. I don't want a large meet up, I want a small group of people who know each other and have fun while presenting topics interesting to them. Maybe you want the biggest meetup in the country, with everyone there finding exciting jobs. That's OK too, it just makes the approach very different, which means it's hard to give general advice.
I once bought pizza for all the PyCon sprinters on the first day of the sprints. High quality pizza, too (Lou Malnati's in Chicago). Spent over $900 on it. As I was handing out pizza, I realized "I just spent more on pizza than I did on my first car."
Not really - the NY Tech Meetup / DC Tech Meetups would regularly have hundreds of attendees, and a few others like the Data Community DC ones had quite a few. Even in those larger numbers, sponsors are flighty and often unappreciative.
Current organizer of Data Community DC here. It's a lot of work to get a sponsor, and they tend to churn after a year or two when the individual advocate moves on.
The best sponsors know the value of long term community engagement. Bad sponsors are more transactional, and want to really see the short term value they get.
Thankfully for GolangSyd, my cohosts have been extremely talented with finding sponsors. This gives us a lot more opportunity to do weirder things like https://gogogogogo.casa .
Running meetups are hard work, full stop. On the other hand, I've gotten to know some people very well and some of my best collabs have been thru these meetups. Running a meetup was a way for me to overcome my own reluctance to socialize.