I led a successful AWS meetup for many years, however as implied COVID was a turning point.

We pivoted to online during the year of restrictions, but I didn't want to do that. Presenting into a void doesn't hold any interest for me, people mute themselves and you aren't sure if there is anyone really there.

When I could get it back in person, I did. The problems I found were that

1. Companies weren't interested in hosting anymore. They all complain about wanting folks to come in to the office, but then don't do anything that would entice them.

2. Folks didn't want to leave their house and begged for live stream links. I'm not interested in becoming a YouTuber, I want to meet people with cool stories we can share, who might have skills that I might want to hire, perhaps help them with problems they've encountered.

I'm not going to get that from a muted black box that disconnects after the presentation.

I've walked away now but that's not because us leaders were uninterested or don't have capacity. People didn't seem interested, and then complain that there isn't any way to meet people.

Hopefully this attitude is changing, and I can revisit some of my code club projects.

Seems hard to give an answer to this that isn't just anecdotal. Certainly some died during COVID, but some came back to life!

Perhaps the lesson from seeing a group die is that often the old organisers don't have the capacity for it anymore, but are happy and supportive to see it live on if you approach them with motivation.

Every Meetup happens because a few people decide to make it happen

I don’t think meetups are dead, but generic meetups feel much weaker than before. I think the hard part for young people is discover, so if you're not already connected, you don't even know where to show up.

> How are these kids going to meet other practitioners, build their network and even put themselves out there by presenting?

If they have any amount of wealth in their family they will have plenty of opportunities for this.

Otherwise, unless they’re particularly intelligent, they’ll find that that are among the “overproduced” elites and will have to find something else to support themselves.

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