# Improving Ansible Meetups **URL:** \ **Category:** Meetup Discussions\ **Tags:** virtual-event, in-person-event, event, mindshare, community-wg-nextmtg\ **Created:** [June 20, 2025, 11:22am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491 "2025-06-20T11:22:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 11:22am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/1 "2025-06-20T11:22:25Z")
Hi folks, It’s been a long time since we talked about Ansible Meetups, so I thought we should fix that. Some of the ideas head follow on from the great discussions we have around [reducing fragmentation in the Ansible Communication platforms](https://forum.ansible.com/t/proposal-consolidating-ansible-discussion-platforms/6812). # Summary We have migrated the active Ansible Meetups to a [new home on **Meetup Pro**](https://www.meetup.com/pro/ansible) to create a shared space for Ansible users, practitioners, technologists, and all-round automation enthusiasts. Meetup Pro allows us to connect Ansible events on a global scale in a more unified way than having multiple, separate groups operating independently. I’d like to get you ideas on what we can do better, so if you’ve never been to an Ansible Meetup, or you are an Meetup host, I’d love to hear what’s working (and more importantly) what we can improve. # What Meetup Group should I join? - See where the [nearest Ansible meetup group](https://www.meetup.com/pro/ansible) is on the map - No local meetup, join [Ansible Virtual Meetup Group](https://www.meetup.com/ansible-virtual-meetups/), so you will be informed of online meetups - International Audience - Join the following groups to be informed of online meetups - French Meetups - #International Communities > (Français) French (forum resources) - [Ansible Paris | Meetup](http://www.meetup.com/Ansible-Paris) (primary Europe) - [Ansible Montréal | Meetup](http://www.meetup.com/Ansible-Montreal) (North America) - German - #International Communities > Deutsche (German) (forum resources) - [Ansible München | Meetup](http://www.meetup.com/Ansible-Munchen) - Italian - #International Communities > Italiano (Italian) (forum resources) - [Ansible Roma | Meetup](http://www.meetup.com/Ansible-Roma) - Portuguese - #International Communities > Português (Portuguese) (forum resources) - [Ansible São Paulo | Meetup](http://www.meetup.com/Ansible-Sao-Paulo) - Spanish - #International Communities > Español (Spanish) (forum resources) - [Ansible Barcelona | Meetup](http://www.meetup.com/Ansible-Barcelona) (EMEA) - [Ansible Buenos Aires | Meetup](http://www.meetup.com/Ansible-Buenos-Aires) (LATAM) As a reminder, you can find all the above and more in the #Events calendar # Actions We will keep this list updates with current progress - ✅ Create Ansible on Meetup Pro [Ansible | Meetup Pro](https://www.meetup.com/pro/ansible) - ✅ Create [ansible-virtual-meetup](https://www.meetup.com/ansible-virtual-meetups/) group (for online events) - ✅ Add useful links into [Ansible’s new meetup landing page](https://www.meetup.com/pro/ansible) - ✅ Create subcategories for [other spoken languages](https://forum.ansible.com/c/other-languages/10) - ✅ #International Communities > Português (Portuguese) - ✅ #International Communities > (Français) French - ✅ #International Communities > Deutsche (German) - ✅ #International Communities > Italiano (Italian) - In addition to the existing #International Communities > Español (Spanish) & #International Communities > Norsk (Norwegian) - ❌ Invite Meetup members from closing groups to Forum & [ansible-virtual-meetups](https://www.meetup.com/ansible-virtual-meetups/) group ## Promoting events - How can people find out that there is a Meetup happening in their home town? - Where should we be promoting the events - Some of this might be regional, for each Meetup, do we need the members to help identify where we can promote the event? ## Making the events useful & fun - How do we keep the events interactive - Do we need to ensure there is a balance in each event between “Getting Started” and a “advanced topic”. For the Ansible London Meetup event, we get a fairly consistent 50% of people defining themselves as “New to Ansible”. - Are open floor & panel discussion useful? Give people a chance to ask the room of users ## Ansible Forum for promotion & discussion How can we better use the Forum to support our meetups? - We already have the [event calendar](https://forum.ansible.com/c/events/8), how can we improve this? - Earlier this year we started adding [slides to the Forum](https://forum.ansible.com/tag/event-slides), though apart from the [February London meetup](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-london-ansible-london-thursday-27th-february-2025-2025-02-27/40779), we’ve not had much discussion - In the past few months, we’ve created Forum Badges for Meetup [Attendees](https://forum.ansible.com/badges/127/meetup-attendee), [presenters](https://forum.ansible.com/badges/123/meetup-speaker) and [hosts](https://forum.ansible.com/badges/124/meetup-organizer) ## What to do with inactive meetups? There are a few meetup groups that haven’t ever hosted an event, and some with no events since 2017 (or 2020). What can we do there, would people be OK with those groups having n-months notice then been closed down ## International audience (non-native English speakers) You might not know, though we have an [International Category](https://forum.ansible.com/c/other-languages/10) in the Forum. While it’s not widely used, it seems like something that overlaps with what we are trying to achieve with the Ansible Meetups. I feel having non-English talks and resources is especially important for folks that are just starting out. ## Meetup organizers logistics We recognize its both rewarding and tough work running meetups, I think we could do more to support our meetup organizers across the globe - Would a dedicated area on the Forum for Meetup discussions help (maybe with sub-sections for logistics+promotions, CFP, etc) help - If you are a Meetup organizer (Ansible or another group) what could help you? ## Virtual Meetups Is there interest in having some online meetups. I know we miss the social side, though it recognized that the vast majory of Ansible users aren’t close to city with an active Meetup, of if they are, can make the events. - For example, we could have an event that’s EMEA evening and therefore East Coast afternoon. - How can we make online meetups fun? - - How can we make online meetups useful? ## Multi City Meetups (Hybrid in-person & virtual) There was an interesting approach in India a few years. (from memory) they have 5 meetups across different cities, each city did one meetup live, and broadcast to the other 4 meetup locations. ## Meetup Survey Do we need a survey across all out meetup members, we’ve got thousands of people across our Meetup groups, what should we ask them, as the target users. Some initial ideas: - Multi-select: Meetup locations - Have you ever attended a meetup - Did you know Ansible has meetups - Which other meetups do you attend - Free form: What would we need to do for you to attend meetups - Do/have you - attended Ansible Fest - attended Red Hat Summit - in-person Ansible Meetup - Virtual Meetup - Are you interested in - (copy above list) - Where do you hear about meetups - How would you like to know about meetups - For your city/region is there any website/LinkedIn/etc place where tech events are shared? Thank in advance for your ideas, any discussion is welcome, from all people, even if you’ve not been to a Meetup. ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 11:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/2 "2025-06-20T11:25:02Z")
[@MeetupOrganisers](https://forum.ansible.com/groups/meetuporganisers) - would love your thoughts on how we can improve our Meetups. ---
**Author:** ![tonk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/tonk/32/214_2.png) [@tonk](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tonk)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 12:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/3 "2025-06-20T12:09:35Z")
Organizing Meetups can be hard. Some struggles that I have had are: - Finding speakers - Deciding what the level should be, beginner, advanced, expert, mix - Finding a venue / sponsor - Letting people know that the Meetup will take place As I am in the very lucky position that my employee loves open-source and encourages us to do things like this, I have the availability of a wonderful venue to host the Meetups, also my lunch is sponsored. One of the major turn-offs is the fact that mostly the no-show percentage is about 50%, which is very bad. (Last Meetup in NL we had a 100% show percentage, which was absolutely wonderful) ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 9:35am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/4 "2025-06-21T09:35:31Z")
I’ve restored all the Meetup groups without hosts. Next step is to recover the deleted accounts. ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/5 "2025-06-24T19:13:40Z")
## Meetup Welcome Messages I hadn’t noticed that Meetup Groups can have a customer [Welcome Message](https://www.meetup.com/blog/how-to-create-a-communication-plan-for-your-meetup-group/#:~:text=Make%20a%20great%20first%20impression%20with%20your%20welcome%20message%C2%A0), this feels like a good thing to have a standard template, which says: - Thank you for joining - Link to Ansible Forum’s events - Link to Bullhorn - How to submit a talk idea - Link to [previous slides](https://forum.ansible.com/tag/event-slides) _what else?_ ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/6 "2025-06-24T20:44:24Z")
## Combining Meetup Groups In a few cases, we’ve got some groups that are (comparatively) geographically close, with one active, for example For Ireland, we currently have - ansible-ireland Last meetup: **2025** , 250 members - ansible-dublin last meetup: 2016. 300 members - ansible-cork-ireland Last meetup 2025, 82 members So in the above case, I’d propose we make ansible-ireland the primary, invite members from the other two groups, then archive them after a few months. ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 11:39am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/7 "2025-07-04T11:39:28Z")
Hi folks, Happy to announce the launch of [Ansible on Meetup Pro](https://www.meetup.com/pro/ansible/). I’ll be moving the active groups, so don’t worry if your group isn’t there yet, One of the nice features for Ansible is the ability to schedule virtual events across the whole network, no matter of where you call home. We will also be adding new [sub-categories](https://forum.ansible.com/c/other-languages/10) for other spoken languages. ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/8 "2025-12-04T20:29:01Z")
We’ve seen an uptick on spam across out Meetup Groups (this isn’t an Ansible specific problem) While meetup are quick to respond to spam requests, my fear is that people just disable notifications. Therefore won’t get notified if new events. It’s been suggested that we disable discussions in our [Meetup Groups](https://www.meetup.com/pro/ansible/), and link to the Forum, which I think is a great idea. I’m thinking we want one sub-category per meetup group. What do people think? ---
**Author:** ![Leo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/leo/32/23_2.png) [@Leo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Leo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/9 "2025-12-04T21:18:12Z")
Hey all! Lots to share here, but I wanted to do a quick comment and start on this: > [@gundalow](#): > > I’m thinking we want one sub-category per meetup group. What do people think? I’m thinking maybe we can start with a single Meetups category and threads for each meetup to get the ball rolling and if it gets too active, split it into sub-categories? The international communities categories haven’t been very active (might be a chicken and egg dilemma, related to little awareness and promotion), so replicating the multiple categories while there is little activity might be counterproductive to get started. ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 11:02am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/10 "2026-01-21T11:02:56Z")
> [@Leo](#): > > I’m thinking maybe we can start with a single Meetups category and threads for each meetup to get the ball rolling and if it gets too active, split it into sub-categories? I’ve created a new area for people to talk about the events and offer help: #Events > Meetup Discussions ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 9:56am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/improving-ansible-meetups/43491/11 "2026-02-06T09:56:18Z")
New topic, how we can share and collaborate on slides: > [@GitHub repo for Slides (for Meetups)](https://forum.ansible.com/t/github-repo-for-slides-for-meetups/45281): > > During [CfgMgmtCamp 2026](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cfgmgmtcamp-2026/44250) we recognized that we finding speakers and speakers creating presentations takes times, and that as a global community we often end up creating similar presentations. We discussed and thought it might be useful to have a GitHub repository for slides to either use directly, or adjust. We agreed that we needed text-based slides (rather than PDFs) so we can edit. I had previously used [Reveal.js](https://revealjs.com/) and found it easy to create good slides, and allows community contribution. Rev…