Join Us For Bay Area's First Steemit Meetup On August 25th - Plus A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Plan a Steemit Meetup

All Steem Dollars made from this post will fund the Meetup costs, such as event space rental, food and drinks, and fliers.

Hello Steemians! I want to spread the word about Bay Area's first Steemit Meetup happening on Thursday August 25th from 6:30-8:30. I also want to provide a step-by-step guide on how to plan a Steemit Meetup in case you want to plan one in your neighborhood. I hope you find this information useful! Also, if you are in the Bay Area please stop by the event and RSVP here:
https://www.meetup.com/steemitsf/events/232883052/

1) Have the brilliant idea

@steemrollin emailed me a few weeks ago with the brilliant idea. Here's a clip from his first email:

I got your emails from Slack. I just remember both of you are from the Bay Area so was wondering if either of you have time to help organize a meetup. Let me know. Thanks! Jd.

2) Reach out to Steemians in your area

@steemrollin reached out to me because he remembered that I mentioned being from the Bay Area in several of my posts. If you're not sure which Steemians reside in your zipcode, you can always head over to https://steemit.chat/home and asking in the general channel if anyone lives close to you. I believe the more hands the better when it comes to planning a Meetup. @steemrollin and I have been able to split up tasks and work very well together.

3) Create a Meetup group and event

Head over to meetup.com and create an account if you do not have one already. @steemrollin created a new group "SF Bay Area Steemit Meetup".

Underneath that group he created our first event "Make Money Sharing Your Life & Passions - Introducing Steemit!" Here are a few snapshots from the page:

If you want to see the full page, here is the link:
https://www.meetup.com/steemitsf/events/232883052/

4) Find A Location

Our goal was to find a location that wouldn't break the bank, could hold space for up to 50 people, had projection abilities, and looked awesome! @steemrollin first got me in contact with @btctravis, the lead organizer for the San Francisco Bitcoin Social Meetup group. Travis gave me some leads for event spaces that the SF Bitcoin Social Meetup group had already hosted events in. @steemrollin also sent over this wonderful list of co-working spaces:
http://wiki.coworking.org/w/page/16583935/SanFranciscoCoworking
Co-working spaces are the way to go in terms of Meetup venues. Most spaces already have the AV equipment you need, host events regularly, and have a bunch of people to market the event to. I emailed a ton of places and received some great responses. Some of the venues were asking for thousands of dollars while some were just asking for enough to cover coordination and cleaning costs. Code and Canvas was one of these places. This is the email I sent out to Code and Canvas:

This is part of the reply that I received from Code and Canvas:

Imagine that! The person who I reached out to at Code and Canvas actually works at Coinbase and is already acquainted with Steemit! Further, he has agreed to accept the small payment for cleaning and coordination costs in Bitcoin! Here are some photos of the event space that we will be in on August 25th:

5) Eat Drink and Be Merry!

All great events are coupled with great drinks and food. For this Meetup we have decided to provide some amazing food and drink options to lure people in. We chose local favorites around the Bay Area. For food we have pizza from Cheesboard Pizza and pastries from Arizmendi Bakery. Both are worker-owned cooperatives and highly popular in San Francisco and the East Bay. For drinks we are providing beer from Lagunitas Brewing and wine from SF Wine Trading Co., both popular local businesses as well. We chose the local route because we want to show that we support local businesses and that we want to foster a local community through this Meetup.
Here is my delicious pizza the last time I went to Cheeseboard in Berkeley:

6) Marketing!

@steemrollin and I made this flier, using @pfunk's wonderful banner. We are heading out to San Francisco and the East Bay this week to post these fliers all over town. I am planning on posting many fliers around UC Berkeley, as college campuses are high traffic areas and students on college campuses read fliers pretty frequently. Further, I think that an influx of college students on Steemit would be wonderful, as many are already blogging or writing wonderful research and creative papers.

7) Document the event

I have a friend who is a professional videographer and photographer who has agreed to document the Meetup on August 25th. This documentation can be used for marketing purposes and act as an archive for Steemit's growth.

8) Have YOU signup!

If you are in the Bay Area or close by, we want to see you at 6:30 on August 25th. We will wine and dine you, and provide you with a wonderful evening of presentations, socializing, and networking. Please RSVP on our Meetup event page: https://www.meetup.com/steemitsf/events/232883052/