Community members suggested that I share my lessons learned from doing various online engagement experiments in the last few months so I hosted a small-group discussion with them on virtual facilitation. I learned a lot from the discussion and this blogpost is my attempt at summarizing everything.
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It has always bothered me that virtual events almost always feel more transactional compared to face-to-face events especially in the startup community scene. Like how lecture-style virtual event formats would make you sit alone in a room, without having the satisfaction of getting to know a seatmate, and have you listen to a series of hour-long talks and calling that experience a “conference”.
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“You should’ve done it this way.” or “This event sucks. What I would’ve done is…”
These comments sound familiar? There’s always this one guy/gal who stands in the corner of the room with a “high-and-mighty” glare, telling everyone but you about what he/she “would’ve done differently” and walks away without ever actually trying to do something.
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Running as many Startup Weekends as I have, I’d like to share a few observations that’ll hopefully help organizers elevate their participants’ (and to some extent, their own) experience at their event.
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The Assistant Regional Directress of DTI Region VII reached out to me a few months back to talk about better engaging the local startup community and working together on planning government programs that more effectively assists the growth of tech startup entrepreneurs. This gave rise to the Community+ Government monthly meetup – an open discussion between grassroots tech and startup community leaders and their government counterparts on how to better work together to further enrich our local tech startup ecosystem.
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In the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with various event formats to see if I can keep the monthly meetups I run consistent and interesting for participants. I’m writing this blogpost to share to you what I’ve learned and hopefully help you feel less intimidated by regularly organizing community events.
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One afternoon, I found this press release from the official website of the Philippine Senate announcing the approval of the Innovative Startup Act. It was recent, in May, and I recall having the opportunity to review the bill before it was passed as community members were encouraged to do so by The Office of Senator Bam Aquino – the senator who authored the bill. Unfortunately, at the time I was admittedly too ignorant so now I hope to make up for it by sharing what I’ve learned.
Before I get to the good bits, I’d just like to thank Shane Reiser for his “How I run a Startup Weekend” blogpost which was one of the first resources I read when I first started organizing, and is also the inspiration for this post. His account of how he tackles the Startup Weekend program inspired me to run my own experiments in organizing a Startup Weekend and have an observer’s mind that made me learn so much after each event no matter what role I played. Thanks for putting that blogpost together, Shane!
It’s been a while since I’ve found the time to write. Funnily, last year’s resolution was that I’d post “one blogpost a month” and here I am a year later just starting to write one article. Goes to show how much New Year’s Resolutions make an impact. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯But, nevertheless, with the year of hiatus I definitely have enough content to go around if ever I do end up blogging again and this is one of the ideas I’ve had for a while. Startup Weekend has been a big part of my life ever since I joined my first one in 2012 and I’ve done my best to pass on that spirit to the communities I volunteer at.
As much as we’d like to partake in the noble endeavor of creating opportunities for the community, it all boils down to one thing: money. Or more specifically, the acquisition of resources. Without a venue, where will the event happen? Without speakers, where will you get content? Without marketing, how will you get participants?
Ashley Uy 