Suggestions for the next meetup

[Andrew Cholakian]

I'm opening up this thread to get some ideas for the next meetup.

I'm thinking of having the next meetup on Saturday, July 17th. How
would you guys feel about moving the meetup time a bit later, to say 5
PM? I'd like to get some feedback on this though, do you guys like the
3PM time, or does 4 or 5 (or even later?) sound better?

Also, as a venue, I was thinking of doing the next one at Null Space
Labs in downtown LA ( http://groups.google.com/group/los-angeles-hners-hacker-news/browse_thread/thread/7ade62db0cbc014
)

The next meetup will definitely have presentations (this was something
I've heard from a lot of you and fully agree with).
If anyone has any ideas for presentations post em here. I'm thinking
as a structure for presentations, maybe, 75 minutes of presentations.

Ian Sefferman mentioned in another thread startup pitches as a part of
the meetings, I think that'd be great as well.

One other idea would be a hacker trivia game, maybe split the group
into two teams and have a short friendly game. What do you guys think?

If you've got any other ideas post em here.

[Anthony Castillo]

Hi,

I actually prefer starting earlier as it leaves us the option of
extending into Saturday evening or cutting it short for other
obligations.

Anthony

[Sevag Simonian]

Null space sounds good to me!

As far as ideas for what to do during the meetup...

I think we all can learn from one another, no matter what stage we're at in
our entrepreneurial/designer/programmer careers, therefore, maybe we can
have some presentations on particular topics that might help the rest of the
group. Maybe some cool tricks or features we've discovered in a language,
framework, IDE, web-app, or whatever that potentially the rest of the group
would not know about. Since this is hacker news, I wouldn't expect a
presentation on basic HTML or the like here...something more interesting
than that.

Also, maybe some of us have created something, but we feel it's not good
enough in our eyes to actually go live with (or maybe we feel extremely
confident with it and just want the group's opinion on it, or to get a
little grounded). We can possibly present it to the group, and then bounce
ideas off each other as to how it can be improved. Constructive criticism.
Let's do what HN does, live, and with deeper discussion.

-Sevag

[Chris T]

I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it, but that really sounds like a great idea.  I hope the next one can be scheduled soon. =)

[Romy]

Can't speak for everyone, but:

Careful with presentations, they have a tendency to bore hackers (and
painters). Esp. if they're 75 min long !

Why aren't we hacking ? (Kudos Steve in other thread). Pair
programming, group programming, watching over a shoulder and learning,
whatever. Freestyle, or Rails-Rumble-like, where we all vote on quick-
to-implement ideas and start hacking in person, with a basic prototype
running in days? Would be a good way to find potential cofounders or
just have fun w/ other hackers, and give us stuff to talk about.

I'm also interested in business, and want to learn from others with
experience.

For instance, I'd love to hear more about Mr. Omg-I-heart-orange-
laptops-n-teslas (David I think?) and his startup trials and
tribulations. If I see him again I'll ask him in private, but I have a
feeling I'm not the only one who'd benefit from asking questions.

I also want to know what he, and everyone else here, is currently
working on. What their goals are, what their problems are, and what
they're open to doing. Would you like me to put up a spreadsheet for
the time being, specifically for our group ? We could turn this into a
website later if need be.

Romy

[Anthony Castillo]

I second (third?) that idea. Maybe we could even work on a project in
a language that's new to most people so we can get introduced to new
concepts. Scala, Erlang or Haskell? Arduino even?

It would be a little slower to get something off the ground, but it
might be a little more interesting.

Anthony

[Andrew Cholakian]

Romy,

I totally agree on the presentations being capped. I personally feel
like two or three 20 minute presentations (with a cutoff) should be
long enough for most presentations. Anyone else have thoughts on time?

As far as coding / general hacking, I think that's a good idea too,
but I do have some reservations.

What I love about HN is the diversity of people it attracts.
Reflecting on that, I'd like to keep as many people involved as
possible. I think keeping the format more general will in the end be a
better idea, because if we don't I fear that only a subset of
programmers will want to come, and non-programmers will definitely not
want to come. If people want to work on projects at the meetup that's
great, but I don't think that needs to be organized at the group
level.

I think the spreadsheet's fantastic though. If people want to code,
they should code, but I doubt it's for everyone.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I have a feeling a fair number
of people might not want to spend a few days (or even a few hours)
working on a new project, seeing as how there's very little we could
make in the time we have for our meetups (you mentioned a timescale of
days). I have a job and my own side projects (which I barely have any
time for).My brain really isn't ready for yet another project. I'm
sure I'm not the only one.

Let's also remember that that in a group of 30 people there are going
to be that many projects everyone is interested in or even able to do
(not everyone in the group codes or is at the same skill level,
remember). Additionally, I don't think we all even have laptops (I
don't, though by pure coincidence I'm getting one in a couple weeks).

Perhaps what would be best, is the spreadsheet, as you suggested, and
perhaps after the presentation portion people could make announcements
that they'll be teaching X or hacking on Y.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

[Sevag Simonian]

Maybe have a list of presentation ideas, and let people vote on the top 3
(or some other number) beforehand? I'm a coder, so I wouldn't mind
pair/group hacking either.

I'm fine with whatever makes the meet up more interesting :)

-Sevag

-----Original Message-----
From: los-angeles-hn...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:los-angeles-hn...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Andrew
Cholakian
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 7:31 AM
To: Los Angeles HNers (Hacker News)
Subject: Re: Suggestions for the next meetup

[Andrew Cholakian]

Cool, I'll start a thread asking for presentation ideas.

I didn't want to sound anti-coding, I just wanted to make sure we still included those that couldn't / weren't interested.

Andrew Cholakian
http://www.andrewvc.com

[Romy]

On Jun 23, 7:30 am, Andrew Cholakian <andre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Romy,
>
> I totally agree on the presentations being capped. I personally feel
> like two or three 20 minute presentations (with a cutoff) should be
> long enough for most presentations. Anyone else have thoughts on time?
>
> As far as coding / general hacking, I think that's a good idea too,
> but I do have some reservations.
>
> What I love about HN is the diversity of people it attracts.
> Reflecting on that, I'd like to keep as many people involved as
> possible. I think keeping the format more general will in the end be a
> better idea, because if we don't I fear that only a subset of
> programmers will want to come, and non-programmers will definitely not
> want to come. If people want to work on projects at the meetup that's
> great, but I don't think that needs to be organized at the group
> level.

I agree, that's why it should be saved for the last thing on the
agenda. People who wanna hack will hack, others can talk or leave. But
I think it should be announced.

>
> I think the spreadsheet's fantastic though. If people want to code,
> they should code, but I doubt it's for everyone.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AqOKCaqgeSKkdGt4WkZOekdyQ3NGYWNIeHhoaURuVlE&hl=en

I'll also post it in its own thread.