Meetup Group: My new friend

Its been really long since i write anything. But now from this year i will try to write something new as much as possible. 

The best topic for the first day of new year cannot be better than my new Best FRIEND : Meetup Group.  It has changed my life for better, had saved me from going into deep depression, had helped to bring out my organisation skills, made me laugh, never left me alone....can never thank enough to this best friend

It doesn’t matter if you are in a new country, city , in your own country or returning to you home country after living few years abroad; there always comes a point when you feel alone, or you try to find like minded people , or people with similar hobbies , interest. In such situation the best answer is joining Meetup Groups.

What is this Meetup group….. well it’s a worldwide organization ,actually an Internet group which connects people from different countries, different cultures but with same interests , same hobbies and help find new friends, learn new people, new cultures.

Meetup group concept born actually after the incident of 9/11 attacks in NewYork. Scott Heiferman, Meetup's co-founder & CEO told the story of Meetup as , after the attacks he had an idea Could we use the internet to get off the internet — and grow local communities? Most people thought it was a crazy idea — especially because terrorism is designed to make people distrust one another. A small team came together, and they launched Meetup 9 months after 9/11. And today there are over 19 million Meetup members worldwide, and as of today, New York City is home to a million of them. . it’s working. Every day, thousands of Meetups happen. Moms Meetups, Small Business Meetups, Fitness Meetups, outdoor meetups, night life meetups… a wild variety of 100,000 Meetup Groups.

Basically it’s a website called www.meetup.com When you go in a new country or city or even in your own city and would like to meet new people or want to know some people having similar interests as you ; you can simply search on Meetup website any such groups within the specific radius of your town, city and then you will get the list of such groups. You can join these groups mostly for free and then continue attending their Meetup events. If the group activity is free or not depends on the owner of the group. 99% times its free. Anyone can start a new group on meetup site as per their hobby or interest and then Meetup site charge them some yearly fee and that’s why may be some owners charge some nominal fee like 1 euro or any other respective currency of that country to cover the charges for each event. Owner can decide if he or she would like to have few organizers for his group and then whole team keep organizing different activities. When the event is announced , all members of the group gets an email and then everyone can decide if they want to join that activity or not by registering for the event which is called RSVP to the event.

In Europe, America , Australia these groups are very popular but in India also its growing. 3 years ago I joined this group , and it changed my life. Although I was living in this city for almost 7 years ; I was feeling alone, not enough friends around sharing my interests. But then I found this magic site and then every weekend or even weekdays was wonderful. There was always someone with me to share my hobbies, interests. I am a member of 3 groups. And also now organizer of one group. It feels really nice when after every event I organize ; I get appreciation from participants, get new friends, get chance to know how many different things people around you are doing…that motivates me a lot. Its sometimes difficult to organize always something new, or reserve places , keep the track of people , events etc… but I really enjoy doing these things. After the successful event , its all worth the pain.

Even in my short stay of 6 weeks in USA; I joined different meetup groups and attended their events. It was great to know new people in new country . After my work when I was completely alone and was not knowing anyone there, I was able to enjoy my hobbies like hiking, partying with bunch of cool people.

So people never feel alone, it doesn’t matter how crazy your hobby or interest is; there is always someone who shares your idea, interest…so come on join the meetup group, be creative, be happy, meet international people, get new friends and enjoy life as much as you can in new country, new city or even explore your own city with new people. Its Fun..