The Stay-Put Meetup

“One afternoon, I went to a content strategy event in my pajamas. How it got in my pajamas, I don’t know.”

–Groucho Marx *

In late 2017, one of the cofounders (a self-described snow chicken’) of the West Michigan Content Strategy Meetup (WMCS) suggested we convert our events to a lunch and learn, webinar format so we could avoid Michigan’s chill-weather for a few months.

Winter Sports

Winter Sports

I am not a snow chicken. I like cold weather. I like snow. Hell, I even like shoveling snow. However, I acknowledge there are three core beliefs that unite all humans:

  • Nobody likes driving in snow (or sleet, or freezing rain, or any reduced-friction conditions).
  • Finding host venues, on a monthly basis, for a networking group is freaking exhausting.
  • Everybody loves lunch.

So, I cast a ”hell yeah!” vote for that idea.

It was clear that cost was the biggest barrier to webinar events. Thus, in order to go forward with these online meetups, we (or at least I) needed to revise our expectations for the webinar platform. The biggest revelation was that we didn’t really need a self-registration feature.

Long story, made shorter: we elected to have our conversations on Google Hangouts, that could be live streamed, or replayed on YouTube. Since we aren’t building a sales funnel, we don’t need your contact info. With YouTube as our delivery vehicle, you can show up at the time of the live event, or you can watch it later.

At this writing, we have done three of these events (see them here). We are planning to do more, and we are not limiting them to frightful-weather months.

Why would we? These events provide a great opportunity to share our learning with the world. Depending on the season, and your preferences, you can watch a webinar-meetup at your convenience, over a cup of mulled cider by your fireplace, or with a mug of craft beer on your patio.

In your pajamas.

The WMCS Meetup still does in-person events, too. We are planning one for later this month (details forthcoming). In April we did a lunch-and-learn webinar one day, and the very next day we did an in-person event here in Grand Rapids.

If you have an idea for a content-strategy topic about which you’d like to present—or your just want to learn about it—you can send me a direct message on Linkedin. Or you can contact me here. I would love to talk further about your topic.

Also, please join us at our one of our future in -person events, or our next webinar (info about both will be posted here).

*OK, I paraphrased Groucho…the actual quote:

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