[hvs]

Do people go to meetups to learn something? I guess I always treated them as networking events to expand my sphere. Sure, it's interesting to be exposed to a new technology that I can then go and investigate on my own time, but I have never expected to truly "learn" something at a meetup.

[ghaff]

For the most part, presentations aren't a great format for getting into a lot of details in things like code and they generally shouldn't even try. They're much better for making you aware of potentially interesting things and highlight how you might use them. (It's also why I find most presentations are better when they're shorter.)

As others have said as well, if you're going to a meetup to do the equivalent of attending a lecture, you're probably not going to find them very valuable.

[gmiller123456]

It's been my experience that the type of "programmers" that network at these events aren't the type I'd like to be networking with. It's usually beginners and hobbyists, or recruiters trying to use me as an "in" or mentor rather than the peer relationship I'd be looking for. Not saying peers aren't there, but the ones running around talking to everyone are usually the type of people I'm not there to see.

[combatentropy]

> I always treated them as networking

I did too, but the format is a class: chairs arranged in rows, facing forward, with one person doing all the talking.

I suppose we are supposed to do our networking before and after class, over pizza. But come on, we're programmers, generally shy and quiet. If we trade a few words or sentences, the degree to which we know each other is less than after an interview --- and interviews are notoriously bad for getting to know programmers.

Maybe arrange the chairs in a circle. Then, instead of planning a long talk, encourage participation. Even something as awkward as going around the room would be better than the lecture format.

[amorphid]

I enjoy going to meetups to learn when jumping into a new technology X, especially when I get to talk to experienced developers about how to solve a given problem in X, or the difference between X and some other technology with which I'm familiar. I recently attended a Go meetup, and it was super helpful to talk about the differences in the concurrency models used by Go and Elixir.

[paganel]

> Do people go to meetups to learn something? I guess I always treated them as networking events to expand my sphere

I last went to a programmers' meetup about 3 years ago, and did that in order to specifically see a guy make a presentation about ElasticSearch. We were also using ES at our job back then, but at a much smaller scale compared to that guy's company did, so I wanted to learn additional stuff about how ES works and how it needs to be configured when the numbers increase.

It was a nice presentation, can't say I remember much from back then (I've also not used ES in the meantime as much as I would have liked), but some presentations do have a learning purpose.

[pmontra]

I go to meetups (and organize one) 60% to network with people and find customers, 40% to learn and stay up to date with technology. I'm a speaker at somebody's else meetups or conferences two or three times per year.

True learning requires a lot of effort but I remember a meetup about shaders in a HTML canvas. I didn't know much about them, I know where to start from now at the cost of a couple of hours and a twenty minutes walk from home. However I know that attending meetups after work could be taxing. My free meetup has an almost perfect 50% no show rate and indubitably both the price tag and the time concur to it. But if I start it during the day, how many people would come? That's the territory of more well organized conferences.

[taude]

Yes, I usually expect to learn something, especially if it's how a new technology is being applied in the real world. I also except to meet some people during pizza time, etc.