[clizzin]

I'm an Airbnb engineer, so I can shed some light on this question. :)

The answer is: No, being staff or a host is not a requirement to attend; the guest list just happens to show a lot of staff and hosts near the top because Airbnb engineers were the first to sign up for this meetup, and we're all considered staff (and some of us appear as hosts because we also host on the site). You do have to be an Airbnb member, but that's just in the sense that you have to have an Airbnb account to RSVP for the meetup. Registration is free, so it should be no hassle at all to sign up. Hope that helps, and hope to see you there this Wednesday!