“Everything is hard before it is easy”
(Goethe)I never made it to the easy part with Drinks + Tech.
From 2017 to 2019 I organized the Drinks + Tech talks in Basel. I wanted to gather an interesting crowd around interesting topics.
The topics were chosen out of personal interest : Architecture, Game Design, Blockchain. Researching them was the most fun part of this whole endeavor.
Two catches with 1 stone you can say.
But holding events like this is actually hard. So I just stopped.
Why?
Here are the reasons that made me choose to stop.
Promotion
The hardest part for me was the promotion. Getting enough eyeballs aware of the event. Then get them to register. Would take up a significant amount of my time. You need to give up control as well. Some events and topics are just harder to sell.
I tried different channels with various levels of success. But small tasks like updating a website, promoting it a couple of times on social media, submitting the event to online calendars and meetup ended up adding up to quite some time.
Costs & revenue
I was not in this for the money. I charged some cash for the event, it just barely covered the costs. But I had to chip in a couple of times as well.
I should have:
- Found a sponsor.
- Made the event (almost) free. I would have increased the audience.
I prepared a sponsoring folder. I never came around to send it out. Seems stupid, yes it is. It was just one more task to do to.
Doing it almost alone
I had some very valuable help during the event. And I was very grateful for this. But if I had had someone to rely on for the promotion, it would have been different.
Attendance
Attendance was kind of low. Which makes it hard to justify inviting a speaker from far. He is spending 4h of his time to speak to 10 people? I felt bad for them sometimes, which made my experience of the events more stressful and less enjoyable than they should have been.
Introversion
As an introvert, large groups are straining me. They say extroverts recharge their batteries by interacting with as many people as possible. Introverts like me, they go spend time alone in the forest for that.
The people (crowd and speakers) at the events would inspire me a lot. But at the same time, so many interactions drain me. Still, I’d see a lot of value for me and the crowd.
But it became too much.
What now ?
Why am I writing this now?
A couple of weeks ago I had a discussion with my coach. The topic of isolation and lack of peer group came up.
As a freelancer/remote worker it can be hard to get feedback on your projects. Or just share your struggles. The kind of things that might happen around a coffee machine in the office. Or the small talk you have at the end of a meeting when you suddenly discuss a completely unrelated project.
She asked me where I could find this crowd, then with a laugh, I remembered the Drinks + Tech community.
I will launch an in person mastermind/stammtisch event for a very small cercle. In Basel. With 6-10 people gathering around a coffee before work.
If you are interested, let me know. Or just head over to meetup.com/drinksplustech/ for the announcement.
I’m always very happy to receive feedback on those newsletter.
Thanks for reading.
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