yeah I have never found anything on Meetup that interested me. I once went to one for "Computers and programming". Noped out of there real fast. I was the only professional and I'm not interested in helping rookies learn javascript.

this has been my biggest problem with Meetup style events too. I'm often looking for others with a level of experience or interest in a topic to match my own, only to find people trying to break into the industry and just barely scratching the surface. At that point it's not a social thing for me, it's a mentoring/work thing, and I get this feeling of disappointment in the situation, which persuades me to skip the next.

It’s easy to start a meetup. I did once and other people who were searching for something similar popped right up and formed some great friendships. It’s ok to be a light host.

Out of curiosity, what kind of meetup did you start? How did you find event space for it?

I started a meet up for local digital or tech entrepreneurs to find, learn and take their next steps together. It was a mix of techies, marketing folks, business folks. Didn’t matter as long as you were ready to learn and do your next step.

It was less of an event and more of a community of acquaintances who were good at welcoming strangers. Many of us became good friends.

Space was public venues, and once folks got to knowledge other, other suggestions of who had access to space came up pretty easily.

Today, I’d probably pick something semi different like airmeet and use it for a virtual meetup to gauge interest.

Sometimes restaurants or libraries have dedicated rooms that can be booked.

Yeah, you have to look for private clubs for the things you're into. Masters swimming. Archery clubs. Book clubs. Whatever.

They're usually not on meetup, and often only on their own websites and/or on Facebook.

I found this helpful: https://outline.com/aAmy53