Top Five Austin Tech Meetups
An unapologetically biased list
Recently, I gave a talk to students at Hack Reactor, expounding on the virtues and benefits of attending meetups. Since it’s fresh in my mind, I thought, “Why not a clickbait listicle?”
Why not, indeed.
For those new to Austin, new to coding, or just want to dip your toe in the local meetup scene, this list is for you. It’s web development and JavaScript heavy, but if that’s not your bag, feel free to show up anyway.
Austin JavaScript
Come for the tech talk; stay for the dad jokes.
Lots of very sharp people show up to Austin’s oldest JavaScript meetup most famous for not being on meetup.com. The talks are consistently good, with nationally-recognized speakers often appearing at the dais. Organizers Lon Ingram and Aaron Stacy keep the mood light, but respectful with a prominent code of conduct.
After the program is finished (currently hosted by Spredfast downtown), the party moves over the Gingerman where the real talk gets started. This is usually as good or better then the official proceedings, so don’t miss out.
Bleeding Edge Web
Don’t get cut.
Anything and everything web-related is on the table at Bleeding Edge. The evening begins with a “News from the Bleeding Edge” by organizer Brian Moeskau (or his compatriot Corey Butler), a series of quick hitters on everything that’s happened in the world of the internet over the previous month.
Topics can be JavaScript and Node focused, but not exclusively. Corey and Brian are game for anything, and technical deep dives are pretty common. This crew also retires to a bar, this time leaving the Capital Factory for Buffalo Billiards. It’s all very low key, but talking tech with passion people makes for a worthwhile evening.
NodeSchool
Learn something!
You don’t have to be a Node fanboy/fangirl to attend a NodeSchool meetup; just having an interest in this still-growing backend technology is enough. Attendees span the gamut from frontend dev to Java practitioner, and often beginning coders as well.
Each meetup focuses on one of the published NodeSchool “workshoppers.” These terminal-based tutorials cover a wide range of topics from the basics of Node and Javascript to framework specific ones like Hapi and React. The class lead for that week will go through the first few of usually a dozen exercises, and then people work individually or in groups. Or they find interesting people to talk to and leave the coding for another time. It’s all good.
ReactJS Austin
Hot framework has a cool meetup.
My buddy Lyle Garza runs this fairly new meetup, but it has plenty going for it besides that. Of course, picking the It framework of the moment doesn’t hurt, as plenty of people are interested in best practices from React-land. It’s also hosted by a great company, Bazaarvoice, and is usually very well attended.
The structure tends to be two medium-length talks, which could be anywhere from beginner to advanced in nature, though usually somewhere in between. The extras are great, too. Pizza is the usual food, and a trip over to Roaring Fork afterward isn’t out of the question, either.
Refresh Austin
Like drinking a Fresca.
From what I’ve seen, this is the biggest meetup in town, and there’s no close second. Hosted at either Buffalo Billiards or the North Door, Refresh is for anyone working on the web, including designers and non-technical professionals. It therefore brings a wide variety of people through the door.
Two talks are given, with a break for socializing in between. Some great names in the local and national tech scene have been known to make an appearance. There are also sometimes panels to discuss things like coding schools or getting a job in tech. The worst thing one can say about Refresh is that it sometimes gets too loud to hear the speakers. That’s due to so much chatting of participants, which is truly a great problem to have.
