Meet other search practitioners and discuss
the technology and user experience of search.
What is it?
Enterprise search meetups are an opportunity to get together with other people doing search. Grab a drink, be challenged by one or two search-related talks, and join in the discussion. Topics can cover everything from ranking algorithms, to working with Solr and the Google Search Appliance, to designing the user interface. It’s also a great way to network and stay on top of the latest developments in search.
What is it not?
These events are NOT about SEO or search engine marketing.
Is there a meetup near me?
The first enterprise search meetup was started in London in November 2009. We enjoy it so much that we launched this website in October 2010 to encourage others to start meetups of their own.
- New York, New York — New York Search & Discovery
- Raleigh, North Carolina — RTP Apache Solr/Lucene Meetup
- Charlottesville, Virginia — Charlottesville Solr and Lucene Meetup
- Reston, Virginia — NOVA Apache Lucene/Solr Meetup
- Washington D.C. — DC Search & Information Access Meetup
- Cambridge, England — Enterprise Search Cambridge UK
- London, England — Enterprise Search London
- London, England — London Open Source Search Social
- London, England — Findability solutions based on Solr/Lucene
- Frankfurt, Germany - Search Meetup Frankfurt
- Oslo, Norway — Enterprise Search Oslo
- Stockholm, Sweden — Stockholm Findability & Enterprise Search
- Let us know about your meetup!
How can I start a meetup?
It’s easier than you’d think. First, you just need be interested in search.
Second, you need to pick a venue. It could be a pub, a restaurant, or even a meeting room at your office. You should be able to find a place for free as long as the participants are willing to buy a drink.
You could then optionally line up someone to give a talk or lead a discussion. But don’t worry — there’s no pressure to have a speaker at the first meetup or two. Besides, speakers will be easier to come by once the meetup has a bit of a track record.
Next, get the word out. It could be as simple as emailing people you know. But more thank likely, you’ll need to organize something on a social network site such as a Twitter,Meetup.com, Ning, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And don’t forget to let us know about your meetup so that we can add it to this website.
Then, it’s time to host the event. As the facilitator, your primary job is to make sure that the event gets started on time, progresses smoothly, and ends on time.
Just keep organizing meetups every 1-2 months, and before you know it, you’ll have built a community!