Want to organise a software testing meetup? Part 1

I love the idea of software testing meetups and have always wanted to attend as many software testing meetups as possible. However living in Dorset meant that if I wanted to attend a good one, I would have to be willing to make the tedious journey into London (or farther) and back. Usually after work. On a working day. Enough said!

The solution to this problem would be to attend a local meetup. I started searching high and low to see if there were any meetups nearby me but found none! I was a little disappointed at first and then imagined that someone or the other will start a meetup soon and started to wait patiently for this to happen. After all, there are atleast a hundred or so testers in the area, surely someone or the other would organise one soon.....and so I waited and waited and waited......and waited....

Until I remembered something that my Dad always used to tell me as a kid: "If you want something done your way, do it yourself". Haven't we all been told this by someone or the other? Then why is it that we forget this so easily? I realised that I could start one myself and was initially quite excited by this prospect. I love a good challenge and this seemed like a perfect combination of a challenge and my passion which is software testing.

I started researching into all the groups and meetups that already exist in the country. All of them seemed to be run frequently and were quite popular in the testing community. Some of the organisers were in fact accomplished speakers at conferences or were testing coaches. This meant that they had plenty of advertising for their meetups. I have been a silent participant of the online software testing community for a couple of years now. By that I mean that I read the various blogs, magazines or articles written by some of the influential testers out there and never attempted to make my presence known as I never thought it was necessary. So how can someone like me who does not have an online profile get enough interest generated in a meetup which is to be organised in the far corner of the country? Suddenly the exciting task started to seem all too daunting.

Continued in Part 2.......