Ready to join your first meetup group? These 6 from Austin tech are a great place to start

by Kelly O'Halloran
July 14, 2017

Looking for new ways to connect with members of the Austin tech community? We selected and outlined six local meetup groups ready for you to join. Remember to check out our events calendar for upcoming events from all sectors within Austin tech.

 

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Refresh Austin is the oldest and largest meetup group on our roundup. Founded in 2007, the group has over 4,600 “refreshers” from web design and development backgrounds. They meet on the second Tuesday of every month and cover a spread of topics like tools, resources, languages and templates, and advice for career — plus freelance opportunities in the field.

 

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Founded in 2013, Women Who Code Austin is the local chapter of Women Who Code, one of the largest groups for women engineers globally. The meetups include technical study groups for all women (trans and cis), trans men, and genderqueer folks of varying engineering backgrounds, discussions led by industry experts, hack events, career and leadership development, networking and mentoring connections. The Austin group has more than 2,600 coders and has hosted 275 meetups since going live.

 

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For all things DevOps, Austin DevOps is a great group to join. Formed in 2011, their events include topics like system administration, configuration management, database management, infrastructure as code, continuous delivery, open source and cloud computing. The group consists of more than 1,500 members and meets on average once a month. The next event is slated for Aug. 14 at the Rackspace office.

 

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With 2,600 members, Austin Internet of Things has held more than 70 meetups since launching in 2014. The group is dedicated to the innovation and advancement of the local IoT industry. In addition to meetups, the group shares resources and connects individuals with open IoT positions, both at companies as well as with entrepreneurs looking for talent on an individual project. The group has a lengthy list of sponsors, including Galvanize, RCR Wireless and Inteleaf.

 

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The Co-founder Wanted Austin Meetup is for individuals interested in joining an early stage startup — or those seeking a co-founder. The organization has been around for nearly seven years with about 4,000 members and meets every second Monday of the month. Events include a keynote speaker, food, drinks, pitches and plenty of time to network. Developers, UX designers, hardware architects, executives, students, angel investors and VCs are encouraged to attend.

 

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If the indoor networking really isn’t your thing, then you should join Hiking with Geeks. The group hosts hikes, camping trips, theme walks, geocaching explorations and more all month long as means of “detoxing from technology.” The local chapter was the first of 14 Hiking with Geeks communities stretching to Seattle, Denver, Chicago and Salt Lake City. Geeks, techies and entrepreneurs are encouraged to join.

 

Images provided by meetup pages.

What meetups are you interested in? Let us know with a tip or on Twitter @BuiltInAustin

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