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Christina Harter edited this page May 15, 2026 · 196 revisions

This is a guide for anyone interested in running a LF Decentralized Trust meetup. If you are interested in becoming a meetup organizer, please read this guide and then contact us.

Upcoming meetups

We have an active community of meetup organizers and you're welcome to attend any of these upcoming events. Some of the activities are online and some are in different areas around the world.

In person events

None Scheduled.

Online events

Past events

Recordings of most previous meetups can be found on the LFDT YouTube channel.

Becoming a meetup organizer

If you like networking with community members, organizing activities and connecting with interesting speakers, then you would make a good meetup organizer.

The process for being approved as an organizer is simple — after contacting us, we’ll find time to speak with you. During that call we’ll answer any questions you have about the role and we’ll walk you through the support we offer that is described in this document.

We also encourage you to share responsibilities with others and not do it all yourself. From experience, we’ve found that having 2 or 3 co-organizers for a group is ideal and allows you to share tasks and to not get blocked if you become too busy with other things for a period of time.

Using Meetup.com

We will set up a new meetup group on the LFDT Meetup pro account if there isn't already a group in your area. We will name your group after the city or region where you live, such as LFDT San Francisco or LFDT Morocco. If there is already a group in your area, we can talk about taking that group over or helping out an existing organizer.

Once your group is created and you're set as organizer, you'll have access to a range of tools on Meetup.com that you can use to help organize your events and connect with group members. If you’re not familiar with that site, please see meetup.com's article about using their organizer tools and view their Organizer Guide resources.

Although we recommend that you use meetup.com, we do recognize that there may be reasons why using that site isn't the best fit for your local community. For example, meetup.com isn't accessible in China so that community uses http://www.huodongxing.com/. Please contact us if you want to discuss other event hosting platforms. Note that these guidelines for running meetups will still apply and that we may also create a group on meetup.com to point to where you are hosting your event in order to better promote your activities.

Collaborating with other organizers

There are over 180 LFDT meetup groups around the world and you can tap into the expertise and ideas of other organizers by collaborating with them on the following channels. We encourage you to sign up, introduce yourself and ask any questions you have.

Scheduling and promoting meetups

There is no requirement to how often you should organize an event or activity. You should gauge the interest of people in your local community and adjust the timing based on what people are interested in. When you do organize something, announcing your event at least 3 to 4 weeks in advance will give people time to plan to attend.

We also recommend being clear about what audience you are planning for when you schedule a meetup. For instance, is your event for developers, end users, those looking to get started with LFDT projects or some combination? Is the level of content going to be for a beginner, intermediate or advanced audience?

Once you’ve got your event scheduled, you’ll want to let people in your area know about it. The specific local channels to use will vary in different areas, but consider:

  • attending blockchain events near you

  • speaking to companies using LFDT projects

  • reaching out to students at nearby universities

  • sharing on your social networks

If you let us know about your event, we can also promote it on LFDT's channels, including social media, newsletters and project lists. There is no requirement to share news about your events, although we will be able to provide you with better support if we understand what you are doing with your meetup group.

Creating an image for your event

We have a design template that you're welcome to use to create a digital image to promote your event on Meetup and on other channels. To use the templates:

  • Go to the Google Doc presentation version of the template
  • Please make a copy of these slides before modifying them so this template can be saved for other people to use
  • Go to File > Download As to get a version of the image in a format you can use on your meetup page, Twitter or wherever you'd like to share it

Finding content and speakers

We strive to create an environment where people who are interested in LFDT — developers, beginners and advanced users alike — can gather and talk about the technologies we’re creating and learn what is new in the space. Please do not use the Meetup platform to promote events unrelated to LFDT to your local community.

Topics you cover should be tied in some way to the LFDT ecosystem, such as introductions to the community and the projects, demos of applications, explanations about how to get a development environment set up, or presentations of use cases that a person or organization is working on. The key is choosing topics that are right for your audience. Talks about code contribution and demos are great for technical audiences, but if your community would prefer talks on business use cases or would benefit from networking, go for it!

Note that there is no language requirement for a meetup. If you think that it will make more sense to host it in your native language, please do. And if you’d like to translate any English language materials that you've seen into your preferred language, you are welcome to do that.

If you're looking to bring in speakers for an event, you can find speakers by meeting other community members in your area and finding out the interesting things they’re working on. We recommend that you use the Meetup tools to reach out to the members of your group and see if anyone there would like to speak at an event. You can also reach out beyond your local area and invite other people from the community to speak during an online event. You can also reach out to LFDT staff members who can help you find speakers on specific topics.

We also have some existing slides you can use that can give people an overview of the LFDT community:

Selecting a venue

Different meetup groups will have different needs for venues — some groups will have big communities and will need a larger venue and some groups will be smaller and can use smaller spaces.

If you’re just getting started and have a small number of members, you can meet informally in a coffee shop or other public space. However, once you start getting a larger number of people, you’ll need to find a more formal meeting space that will allow for you to project slides, use a microphone, etc.

If you are working at an organization or are at a university, you may have easy access to space. If you don’t have access, many organizers have been able to find hosts in their local community who are happy to provide space for events. And considering that most meetups happen after working hours, it is often not a conflict for an organization or school to provide space in the evenings or on weekends.

For more ideas about venue options, check out Meetup.com's Finding the right venue for you support article. You can also reach out to LFDT staff who may be able to help you find a venue.

Providing a positive experience

LFDT is committed to providing a positive experience for community members in both online and offline events. Please make sure to read our Code of Conduct to learn more about the acceptable behaviors that all meetups groups should follow. For both in-person and online meetups, we also ask that you start any presentation by sharing this Code Of Conduct slide and reminding people to act respectfully.

Meetup.com also provides a way for you to receive feedback from attendees of your events. We encourage you to look through this feedback to learn both about what people are liking about your activities and where people are providing suggestions about how to improve the experience.

Getting sponsorships and funding

The LFDT project can provide funding up to $250 max for your first meetup. You can make requests for future funding, but it is not guaranteed. Please contact us if you are interested in this support.

We don’t have the funding available to support every event that each meetup group organizes though, so organizers are encouraged to seek sponsorship from their local community to cover any costs that come from organizing events. Please carefully review these guidelines before seeking sponsors for your event:

  • Sponsorship is limited to venue sponsorship (existing office space can be donated for an event, or a third party space could be funded) and food and beverage sponsorship.

  • Sponsorship dollars should not exceed the cost of either the venue or the food and beverages. Since the LFDT project is part of a non-profit with a mission to build and promote open source technologies, there should be no profit involved in running meetups.

  • Events must remain vendor agnostic. Sponsors can be recognized by adding their name/logo on the Meetup event page and thanked at the beginning of the meetup, but it should be clear that all events are run by the LFDT community and not by any specific organization.

  • Sponsors may speak at a meetup just like any other person or organization is welcome to speak at a meetup. Any talk a sponsor gives needs to relate to what they are doing with LFDT though, and product pitches in return for sponsorship dollars are strictly forbidden.

  • Sharing of any attendee data with sponsors is also strictly forbidden.

Running virtual meetups

Meetup organizers are encouraged to consider running virtual meetups online when that it sense for your local community members. This will help you reach a larger audience and may make it easier to find speakers. If you're planning an online event, contact us with the details and we can share it with other meetup groups so people in those locations can dial-in remotely.

LFDT has Zoom accounts that we can make available to organizers to use for running a virtual meetup. To request access to a Zoom account, contact us with information about the day and time you are hosting the virtual meetup. We will then schedule the Zoom meeting and send you details on how to dial-in and record your meetups. We can also talk about possibly livestreaming your online meetup to the LFDT YouTube channel.

For tips for running effective virtual meetups, check out these useful resources:

Streaming and recording live events

If you are considering streaming and recording your events, please note that what you can legally record may vary across jurisdictions, and you cannot record and stream copyrighted material, like music or other content, without a release.

Many LFDT meetup events are recorded or streamed and those videos get hundreds of views on the LFDT YouTube channel. Note that most of these were held as online meetups and those are simple to stream and record. Streaming and recording an in person event is possible, but it is more challenging.

If you're thinking of streaming and recording an in person event, Mark Morris, the organizer for the LFDT Austin group, has shared some tips about how he streams and records his events at Capital Factory where they hold their meetups:

Capital Factory has a camera mounted near the ceiling in the meeting space I use. The camera streams to their Facebook page. Facebook supports streaming to your page. If you choose this method, Facebook has instructions for setting up and streaming to your page.

Another method, I personally use to stream, uses one of my mobile phones (iPhone or Android) with the current Youtube app installed. The Youtube app is free and supports streaming. I often stream to my Youtube page. This is very easy and it allows me to save the videos, download them, edit them and share them. I can stream up to 12 hours. I can make the videos public or private and send or publish a link to invite viewers. Google limits streams to 15 minutes until you fill out the required form and submit to Google for approval for streaming more than 15 minutes. It is easy and quick.

When you stream audio is always a problem. So invest in a wireless mic. The wireless mic allows you to place your mobile phone camera in a location that captures the scene you want to stream and still deliver good sounding audio.

Using Google or Facebook allows you to stream your desktop too. So, you could use your laptop's camera to capture the presenter (you) and stream your laptop’s screen with a small inset video of the presenter.

Either method will work, but the first is more suited to live audiences and the second more toward online viewers.

Placing the camera in a good spot with good lighting is important so the stream delivers clear images and crisp sound.

It would seem easy to execute the above, but it is in fact difficult and often requires trial and error approaches to find the best setup.

Inventory:

  • Camera (mobile phone works)

  • Tripod with level

  • Smartphone holder that attaches to tripod

  • Wireless lapel mic with transceiver (put mic on shirt and attach transceiver to smartphone via phone’s plug)

  • Stream destination—Google Youtube or Facebook

Giving away stickers and swag

Active meetup groups (defined as a group that has held at least one meetup in the last 3 months) are eligible to receive free swag from our LFDT store to give away at their events. Organizers can make a new request for swag every 6 months and the amount of the coupon codes to use at the store will be based on the size of their group:

  • 100 or fewer meetup members: $50 coupon code + free shipping

  • 101 to 1000 meetup members: $75 coupon code + free shipping

  • 1001+ meetup members: $100 coupon code + free shipping

To receive a coupon code, please contact us with a request.

Using official LFDT branding and assets

Please review our Logos & Guidelines page and Trademark Usage Guidelines page for more information about available assets and our policies.

Other Useful Resources

In addition to the information in this guide, you may also find these resources from Meetup.com to be a helpful:

  • meetup.com's Help Center

  • meetup.com's Organizing Groups and Events

  • meetup.com's webinar for Hyperledger organizers on October 8, 2019: (video) and (slides): Covers tips on how to promote your group, contact your members and gives a status update on using WeWork spaces for meetups

  • meetup.com's webinar for Hyperledger organizers on October 8, 2019: (video) and (slides): Amol Kulkarni discusses how the community ran the National Indian meetup and how others can do the same and Adrian Avendano talks about how GST runs their meetups and demos a tool they are building to help organizers connect with speakers

  • meetup.com's webinar for Hyperledger organizers on June 4, 2019: (video) and (slides): Recaps tips from previous webinar and includes tips on how to transition leadership when an organizer steps down and engaging group members between events

  • meetup.com's webinar for Hyperledger organizers on March 27, 2019: (video) and (slides): Covers how to get people to show at events, how to find speakers, how to build a leadership team and meetup.com product updates.

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