Top 🍕 Tech Meetups in NYC

Keep in mind that this list is highly leaned towards the iOS Community.

Over the course of 84 days, I Attended 49 events from 19 different Meetup groups.

To better compare all the groups I will break them down into 3 different categories:

Meetups with talks:

• Brooklyn Swift Developers
  As it says in the name, events take place in Brooklyn, hosted by startups like Kickstarter or Etsy. And it’s all about Apple’s new programming language Swift. All the talks that I saw were very insightful and interesting with quality presentation.
• Turn To Tech
  Hosted in Turn To Tech offices in Flatiron where they also hold classes for iOS and Android development.
• NYC Apps
  “New York’s Most Innovative Mobile Technology Community” indeed, you can expect high quality talks and presentations. Hosted & sponsored by different companies around NYC. Organization of events is 💯.
• Tech After Hours
  The organizer, Eric David Benari, makes almost a show out of this events and usually draws a huge crowd. Talks are mostly about new and upcoming technologies. Usually hosted in ThoughtWorks in mid-town.
• SQL NYC, The NoSQL & NewSQL Database Meetup
  Organized also by Eric David Benari. Come 15 minutes before the start if you want to get a seat. Data is interesting, so are this events. Just to mention that the CTO of NYC was speaking at one of this events last year and they had a ruffle for an Apple Watch.
• iOSoho — New York City’s largest iOS Engineer Meetup
  This group is exclusively for iOS Developers (They check if you have any
  iOS experience when you try to join the group). Atmosphere at this events is amazing with high quality talks and networking session at the end.
• Tech in Motion: New York City
  This is a more commercial high end group that does events on a larger scale. Quality content presented by more influential individuals in the industry.
• Code Driven NYC: Software Engineering and Development
  “An event about building great software, exclusively for developers to learn & get inspired” it says on their page. It’s not only about the software though, I learned a lot about team management and team motivation from some of the talks.
• The Brooklyn iOS Developer Meetup
  Apple centric events with short talks about iOS, tvOS, watchOS, build 
  presentations and more. Great atmosphere and organization. Hosted in 
  Brooklyn.

Hands-on meetups:

• NYC iOS Study Group
  Organized by Michael Batal. Events mainly take place in the Financial 
  District. This is a great place to come with beginner questions, Michael is 
  a Senior iOS Developer at IBM and would like to help you out.
• Cocoapods NYC
  This is a very special group organized by orta and Ash Furrow every Saturday. Hosted in the beautiful Artsy HQ on Broadway. Just being around guys like Orta, Ash, Dave and many other great engineers is a special experience. Not to mention if you need any help, they will do their best to help you out. It doesn’t even have to be programming related, they can help you start a blog or just give you advice on how to achieve goals in general.
• iOS Side Projects
  Like the description says “Get 1-on-1 help with your apps!”. If you’re
  experiencing problems with your app and are looking for advice or just a
  second opinion, this is the event to go to.
• GeekMeet — NYC
  As the name says, it’s for geeks. Hosted in Financial District. This is a
  new group where “geeks meet” and hack something together.
• Beginner Programmers
  Mid-town based group organized by Bryan and Alain. This is a great event to attend to if you are thinking of starting to code but need some advice on how to get started or if you’re stuck on a problem, someone will probably be albe to help you there.

Other Meetup Groups:

• The Startup Station
  Lisa is an immigration lawyer who is hosting this events every now and then to familiarize non US citizens with how they can legally live and work in the US. She’s an expert in the field of technology.
• In Good Company
  Every Friday morning in the Coffee Foundry entrepreneurs and
  wantrepreneurs gather and listen to an open interview with one of the
  founders of a successful startup/bussiness. Always great networking after 
  also.
• Byte Academy: FinTech, Data Science, Python Coding Bootcamp
  Learn skills like coding, finance and marketing. They also have talks from influential people in the market every now and than.
• HackerNest NYC Tech Socials
  Beer and networking, that’s what this is all about. Great event to meet
  business owners, programmers, designers,…
• TechHub NYC
  Great for early founders who need advise on what approach to take towards starting a bussiness in the US.

If I had to recommend 5 Meetup groups from which you should go on at least 1 Meetup event, I would recommend those:

• iOSoho — New York City’s largest iOS Engineer Meetup
• CocoaPods NYC
• Tech After Hours NYC
• Brooklyn Swift Developers
• HackerNest NYC Tech Socials

Pizza seems to be a key part of every tech meetup nowadays so why not list 
where one can get a good slice of it?!

• CocoaPods NYC
• iOSoho — New York City’s largest iOS Engineer Meetup
• iOS Side Projects
• NYC iOS Study Group
• NYC Apps

In summary: Even though that the tech scene in NYC is in shadow of finance, fashion and movies, it’s strong compared to the thrive that is happening in Berlin.