Planning the Ultimate Skycoin Meetup
Assemble Skycoin’s ‘Boots on the Ground’ in your City
Skycoin’s lead developer and one of its founders recently said that the Skycoin project had reached a phase where what they needed most was “boots on the ground”. That is, communities of Skycoin enthusiasts in cities around the world who are ready to deploy Skywire in their area. (Skywire, for the uninitiated, is a new, totally decentralized and distributed end-to-end encrypted Internet, designed to be uncensorable and indestructible, without gatekeepers like today’s Internet Service Providers.)
To that end, there is a renewed emphasis in the Skycoin community on organizing meetups, with the goal being two-fold:
- Introduce new people to the Skycoin ecosystem, help them to see the vision of the project, set up a wallet, and invest.
- Organize like-minded community members to set up Skywire nodes and antennas, so that Skywire will be able to roll out seamlessly when the time is right.
So if you believe in what Skycoin is trying to accomplish, as I do, it is incumbent upon us to take the lead in helping bring that goal to fruition. You have the opportunity to be a pioneer of the new Internet, and here are some ideas of how you can get more motivated ‘boots on the ground’ in your city. These ideas are not meant to be proscriptive; they can be taken individually or in tandem in whatever way helps you have a successful event.
Join the Skycoin Meetups room on Telegram
Visit t.me/SkycoinMeetups to join the official Skycoin Meetups room on Telegram. This is a great place to start, for a number of reason:
- You can ask questions of other community members who have held meetups, and share ideas.
- If you can demonstrate your intent, and have enough planning already in place, you might be able to score some Skycoin swag that you can distribute at your meetup, like t-shirts, hats, stickers, and brochures.
- You can find templates for announcements and invitations that you can modify with the details of your meetup, and distribute on social media.
- You can download a pre-made presentation that helps introduce Skycoin to beginners.
- When you get to the room, be sure to read the pinned message for any updated links, suggestions, or details.
What Kind of Meetup Do You Want?
Meetup Agenda
What kind of meetup do YOU want to have? Not every meetup needs a formal presentation, of course. Take a look at the presentation that is linked in the pinned message at t.me/SkycoinMeetups, and see if you think it will work for you. You don’t have to have a projector or monitor to display the presentation as you deliver it; you can print copies for attendees, or send them the link so they can follow along on their devices.
As long as your thoughts are organized beforehand, you should be able to lead people through the Skycoin ecosystem without any issues. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to a question, because you probably know where to direct people to get an answer. There are several Skycoin infographics available that can help you as you walk people through the various components of the ecosystem.
One popular activity at a meetup is to help people download the Skycoin wallet software and create a Skycoin wallet address. If you’re feeling generous, you can even send them some Skycoin to demonstrate how easy and fast transactions are on the Skycoin blockchain.
If you have a Skyminer, or even a DIY Skywire node, bring them to the meetup! They are a great conversation piece, and something tangible that people can see in order to understand how Skycoin is producing actual real-world hardware, and how that relates to the coin itself as well as Coin Hours. In addition to helping attendees start to visualize how Skywire will roll out, they will see that it’s possible for someone like themselves to participate, and they may consider buying a Skyminer as well. This, of course, is an ideal outcome, as more Skywire nodes in your city will lay the groundwork for when it is time to install antennas and get your town running on Skywire.
A Familiar Meetup
Invite family and friends! A meetup doesn’t need to include strangers, just people who are new to Skycoin. Often your first meetup can consist solely of friends, and take the form of a relaxed evening at someone’s home. Often it is easier to have a meetup with people who know and like you, as it takes some of the pressure off of you as a presenter, and they are likely to be more interested din what you have to say. For a more informal meetup such as this, invitations can simply be a group text or email.
Since you’re reading this, you likely feel strongly about sharing the potential of the Skycoin project with friends and family anyway; a meetup with them would probably end up ultimately end up saving you time, just by doing it all at once, with everyone in the same place, rather than one-by-one.
One big reason for gathering the people you know in one place in order to explain Skycoin is to avoid a scene five years from now when those same friends corner you and ask why you never let them know about this Skycoin thing you invested in back in the day, which has (by that time), made you extremely wealthy.
Picking a Location
Venue Selection
This depends on the type of meeting you wish to have, and the anticipated size of your group. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can host in your own home, which is great if the meetup will include a lot of people you already know, like friends and work colleagues.
A quiet restaurant or pub is a nice, relaxed setting where people can discuss while they have a drink or eat. Make sure to reserve a table in advance, and when you arrive (early), tell the host or hostess that people may arrive looking for “Skycoin” and to direct them to your table or area.
If you are confident that you will be attracting a large number of people, a larger venue like a community hall or library may be better suited to your needs, and can often be rented or reserved inexpensively. Libraries often have available rooms that are ideally suited for meetups like these.
Promoting Your Meetup
Meetup.com
Meetup.com is website that facilitates local meetups on a wide range of topics. (Start by searching your town for any existing Skycoin meetups, just in case.)
While it does require a paid account in order to host a meetup, that doesn’t mean there aren’t options for someone looking to grow the Skycoin community in their city. There likely exists some other blockchain, cryptocurrency, or Bitcoin-themed meetup group. which you can join at no cost. Attend a meetup or two, and then ask the organizer if you can present Skycoin to the group. Chances are they will be grateful for someone willing to fill one of their meetup times with discussion of a new project, especially one as unique as Skycoin. Presenting at an existing meetup is an excellent way to get started.
Once the Skycoin community in your area begins to grow, you can split the cost of a paid account and start your own meetup group. When making your account, make sure you use popular keywords like ‘blockchain’, ‘crypto’, ‘cryptocurrency’ and ‘bitcoin’, in order to appear in the search results of curious or like-minded people who are most likely to be interested in learning about Skycoin.
Because Skycoin’s ecosystem is so varied, don’t limit your appeal to just cryptocurrency enthusiasts! People who like building things or tinkering with technology will love Skyminers, and people who are into telecommunications would be interested in Antennas. There’s something for everyone in Skycoin, but it’s an especially exciting opportunity for someone who has never understood or invested in cryptocurrency before.
Eventbrite
If the event you’re hosting is free-to-attend, there is no charge to use Eventbrite to promote it! Create a free account, if you don’t have one already, and you’re ready to set up your event. If you also have a Meetup.com account, it’s okay to put your event on both platforms, as they will appeal to and attract different kinds of people.
Facebook and LinkedIn
If you want a Skycoin-themed meetup, but don’t want to spring for a Meetup.com account, you may instead choose to create a Facebook event, which can help especially if you’re pushing it out to your own network.
Likewise, a LinkedIn post about the meetup can be a simple way to get the word out quickly to professional colleagues and connections.
Other Social Media Promotion
Once you have your event scheduled, and links to the Eventbrite or Meetup.com event listing, you can start posting it on social media. If you hashtag #Skycoin, other members of the community will be able to help you spread the word. Be sure to use other key hashtags, including local ones (your city name, airport code, etc.) You might even wish to tag local influencers, or accounts that specifically publicize local events.
Invitations
If you are on Meetup.com or Eventbrite, there are options to email event details to potential attendees. But you may also wish to have a graphic of some kind, a PDF or jpeg, that you can post on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, which contains key details of your meetup and enough context about Skycoin to entice people to attend. Looking in the Skycoin Meetups room for existing templates will work, and there are often community members who are willing to lend a hand if graphic design is not your strong suit.
Rinse, Repeat
Recurring Meetups
Even better than a single meetup is to host a recurring meetup that happens at the same time every month. As your group grows, you can begin to share hosting responsibilities with others in the group. Skycoin always has new developments or announcements to discuss, and as your community grows over time, you will be better equipped to coordinate with one another and plan how to blanket your city with Skywire’s wireless mesh network.
Conclusion
There is no right or wrong way to hold a Skycoin meetup. However you are able to build a community in your town or on your campus, what matters is that you are doing it. Skycoin needs boots on the ground, and you can help put them there.
If you liked my writing and would like to contribute to me making more feel free to donate some Skycoin: GCB5KK9LmJzxxxh2hMoKm3HRXwaJe9vRfd
