A meetup that was actually fun, productive, inspirational where friends were made!

The other day I finally attended the version of the tech event that was meant to be attended sometime last month and I did go in but was too shy to do anything and walked back straight out, ate at the Mexican place on Broadway and made myself home. This time around, I was one of the earlier people to go in, talked to a couple of groups, made a few 'friend for the hour' relationships, discussed important topics and generally got more comfortable talking to strangers. The idea isn't to leverage all the people I met during the event into job opportunities or whatever, it's to get a sense of what lies there, get to understand people really, be curious about where people come from, what they desire, and how they work. If nothing else, add some nuance to the simplistic worldview that I might otherwise have.

Originally I was quite shy and unsure about the event, but happened to be seated to quite talkative and passionate people, and thus got involved in vigorous discussions right away. I spent time with several groups (four or five), exchanged almost a dozen contacts with other attendees, ended up spending about three hours total there possibly longer than everybody else. Had so many long passionate conversations about the topic in question, about myself, about the country etcetera. I was one of the last people to hang around in the event with two other passionate people, and even played the role of product owner for one of the guys because they had used the 'engineering mindset' and decided to create the product long before ever understanding what their customers needed.

In the end I met the organizer, introduced myself, exchanged a few passionate words and exchanged business contacts. This was all so very new (or re-new) for me, it was refreshing! At the end of the night, I wasn't even tired, I basked in the buzz of having talked to new people! Was inspired by the organizer to organize similar events in the future too...