Meetups - a HUGE revenue stream for recruiters (Guide + Info + Screenshots)

Today I wanted to talk about/share my opinion of a very undervalued recruitment channel.

Meetups!!! ????

What are meetups?

I think most people reading this have an idea of what meetups are and won't go into this much myself. Quickly to sum up the important parts you need to know as a recruiter to get started.

1) It is an event organised to bring together a certain target audience together. The expertise of the target audience usually has high relevance to the talk/presentation/workshop that is being organised.

2) It's where your candidates "hang out", network, follow new trends, socialise, educate themselves, look for jobs, sell something, etc. Most of the people attending these meetups will have expertise related to the topic of whatever event you are going to and the relevant industry.

3) From Mid-Level candidates to Hiring Managers to CEOs (aka. "decision-makers") sit there or participate as speakers in the events and are open + available to a chat and networking.

They are exactly that, a great opportunity for you to learn something relevant about the industry you are recruiting in, meet candidates face2face that you can potentially place at your clients and talk to "decision-makers" without having to chase them much.

How do you find meetups, Alex?

To make things more transparent and "guide-like", let's focus on an easy way to find suitable meetups in a step by step format.

Even though I won't mention them much, the same applies to conferences and quite a few conferences can also be found through the apps presented below. Conferences can also be an excellent channel for BD and candidate relations, but meetups are often more specific, cost-effective, personal and allow for easier access to a more niche pool.

Also to consider - I am not sure how these apps work in the back-end. Sometimes I see events in Meetup, but not in Eventbrite. Sometimes vice versa. Sometimes I see the same event in both apps. I guess there must some sort of contracts with companies or it depends on which apps the organiser chooses. Anyway, just wanted to put that out there and I hope I don't say anything wrong here. ??

I focus on 2 apps. (not sponsored, but feel free to reach out in case you want to pay for the promo) ???? #eventbrite #meetup

Eventbrite

Meetup

Once logged in, you can search for events in whatever industry you are recruiting in. In my case, it would be the Data, Innovation and A.I. meetups that I am interested in. Let's keep it general and search for "tech" (all other filters on default).

So here you will see a long list of all events that come up once you search for "tech".

You can see the following:

• The topic of the event/talk
• Who the organiser it (can be a group of people, a company, sometimes even a single individual.)
• How many people attend/have signed up
• Date, time and location of the event

Then you have the option to mark/favourite some of those events for you to keep track of or come back to later.

I could go on quite a bit about those apps and interesting functions for recruiters, but let's get back to the main topic of this article.

Now you can click on any of the events that catch your attention to find out more about them. Let's try the "Tech Talks at Billie" on March 5th at 18:00.

Seems like quite a good event. If I was sourcing for Backend Engineers and either had clients in the fin-tech space, wanted to gain some or had solid Backend Engineers with know-how in microtransactions that I was looking to place - this could potentially be a great event to attend.

• We can see at this moment there are only 12 attendees so far, the event is in March though so it should fill up.
• The topics are quite interesting and niche enough, I do believe the target audience will attend
• After looking at the LI profile of Chris Millar I believe many recruiters would like to say hi to him lol ??
• You do not even have to gather all the Backend Developers yourself, #Billie (or any other organiser) is so nice to "call all the Backend developers" ?? All you have to do is go to the event.

Let's also take a quick look at the agenda of the talk.

This is a pretty standard format of a tech meetup. Quick welcome, 2-3 speakers with Q&A in-between or Q&A at the end + networking and drinks after. Sometimes, there will also be a different location be booked to continue the evening there.

I also checked all the different tabs and groups associated with this event. Even though with just 12 attendees so far, if I would recruit in this industry, this would be a good event with both a good pool of potential candidates (this I would double-check a bit before the even to see if I can min/max my reach to my target audience in comparison with another event in the same industry) and also decision-makers from Billie + other companies if I wanted to BD.

All this is hypothetical though ???♂?

Why could meetups be so interesting for recruiters?

A good question that I can only answer better now that I have attended 50+ meetups in the past few months.

1) Many recruiters doing BD waste HOURS trying to get through to those people, often without success. But hey, at least you built a relationship with the secretary, right? ^^ Why not talk to them at a meetup? It saves time, money, nerves and increases the speed you make deals and see that nice, big commission check. Plus, 99.9% of people respond when you talk to them IRL at meetups ???♂? that's a much better percentage compared to your LinkedIn Recruiter template spam response rate.

2) Already mentioned many times - candidates. Many candidates attend these events to find jobs, almost anybody going to those events is there to socialise, the calibre of candidates and speakers is great (do not forget, you can check the attendee list and see if candidates of interest are among the participants/attendees) and they are right there for you to engage with. Plus the target audiences of these events are closely related to the topic of the event. If you go to a "Berliner AWS Group Meetup" with a focus on cloud security - well expect "the cloud guys" to be there.

3) "The market" and where candidates hang out changes all the time, especially online. We have seen a huge increase in the number of "niche" platforms tailored to smaller groups of people and, as recruiters, always have to find innovative ways to get the attention of our candidates. Meetups are a great chance to be part of this "change" and there is not as much "catch-up" to play as with the speed technology is developing, new sourcing tools, A.I., etc. The format, content and vehicle of meetups might change, but I think meetups are here to stay and have already been around for ages.

My suggestion: Consider face-to-face meetups (plus the related technology) as a possible way to reach your candidates and/or develop some new business (I know some recruitment agencies are already doing this).

Additional benefits, wait there's more!?

1) "Selling" candidates that you have met through meetups/events, or that even participated at them, seems to be easier?! ?? "The more you know about a product, the better you sell it.", right? Well, I don't think that's the secret, but at least for me, it does feel much easier to talk about a person that I have met IRL, rather than talking about a person I have just talked to over the phone or IM.

2) As you attend more and more of those events (in whatever industry you are) you will gain quite a bit of knowledge, which will also influence the way you communicate to candidates and clients, how you source and your ability to identify suitably, quality candidates faster.

3) Oh did I mention most of these events are free? (Most of them also have food, drinks and even cool gadgets!) This is probably a good point for your manager in case you think about asking him for permission to go to these meetups (you shouldn't need permission btw).

4) My personally absolute favourite benefit is the relationships and even friendships by now that can be formed during these events. People come from very different paths and it is nice to find out more about them! If you a recruiter doing this, you will probably meet quite a few other likeminded recruiters and be able to develop good relationships for future ventures or just an exchange of ideas.

5) You will start realising that BD and sourcing can be different and that you can get to where you want to be through the connections that you make at those meetups. e.g. I ended up gaining a client a few months ago that I met at one of the meetups I was. He was a speaker and we started the conversation after the event. 1 month later I was invited to pitch in front of his company (ended up getting business), 2 months later I was invited (again through his help) to pitch in front of 3 different businesses belonging to the same group (ended up doing business with 2 of them, still ongoing).

6) I have observed that many people going to events, actually post about them, share their opinions, discuss them, etc. Due to many companies also looking to develop a better presence in the market, peer-to-peer marketing being "in" right now, etc. - it is always a bonus if you can pitch a candidate with a solid online standing or strong activity in a niche social media space. ??

7) Getting better at meetups - I found that a good way of being "better" at meetups and networking is to attend those events and network. I think the same might apply to you. Skills developed in networking events will greatly help you throughout your career/life IMHO.

8) It is super to gain some insight into what is happening at specific companies. Relevant to understand market dynamics, potentially what is going on at a competitor or jus to be able to compare companies better as recruiters and giving better advice to jobseekers.

9) Start using those apps for your hobbies as well. They are great apps and I ended up doing a few things I wasn't even aware existed before.

Why should we listen to you?

I don't know, you answer that yourself. If what you just read made any sense and you see the benefits - do it. If you read it and think it's a pile of bullcrap - don't do it.

I would always suggest trying these things, worst case you learn something that will apply to your recruiter-being anyways. But that's just my opinion, you do you. ??

What has it done for you?

A lot, BD & candidate wise it has helped me invoice some good amounts. It has helped me communicate better with both sides as well. As it is also a bit unusual it is quite appreciated by people so far, at least nobody has kicked me out of an event... (yet lol)

Over the past few months, 80% of my business comes from clients that I have met IRL and started a dialogue from there. But then again, I got a dog now and have to be outside more, so meetings, conferences, meetups, face2face meetings with candidates/clients, workshops and a bit of consultancy work is what I have been up to these days. ??

I think this figure would look different if I was working from the office most of my day (way more phone activity), but I just want to point out and show that there are different, (possibly) lucrative ways of recruiting and offering a tailored candidate experience that what is mostly done these days.

Cya

If you managed to get till here, sorry for the long post, I hope you found it interesting or learned something. I plan on writing a few articles like this to go further in-depth or talk about some different topics, let's see.

Here is a potato emoji ?? #9gag

Any questions, suggestions, hate or so that you want to share with me? Feel free to leave it in the comments or message me directly. ta ??