How to host 200+ meetups in 35 countries in one year

Shreman Shrestha is the Head of Community for the Friends of Lenny’s Slack community. This community comes bundled with the Paid subscription for Lenny’s Newsletter and at the time of recording there are 17k+ members in here.

In this episode, Shre discusses how this community is able to organise 200+ in-person meetups per year, challenges with organising a great mentor matching program, working with volunteers and more.

Resources:
• Beginner Maps - free crash course on building a community business - ⁠https://beginnermaps.com⁠

• Curated Connections, the community engagement app - ⁠https://curatedconnections.io/⁠

• Shreman's Twitter - https://twitter.com/itsDrDrewithaSh/

• Lenny's community + newsletter - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/community

• Nityesh's Twitter (host) - https://twitter.com/nityeshaga/

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

03:09 Lenny's community persona

04:33 Why people join the community

09:12 Increasing retention

10:52 Shre's story

13:10 Shre's responsibilities

17:52 Member-led city meetups

22:18 Guidelines for meetup hosts

25:29 Finding hosts

26:45 Financials of a meetup

28:21 Dealing with low attendance

31:46 Mentor matching program

37:07 Workbook for mentor and mentee

38:54 Building a great volunteer program

42:49 Advice for creators with audience

48:33 Observing members to get new ideas