@gosub this has worked for me a number of times:
- Find a free place to meet that you want to be at anyway.
- Find a nice lightweight thing to do (code dojo, how to configure an emacs package, code reading group)
- Find the same time each month (like the 2nd Wednesday of the month)
- Tell everyone that you are going to be at the usual place, at the usual date and time, and what you'll be doing
- Turn up and wait. Sometimes no one will come, but hopefully things will start to snow ball.
- Post/blog/share how things went so people get an idea of what it is like if they turn up
- When someone complains and says "why haven't we done this kind of thing?" Congratulate them on becoming an organiser and help them with the previous steps.
This worked for the London Pyssup, London Python Dojo, London Clojure Dojo, London Salesforce User Group, and others.
The tricky bit is finding good venues and then consistently turning up.
If you want to run a coding dojo this might help: https://otfrom.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/how-to-run-a-london-clojure-dojo-in-20ish-easy-steps/
Wifi and Coffee · How to run a London Clojure Dojo in 20ish easy stepsRunning dojos is a lot of fun. It is also really easy. No one has to prepare a talk or a subject for the night. The most important thing is that everyone has fun. After that if people learn some cl…