workshops_meetups

Tips for running workshops at meetups

- Our most successful are the ones where the speaker creates a Github repository and uses it as the baseline for the workshop. Usually, there will be missing parts of the code and during the presentation, the speaker will complete the missing pieces with the audience, such as by the end of the talk, he/she will push a final version with the answers. This way, everyone has a resolved final version as well.

- Computers - very few places offer computers, so we recommend that participants bring their laptop. 

- Specify what people need to install and make sure you also send an email as a reminder, such as
"For this Scala workshop, we will need:
- IntelliJ Idea Community Edition, version X.Y
- Scala plugin
- SBT version x.y"
Or
"GHCi, a UNIX terminal and any text editor of your preference"

- A Github account is optional; we send a link to a video tutorial for the participants who want to learn more about Git/Github. But we always can work with the .zip files downloaded from Github.

- Some speakers go even further and provide a vagrant or Docker image - and it created way less pain with environment issues

- Don't assume everyone has a MacOS or Linux. Some people will have Windows.

- We create polls to know what people want to learn in our next sessions. (Of course, we don't guarantee we will find a speaker for the topic, but we try to do our best =] )