At our last meetup (Tuesday 6th May) we introduced a potential new format for some future Belfast Ruby meetings.
The new format is known as "Lean Coffee" and outlines a method for having structured but agenda-less meetings.
The general idea is that instead of talks, we'll spend the evening discussing various (dev-related) topics that interest us.
The process would involve these steps:
- Using the public Belfast Ruby Trello board, which is set up with 3 main columns:
- To Discuss
- Discussing This Month
- Done
- Everyone can access Trello and can propose Ruby or development-related topics they'd be interested in talking/hearing about, prior to the meetup.
- The person responsible for posting an idea must write short introduction about the topic (2 sentences approx).
- At the meetup everyone can vote on the topics they'd like to discuss that evening
- Each topic is given 10 minutes discussion time and we'll talk through as many as we can in the available time in order of popularity
We don't intend on scrapping our current format where we have a couple of more formal talks during a meetup. Instead we propose that we test out this format at our next meetup in June and if successful, we could use this format for every other meetup.
So, why are we proposing this new format idea?
- It allows for a variety of topics to be discussed during meetups
- Topics are guaranteed to be the most interesting to the specific audience that night
- Instead of a one-way presentation, this format encourages discussion and questions
- Very little organisation is required beforehand as we won't need to source speakers
- This might spark ideas for future talks
You can find the public Trello board right here.
As well as the 3 main columns for discussion topics, it also includes 2 other columns:
- Talks
- To Do
Since Trello only allows members of the organisation (in this case, Belfast Ruby) to create new cards and columns, we've added the "To Do" column. This contains two cards.
The first is being "Add Discussion Ideas." This will allow non-members to post their topic ideas as comments on this card, then members can add these topics as separate cards in the "To Discuss" column.
Note that you must be signed up to Trello to post comments to the cards.
However if you'd like to become an a member (everyone is welcome), please comment on the second card in the To Do column, "Add Members." Please leave your Trello username or email address.
We're hoping that by posting and discussing various topic ideas, you might be inspired to take an idea further and create a talk about it for a future meetup.
So if you're planning a talk, post it in this column.
This format is entirely experimental at this stage. We'd like to explore this style of meetup and get everyone's feedback to discover if it was successful.
Give us your thoughts by tweeting @belfastruby or posting in our Google Group.
Oh, and get posting your topic ideas to Trello!