The existence, membership, and activity around local API Meetup groups is one of the overall health indicators in the API space. I've long been a proponent of local API meetups, helping jumpstart the early API Craft gatherings, as well as helping new Meetup groups get off the ground.
As we move into 2016, it is a good time to take another look at what API Meetup groups exist, and here is what I found:
- San Francisco, CA with 884 members
- San Francisco (API Craft) with 662 members
- Washington, DC with 1306 members
- Austin, TX with 717 members
- Seattle, WA with 463 members
- Chicago, IL with 394 members
- New York, NY (API Craft) with 343 members
- Los Angeles, CA with 191 members
- Houston, TX with 141 members
- Detroit, MI (API Craft) with 246 members
- Boston (API Craft) with 426 members
- Dallas, TX with 107 members
- Denver, CO with 895 members
- Nashville, TN with 185 members
- Baltimore, MD with 76 members
- Montreal, Quebec with 229 members
- Toronto, Ontario with 201 members
- Minnesota with 169 members
- Raleigh, NC with 196 members
At @APIStrat, we use these numbers to help us decide where to put API conferences on, as on the ground support is crucial to making the event a success. I also consider the activity around these local Meetups a sign of how well the space is doing when it comes to outreach and evangelism across the entire industry.
If I missed an API Meetup in your community, please let me know. If you'd like to start an API Meetup in your community, also please reach out, as I may be able to help you jumpstart your efforts with speakers, sponsors, and attendeess. However, ultimately you will have to do all the hard work of finding venues, and getting the word out locally, which if you do right, can be a very rewarding journey in my opinion.