One of the aspects of New Mexico’s technology business community (and entrepreneurial community) that we’ve been working on is ‘network density.’ Whether it’s perception or reality, many still see a lack of connection between different sectors, and it’s true that we won’t be as hyper connected as people in Silicon Valley/San Francisco, New York, Seattle or other leading tech hubs anytime soon.
But when people are investigating New Mexico as a home for their company or relocating themselves, we actually have a pretty healthy set of regular meetups and other activities for software and mobile developers, entrepreneurs, designers, hackers and others interested in some form of tech. We try to cover most of these with our regular email updates (sign up here for our main list, Shandra’s list and other interests), but given the explosive growth of these groups, it’s tough to keep up to date. For that reason it seemed like it might be useful to capture several of the meetups that are growing and making a difference in our community.
NM Tech Scene
We created NM Tech Scene as something of a catch-all for (mostly) organic meetups and to help launch or promote new events and activities. Here we post the following kinds of events:
ABQ Web Geeks – Based at Duke City Fix (DCF), ABQ Web Geeks is the Albuquerque area’s longest running happy hour for web practitioners and others in tech. Started by DCF founder Chantal Forster and partially in response to ‘power networking’ events, ABQ Web Geeks is more about casual conversation and checking in on area activities, along with a side meeting or two. Typically the 3rd Wednesday of the month.
Rio Rancho Tech Scene – Join area designers, developers, other tech and entrepreneur-ish types for food, drink and casual conversation. No agenda. Just creative, interesting folks gathering in a social place. Typically the 2nd Wednesday of the month in a restaurant or bar in Rio Rancho or Corrales.
More recently, we’ve started exploring this as a home for Code 66 & a NM Code for America Brigade (every other Monday night at Facility), as well as for lean startup/bootstrap brownbags in Santa Fe (every Tuesday at the RE:MIKE Headquarters).
Join us at http://www.meetup.com/nmtechscene/ to learn more.
Santa Fe Software Developers
From the group: “Meet local Software Developers, Designers and others in IT, Hardware and other forms of Tech.
Web, mobile and other development fields are changing more rapidly than ever before – and our community includes great folks working in most of these areas. Come to meet others, share ideas, projects and updates (most meetups include 3-5 short presentations) and keep up to date with what everyone else is doing.”
Meets monthly, typically alternating between the 4th Wednesday and Thursday of the month.
Join us at: http://www.sfdev.org/
And here are a handful of the other groups active in our tech community:
ABQ Hardware/Software Developers Meetup
From their group: “We meet up about once a month at a pub and talk about developing projects and technology, or work, or just about anything. The environment is pretty casual and there are no agendas. You should join if you have a general curiosity for emerging electronics and software technology and want to meet other hardware or software engineers. We prefer people on a professional or graduate level (even research scientists looking for connections) but all who are interested are welcome.”
Find them at: http://www.meetup.com/Abq-Hardware-Software-Meetup/
Albuquerque Lean Startup Circle
From their group: “We are ABQ startup entrepreneurs who are passionate about developing customers and markets for our products in a disciplined, iterative, and measured way.
Lean Startups achieve success faster than most because they get out of the building to talk to customers, validate business model assumptions as quickly and cheaply as possible, use agile development to decrease time to market and leverage continuous deployment to learn as fast as possible.
We are not a general entrepreneurship or professional meeting group.
We share our thoughts and experiences with the application of Customer Development, Lean Thinking, Lean/Agile Software Development, Open Source Software, and Cloud Computing as it applies to startups and new products.
The Lean Startup is a trademark and service mark owned by Eric Ries.”
Find them at: http://www.meetup.com/ABQ-Lean-Startup-Circle/
(Though they’re actually more lively at Google +)
Albuquerque Lean Startup Monthly
From the group: “For entrepreneurs actively working on a business idea using lean startup methods. A meetup where we can all learn from, motivate, and network with like-minded entrepreneurs. Focused on lean startup, customer development, iteration, testing, and measurement to develop successful businesses. Join us to share what you’ve learned, what you’re working on, problems you’re struggling with, and successes you’ve achieved. The tentative format is a monthly meetup with a thirty minute presentation followed by an hour of roundtable discussion. Each roundtable discussion item will be capped at ten minutes to ensure a variety of voices and topics are heard. Snacks provided. Admission free (Donations welcome). * The Lean Startup is a trademark and service mark owned by Eric Ries.”
They meet the first Wednesday of the month at the Facility Coworking Space.
Join them at: http://www.meetup.com/Albuquerque-Lean-Startup-Monthly/
Albuquerque WordPress Meetup Group
The region’s most successful tech meetup group keeps growing, spawning the highly successful WordCamp ABQ conference, with Wednesday lunchtime ‘workalong’ sessions and a newly launched special interest group for female WP developers.
From the group: “The Albuquerque WordPress Meetup Group is a Meetup group for fans of WordPress. Join us once a month to learn more about WordPress and meet other WP fans: SEO gurus, theme designers, plugin developers, bloggers, and beginners. We meet for a presentation, Q&A session, and casual networking.”
Monthly Meetups the 2nd Thursday of each month at Facility CoWorking Space (note new location)
Wednesday Lunchtime ‘Workalong’ sessions weekly at Techlove
Women working with WordPress the first Monday night of each month at the Flying Star in downtown Albuquerque
Join them at: http://www.meetup.com/albuquerque-wordpress/
Friday at Ideas & Coffee
From the group: “Short talks by experts in various areas of interest to small businesses, entrepreneurs and freelancers, from Web Design to Tax Law, followed by questions and answers. Meetings will be from one to two hours long starting at 11:30. Bring a lunch, we’ll supply the coffee and tea and interesting speakers.”
Monthly at the Ideas & Coffee coworking space (co-located with Southwest Cyberport).
Join them at: http://www.meetup.com/Friday-at-Ideas-and-Coffee/
Hacker & Maker Community Group
To some degree an alternate site or door to the hacknights and other activities from Quelab, “a place to make things” in Albuquerque.
Join them at: http://www.meetup.com/Hacker-and-Maker-community-group/
NM Internet Entrepreneurs
From the group: “For entrepreneurs who either have an existing business with an online presence, or a specific idea for an online business that you’re actively developing.
This is a collaborative group targeted toward entrepreneurs who not only have a website, but are using online tools & techniques to automate, optimize, and grow their business. We’ll be sharing & learning about tools, techniques, tricks, hacks, etc. for how we run and grow our businesses…”
Join them at: http://www.meetup.com/NM-Internet-Entrepreneurs/
Rubyists in Albuquerque
From the group: “Let’s chat about Ruby and Rails. Some days we’ll write code and/or tests, some days we’ll just socialize.
In the early days, people showed up because they were hoping to find Ruby and/or Ruby on Rails jobs. These days we have more job openings than we do Ruby programmers. So, if you’d like to learn enough to get paid to program Ruby, please join us.”
Meets the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at the One Up Lounge in downtown Albuquerque.
Join them at: http://www.meetup.com/Rubyists-in-Albuquerque/
Santa Fe Macinthosh Users Group
From the group: “Serving the Santa Fe Macintosh community since 1994. SFMUG is the place to go to expand your knowledge of the Macintosh,iPhone, iPad, iPod, related technologies & software, and have fun in the process. We provide enthusiastic and passionate support, education and training for all levels of the Mac platform. This is a group for beginners and experts, where no question is stupid or unworthy of asking.”
Join them at: http://www.meetup.com/Santa-Fe-Macintosh-User-Group/
TEDx Events Around New Mexico
We’re huge fans of TEDxABQ and the team (and TEDxABQWomen & TEDxABQED!) and the way they’ve helped bring many communities together around ideas, conversation and making things happen. Get involved!
From the group:”This group isn’t run by organizers. It’s run by YOU! While we may post events that are specific to TED or TEDx, we really want you to get involved by posting events that you think support great ideas in New Mexico.
This could be hosting a TEDTalks viewing, supporting other idea-based events like Ignite or ABQ Sprout, or simply getting like-minded folks together to talk about ideas over dinner or at the local farmers market. Use your imagination. Your ideas are worth sharing. Your ideas are worth a meeting with other TED lovers. Our ideas are the basis of our community. Put something on the calendar, won’t you?”
Join them at: http://www.meetup.com/TEDxNM/
Of course there are many more, and many that are published through eventbrite or their own group pages and calendars. We hope to cover more of them soon.
If you’d like to add a group here or otherwise help get it on our radar, please add it in the comments below or otherwise let us know!
