When I first got asked to name our community meetup, I just stared at a blank Google Doc for an hour. Seriously. Total brain freeze. The old me would’ve typed something lazy like “September Networking Event” and called it a day. But this time? Nah. I wanted people actually clicking “Attend.”
My Messy Step-by-Step Process
Step 1: Brain Dumping
Grabbed a notebook—real paper, felt fancy—and scribbled everything about the event:
What we’re doing (talking cloud stuff? local snacks? portfolio reviews?)
Who should come (new coders? managers? artists?)
Why bother showing up (free pizza doesn’t count anymore).
Ended up with pages of garbage like “Learn Cloud Things” and “Tech Hangout.” Felt stupid.
Step 2: Staring At Other Events
Went down a rabbit hole on Meetup and Twitter. Saved titles that made me pause:
– “Code & Coffee: Untangle Your Legacy APIs”
– “Debug Your Career Path (Bring Questions!)”
– “No Slides Allowed: UX War Stories”
Noticed they all had verbs (“untangle,” “debug”) and clear promises. My “Tech Hangout” felt kinda… dead.
Step 3: The “So What?” Test
For every title draft, I asked out loud: “So what? Why should you care?”
“Cloud Basics Workshop” → So what? → “Fix Expensive Cloud Bills Before Lunch.” Better.
“Networking For Startups” → So what? → “Meet 3 Investors Before Sunset.” Ding ding.
Step 4: Adding Sparkle (But Not Too Much)
Here’s where I messed up first: tried being too clever. “Your Code’s Cry For Help: Scale Smarter?” Nope. Sounds like spam.
Went practical instead:
Added 🔥 emoji where it felt natural (“Beat AWS Costs: 3 Tools You Ignore 🔥”)
Stuck “Lightning Talk:” in front for quick events
Swapped “Workshop” for “Hands-On Lab” (people RSVP’d faster!)
What Actually Worked
- Numbers. “5 Data Mistakes Burning Cash” beat “Avoid Data Mistakes” RSVPs by 3x
- Secrets/FOMO. “The Python Trick Big Tech Hides” filled seats fastest
- Action words. Verbs like “Build,” “Crash,” “Hack,” “Fix” got more clicks
- Cutting filler words. Deleted “Event,” “Session,” “Meetup.” Everyone already knows
Biggest fail? Titles that sounded like school lectures. The second I made it sound like you’d leave with something useful, people came. Like last Tuesday’s thing: “Steal This SaaS Pricing Strategy.” Room was packed.
