FredWorks

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on a transformative year for Meetup. For months, our focus has been on making Meetup more reliable and efficient for organizers, and more inviting and intuitive for the entire community.

To that end, we introduced a series of improvements to the platform, including public group reviews, direct responses to individual reviews, and automatic events in Google Calendar. We cover these updates and more here on our blog.

Since then, we’ve been working…

Meetup has undergone its most significant redesign in years. 🚀

Combining a fresh visual identity with a more intuitive user experience, the new design speaks to our ongoing work to elevate Meetup. We wanted to make the platform a more engaging and inspiring space for fostering human connections, while preserving the core identity and functionality that has anchored the community since Meetup’s earliest days.

Whether you’ve been using Meetup for years or have only just joined, we believe…

Since the beginning of the year, we’ve rolled out several small—yet impactful—improvements to make Meetup more intuitive, reliable, and efficient for organizers. Here’s a quick summary of 16 top updates you may have missed!

Creating events and managing attendees are core parts of every organizer’s experience, so we introduced a range of improvements to make the whole process smoother from start to finish:

• 🎪 Better UX for adding venues to your…

2024 at Meetup was marked by many changes. Upon joining the Bending Spoons portfolio in January, the team saw an opportunity to take a fresh look at the entire Meetup ecosystem to determine what was working and what could be done better. We spoke with customers, evaluated the data, and organized and attended events. At the conclusion of our research, three key areas of improvement emerged—and became the priorities that guided our roadmap for the remainder of the year: 

🎯 Boosting platform…

We recently rolled out a new personalized event recommendation model. This model uses each individual members’ personal preferences and past activity to suggest new events that align with their unique needs. At the same time, it boosts organizers’ chances of reaching the members who are most likely to attend their events. 

Here’s a quick look at how the model works, plus some simple tips for organizers to maximize their reach.

Before, Meetup…

Messages are a crucial way for organizers and members to stay connected. That’s why we recently introduced several improvements to Meetup’s direct messaging experience. These include greater clarity about message delivery, more consistent notifications, and an updated user interface—check out the full list of improvements below!

Delivery status: Know when your message has been seen by the recipient

With the message delivery status now displayed directly in…

As of October 11, 2024, several of Meetup’s advanced features are reserved exclusively for our Meetup+ members. These include:

• Sending unrestricted DMs—contact any other member on Meetup
• Getting a priority position on the waitlist—get first access when new spots open up
• Viewing complete event attendee and group member lists—see who’s part of the community
• Viewing member’s profiles—get to know other members better with additional insights about their interests and groups

From…

Meetup Starter offers new and would-be organizers a way to try their hand at community management in a lightweight environment. This free plan can help ease first-time organizers into the Meetup experience with a sampling of the tool’s core benefits, as follows:

• 1 group
• Up to 2 in-person events per month
• Up to 10 attendees per event
• In-app communications via Group Discussions and Event Comments

Meetup Standard is still our…

This blog was updated on September 19, 2024 to reflect the latest updates to Meetup’s Member Dues feature. 

Offering high-quality, dynamic Meetup events is often a top priority for organizers. These can add up (it costs to bring in speakers, technology, or equipment), and collecting membership dues is a reliable way to offset your costs.

Foster better engagement: Membership dues don’t just assist with event costs but can also help foster more…

Clear, consistent, and intuitive communications are key to a successful Meetup community. This is why we’re excited to introduce several improvements to Meetup’s suite of communication tools. 

Historically, Meetup has offered several distinct communication tools: Group Discussions, Event Comments, Event Chat, Message Boards, Direct Messages, Event Announcements, and Contact Members (via mass email). While some of these addressed unique needs, others overlapped significantly. So, as of July…