How I managed to arrange a successful meetup?

This is me starting the event

I am not a very great speaker. Neither can I speak good English. I am just an average guy who did not earn a dime his entire life over internet until recently. I made two websites, both for my close relatives and they both paid me around 90000 PKR (600 USD). Presently, I am running zakatlists.com where I write this blog and I share my university course under zakatlists.com/school. I tried to sell the ‘zakatlists.com/school’ website to my uni for 1000 USD but they did not reply back.

Idea

I was in Islamabad for my university exams on December 2019. I looked for open meetups in Islamabad. I couldn’t find any. It was relative colder and people might were reluctant to host meetups.

I felt there is really not any culture of connecting to people around here in Pakistan. Although I saw online, people found a lot of potential walking this road. I said, I should work on hosting my own meetup. A place where we can talk ideas. I was overly excited.

Creating an online community

The next step towards making the meetup happen; was to create an online community on Meetup.com. All upcoming events listed on google are pulled from this platform. I created my own group with the name of TechShek which did not work out. Meetup considered it a marketing platform and deleted it.

I notified the attendees on twitter about the incident. My entire day I was feeling like a failure. It smashed me hard. I had a dinner with a colleague’s family, where I couldn’t discuss politics like we normally do. It was a boring day where I did not find any positivity.

After the first punch

The day I was discouraged by meetup.com was a bad one. But the next day, I got a message from meetup.com where I can step up to the Organizer’s role of another group of 420 people. I immediately stepped up. Kept my 2300 Ruppees (9 USD / Month) subscription valid. I sent an email to all the members and circulated the plan to conduct first meetup.

Excited again, feeling succesful again. People responded back, joined the event and it was done.

Chapter 1:- Meet and Greet

Finally, the day of first meetup came, link here. We were expecting around 40 people in total. We arranged the chairs in the hall room accordingly.

But, there were only 10 people in total. All family members and close friends. I talked in a lower tone feeling ashamed of myself in front of my wife. But my Co Host Wasif pushed me to speak better. So we concluded the event with good plans for the rest of the year.

The entire drive of 4 hours to my home was very hectic. The event did not go well. It was literally paying Rs 7000 (50 USD) for a family gathering. In Pakistan it is a lot of money.

Chapter 2:- Speak your heart out

My family members, cousins and friends started asking me to conduct this 2nd meetup on 9th February. It was planned initially as the first event but the earlier event of Meet and Greet, pushed it down to Chapter 2.

It was a wonderful crowd. People were talking out loud. Energy, rythem, fire oozing out of the hall.

RamadanMakers, an online community of developers, co sponsored the event. The owner of community has a paid subscription of whereby.com that all live stream the event.

Video made by Fajar Siddiq

Was this event a success?

I did not earn any money out of it. It was all paid by myself. I am still not earning any thing out of any of my projects. I am still standing at zero.

To answer the question, Was this event successful?, I would say, Yes. This event was a huge success. I talked to people, people got inspired, they talked to people, some more people got the fire. It was one amazing day in my life where I managed to achieve something, I dreamt my whole life; fearlessly talk on stage.

I am still getting retweets. Brothers and sisters who attended the event are also working on their personal projects. We all are thinking on the lines of doing bigger things in our life. We might not earn a lot, but we plan to keep going and do not stop.

The recipe

I believe it all happened due to only 1 reason. I have obliged myself to ”reading Quran daily and acting upon it, till it is completed. It has done something magical in myself. It feels like things are easier to do and they are not really far. At times it feels there is another energy that is pushing it all forward.

Every morning is brighter than the previous one. Each passing day, my relationships are healing. I am moving towards unity. Respect is flowing into my life, smooth. There is something with this Book that lifts and makes a dull life magical.

Even if you are a non follower of Quran, I strongly suggest read a portion of it and act upon it for next 30 days. It will make your dreams come true.

He has sent down upon you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.
- Surah Al Imran verse 3