This article was taken from Steve's appearance at the Community-Led Summit in Boston.
Fostering meaningful connections is at the heart of every thriving community.
I'm Steve Chen, Founder & Executive Director, Code & Coffee, the largest developer meetup in the U.S., and my journey from a non-traditional tech background to building a nationwide community has shown me the immense power of community-led engagement.
In a world where disconnection and isolation are on the rise, I’ve witnessed how meetups, both community-led and company-led, can serve as essential spaces for connection, growth, and collaboration.
In this article, I'll share key principles for creating sustainable, resilient, and impactful meetups, along with actionable strategies for building trust, psychological safety, and a strong sense of belonging in any community.
My journey to Code & Coffee
My journey began a little over a decade ago, starting with a non-traditional path into the tech field. Dropping out of my final year of college and working various hourly jobs, I found myself ready for a new direction.
The appeal of a career in tech led me to enroll in a coding boot camp – one of those “make six figures” boot camps that promise a fresh start. So, I packed up and moved to Fort Lauderdale, skipping winter to dive head-first into coding.
After the boot camp, I was set to find my first developer role. But more than just technical skills, I became deeply invested in the soft skills of networking and community engagement. I started attending meetups regularly—up to three per week! It was in this space that I discovered just how valuable community could be.
In 2016, I attended my first Code & Coffee meetup in Northern Virginia. Unlike other tech gatherings I’d been to, Code & Coffee felt different. It was inclusive, and I made friends from diverse fields in my very first few minutes.
By 2017, I co-founded DC Code & Coffee with a group of friends, and we began organizing events every couple of weeks. This experience transformed my perspective on what a successful meetup could be.
After years of hosting meetups and engaging with community members, I became increasingly passionate about creating spaces where people from all backgrounds could come together and grow.
In 2021, after realizing I hadn’t met anyone new in almost a year, I decided to take action.
I drove from my home in DC to New York every two weeks for an entire year to start a three-hour Code & Coffee, and it quickly took off.
By 2022, the momentum was undeniable. With a wave of dedicated volunteers, we began expanding at an incredible pace, launching chapters in three new cities per month.
Today, Code & Coffee is a thriving community operating in over 30 U.S. cities. We have an incredible team of more than 40 local leaders and over 100 volunteers, uniting 42,000 members across our network.
Together, we’ve organized over 300 events, including 55 workshop-style meetups, all on a modest annual budget of just $6,000. We also maintain an active online presence with around 5,000 members on Discord.
The journey has been humbling and rewarding, showing me firsthand the potential of community-driven success.
Understanding community: The opportunity and two pillars for success
The world we live in today is hyper digital, and this is only going to increase. We face a growing challenge of disconnection. With the proliferation of smartphones and social media, people are spending more time alone and less time engaging in real, in-person interactions.
We all feel it – loneliness is reaching unprecedented levels, to the point that, in 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General released an 87-page report highlighting what’s been termed the “loneliness epidemic.” Over a quarter of Americans are socially isolated, and this has profound consequences, from increased health risks to billions of dollars in societal costs.
For community groups like meetups, this context makes our mission more critical than ever. To create a thriving community, I focus on two key pillars: sustainability and resilience.
Sustainability and resilience
First, sustainability. For any community to thrive, it must be able to continue its activities long-term.
Think about group chats you’ve been part of—many start strong but fizzle out over time. This often happens when there’s no one driving the conversation forward or when the initial creator loses interest. Sustainability requires a commitment to keeping the community active and engaging, and it’s crucial for meetups to prioritize it.
The second pillar, resilience, is equally vital. Resilience is the ability to adapt to challenges and setbacks. Anyone who’s ever organized an in-person event knows that things rarely go as planned. There are always unexpected issues, and resilient communities are those with members who can pivot and adapt as needed.
Building a team that embodies resilience has been a key strength at Code & Coffee, where flexibility is baked into our approach.
The three principles of thriving meetups
Now that we’ve explored sustainability and resilience, let’s dive into three principles that every successful meetup needs.
The first and foremost is belonging. Creating a sense of belonging is about ensuring that everyone who attends feels accepted and valued. Belonging gives people a sense of purpose and identity, fulfilling a foundational human need.
If you’ve ever studied social science, you’re familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. After our basic needs for food and safety, our next need is to belong. Once we feel that, we can progress toward self-esteem, self-actualization, and ultimately, live our best lives.
So, how do we foster belonging? One of my core strategies is to define clear boundaries and values. For example, on our Code & Coffee website, we clearly state that we are a community for developers of all experience levels. This helps prospective members determine if our community aligns with their goals and needs.
We make it clear that they can expect to find friendships, learning opportunities, project collaborations, mentorship, and even job leads. This intentional boundary-setting allows individuals to self-select in or out, making for a more cohesive group.
Another essential element for creating belonging is establishing community rituals. At Code & Coffee, we have an “intro circle” where everyone stands together, shares their name, what they’re working on, and how they can contribute to the group. This ritual helps everyone feel seen and valued, removing any sense of hierarchy.
Everyone’s voice has equal weight, which is particularly impactful for our introverted members who may find it easier to connect in this inclusive environment. These circles encourage organic conversations and help people bond over shared interests, creating a more meaningful experience.
To foster belonging, define your group’s boundaries and core values, and then integrate community rituals that resonate with your members. These rituals create a unique, almost sacred atmosphere, distinguishing your meetup from typical tech events that often lack this personal connection.
Building trust through consistency and feedback
The next principle in building a thriving community is trust. Trust is cultivated through consistent actions that reflect care, competence, and integrity. For me, trust in our community boils down to two main strategies: regular, dependable events and actively seeking feedback to continuously improve.
To illustrate this, I often think about trust in terms of a funnel, similar to the marketing AIDA model many of you may know. At Code & Coffee, we have our own version of a funnel for volunteer engagement.
Here’s how it breaks down: if ten people hear about Code & Coffee, about five of them will attend an event. From those five, three are likely to return, and out of those three, two may eventually volunteer. This consistent flow, from awareness to attendance to repeat engagement and volunteerism, reflects a strong foundation of trust in our community.
The first prescription for building trust is consistent events. Whether you’re holding events every two weeks or monthly, frequency matters. Some organizations suggest quarterly meetups, but the reality is that few people are planning months in advance to attend a meetup.
Consistent events help foster a reliable rhythm, allowing people to stay engaged and continuously connected. In New York, for example, we’ve been hosting events every two weeks since 2021. This consistency has fueled steady growth and provided a reliable stream of new volunteers, which in turn strengthens the sustainability of the community.
The second essential strategy for building trust is prioritizing feedback. Feedback is invaluable for meeting the evolving needs of your community. Fortunately, platforms like Meetup facilitate this by sending feedback forms to attendees after each event.
At Code & Coffee, we take it a step further by holding a “retrospective” after each event. During these sessions, all organizers come together on a video call to discuss action items and review any feedback received from members and leaders. This process creates a continuous improvement loop, where even small adjustments of 1-5% can compound over time, especially when events occur bi-weekly or monthly.
To build trust in your community, commit to regular, frequent events and establish a strong feedback process. Consistency reassures members that the community is active and dependable, while regular feedback allows you to fine-tune your approach, ensuring you’re meeting members’ needs.
These practices create a foundation of trust that members can rely on and builds the kind of loyalty and engagement that fuels long-term success.
Creating safety: The foundation of a thriving community
The final principle, and perhaps the most essential, is safety—specifically, psychological safety.
Physical safety is fundamental, of course, but psychological safety is the key to a welcoming, inclusive space where people feel free to connect and engage without judgment or fear. A simple but critical aspect of this is having a code of conduct.
It’s surprising how many groups overlook this, but a strong, consistently enforced code of conduct reinforces safety and shapes a culture of respect and belonging, which, in turn, builds trust within the community.
At Code & Coffee, we prioritize open and accessible venues to create an inclusive and welcoming environment. For instance, in our New York events, we use coworking spaces that are designed to encourage interaction, with open layouts and minimal barriers. This allows for natural, comfortable conversations after our introductory circle—a ritual that brings everyone together.
In contrast, imagine events where walls separate attendees; it creates a barrier not only physically but psychologically, preventing people from feeling truly connected.
Accessibility is also key. One of our DC events is held at a public library—a space that’s free, easy to reach by public transportation, and accommodating to those without cars. We’re continually reviewing feedback on accessibility, such as attendee surveys showing where people travel from.
For example, if many participants are coming from Northern Virginia or Northwest DC, we consider moving venues to better serve their needs. This flexibility ensures we’re always thinking about our community’s convenience, which supports a more consistent turnout.
Prioritizing social-style meetups
One of my top recommendations is to host social-style meetups over speaker-driven events. While speaker sessions can be valuable, social gatherings tend to be more relaxed, accessible, and enjoyable for attendees.
We’ve all experienced those long technical talks where it’s easy to lose focus, glance at your phone, or feel trapped in the front row. Social-style meetups create a more psychologically safe space where attendees can freely engage or step out as needed, without the pressure to stay locked in.
That said, we do occasionally host speaker sessions at Code & Coffee, but we’re mindful of creating a setup that respects attendees’ autonomy. Typically, we hold these sessions in a separate room, allowing people to come and go as they wish. This format is sourced and led by the community, ensuring it aligns with their interests and needs, while still preserving the central purpose of our meetups—connecting with others.
In summary, prioritize open and accessible venues and lean towards social-style gatherings over rigid talk-based formats. Psychological safety is the bedrock of trust, safety, and belonging in a community.
By focusing on open, welcoming spaces and events that allow attendees to engage freely, you build a resilient, connected group that thrives on shared values and genuine connection.
Community-led vs. company-led meetups: A dual approach to community building
When it comes to meetups, I like to think of them as falling into two main categories: community-led and company-led. Each has its strengths, and both play a vital role in creating spaces for people to connect and grow.
Community-led groups prioritize the personal development and unique skills of their members. They’re often grassroots in nature, relying heavily on passionate organizers to keep things going.
However, with these community-driven meetups, there’s a real risk of organizer burnout—at Code & Coffee, for instance, we see that it takes about 1.5 to 2 years before most organizers reach a point of turnover.
Add to that the challenges of securing venues and managing logistics without consistent funding, and it’s clear that community-led groups, while impactful, can be fragile.
Company-led meetups, on the other hand, bring a different set of advantages. They tend to have a steady flow of resources and can provide a more reliable framework, with clearer organizational structures and often with financial support for things like venues, supplies, and marketing.
Company-led groups benefit from this stability, and they generally experience fewer logistical headaches. However, the culture and engagement at these meetups are often top-down, shaped by the company’s objectives rather than a purely grassroots approach.
At Code & Coffee, we’re proudly community-led. Our meetups have grown entirely through organic reach—we’ve spent $0 on paid ads or marketing. Our community believes in our mission, and that’s been the driving force behind our growth. Still, the question of where the true power lies—whether in community-led or company-led initiatives—deserves reflection.
The power of influence in community building
The real power in any community lies in its ability to influence and engage people over time. This influence can emerge in both community-led and company-led setups.
In Code & Coffee’s case, we’ve successfully secured over 50 sponsorships over the past three years, including venue spaces, coffee, educational scholarships worth over $200,000, and tons of swag. While we remain community-led, the sponsorships have helped support our vision and ensure sustainability.
In my journey, I’ve had to take on a bit of a sales and partnership-building role—a skill I never expected to need but one I’ve come to appreciate. Our organizers deeply believe in Code & Coffee, but asking them to focus on securing sponsorships and building partnerships isn’t practical. They’re here to build community, not chase funding.
Looking forward: Integrating AI and large language models
As we look to the future, the opportunity to integrate new technologies—especially AI and large language models (LLMs)—into our community efforts is exciting.
At Sift AI, where I work, we’re currently analyzing thousands of conversations within our community using LLMs to quantify community performance. It’s a unique opportunity to leverage technology to measure and understand our online engagement in a way that wasn’t possible before.
For many community teams, measuring the impact and engagement of a community is an ongoing challenge, but AI offers promising solutions that could make community management more insightful and impactful.
The power of community, whether driven by individuals or companies, lies in its ability to adapt, connect, and foster genuine growth. In this evolving landscape, I’m optimistic about how communities like ours can continue to leverage both grassroots passion and technology to thrive.
