If you've ever been interested in starting a technology-centric meetup in your area but haven't known where to start, Jef Claes has some helpful hints to help you get started.

I've organized a few DDDBE meetups in the past, and always succeed in forgetting something. Either someone points it out well in advance, or I end up stressing last minute. This post partly serves as a checklist for myself, but it would be a welcome side effect to also see it encourage others to help out organizing future meetups. Organizing a meetup is not rocket science, having a list of what to take care of is a good start.

He breaks down the recommendations into a list of ten things to do to make a successful meetup happen:

• Contacting a speaker
• Gathering speaker requirements
• Selecting a location sponsor
• Contacting a location sponsor
• Meetup.com
• Speaker gift
• Recordings
• Day of the meetup
• Give thanks

While ten steps sounds like a lot, some of these are optional (like the speaker gift) but they can help to build a good reputation for the group and make it easier to find future speakers.