During the ApacheCon Europe 2009 in Amsterdam, some Apache projects are hosting what we call "Apache MeetUps".

Sponsored by Hippo and Lucid Imagination
Sponsorship opportunities are available. For details contact Delia Frees: delia@apachecon.com

The following Meetups are scheduled for ApacheCon Europe 2009, in Amsterdam:

• \[http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/WICKET/Wicket+Community+meetups+-+Amsterdam Wicket Meetup\]

• \[http://wiki.apache.org/jackrabbit/JcrMeetupMarch2009 Jackrabbit Meetup\]

• \[http://wiki.apache.org/portals/MeetupAmsterdam2009 Portals Meetup\]

• \[http://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/LuceneMeetupMarch2009 Lucene Meetup\]

• \[http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAVENUSER/Maven+Meetup+ApacheCON+Europe+2009 Maven Meetup\] \\ \\

Visit the above links to sign up!

If you'd like to organize an evening Meetup this year, please contact Arjé Cahn at arje(@)apache(.)org. We have room for 6 Meetups in total, 3 on Monday 23rd and 3 on Tuesday 24th of March, between 18:00 and 23:00.

What is a Meetup?

A Meetup is defined as:

• Organized by the members of the project community itself
• Covering an Apache project (like Wicket, Cocoon, Jackrabbit, Portals, etc)
• Having an open agenda, for which anyone can propose a talk, covering a wide range of subjects
• Bring together a diverse crowd: committers, users and people merely interested in a specific project
• Free or 'real cheap' for attendees (depending on sponsoring)
  

Also, Meetups generally:

• Happen during evenings or in off-peak hours
• Come with beers
• Are supposed to be fun
  

Things that worked out well in previous Meetups:

• Keep it short: short talks of about 15 to 30 minutes in length keep the audience's attention
  

Examples of successful Meetups

• The Cocoon [GetTogether] \[http://web.archive.org/web/20021211212225/http:/outerthought.org/cocoon/gettogether/ 2002\], \[http://web.archive.org/web/20070731114515/www.orixo.com/orixo/events/gt2003/ 2003\], \[http://web.archive.org/web/20070731114515/www.orixo.com/orixo/events/gt2004 2004\], \[http://web.archive.org/web/20051218082652/http://www.cocoongt.org/ 2005\], \[http://web.archive.org/web/20061128135645/http://www.cocoongt.org/ 2006\], \[http://web.archive.org/web/20071029162107/http://www.cocoongt.org/index.html 2007\]

• \[http://cwiki.apache.org/WICKET/wicket-amsterdam-2007-11-30.html Wicket Meetup 2007\], \[http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=110019 Wicket Meetup 2008\]