By, Rajdeep Gupta

Meetups are generally an assembly or gathering of like-minded professionals to discuss matters of interest and importance. In our case, and the city that I presently live in, we receive tremendous response to all the Bengaluru city learning sessions. I have been fortunate enough to be the city representative from 2008, baring a year or two.

For the past couple of years, I have been organizing the city learning sessions. Here are few observations about our learning sessions in Bengaluru:

• The Venue – Identify a venue in a centralized location that is accessible to everyone. Usually, it takes a lot of time to approach and get clearances from the various departments within a company.
• The Speakers – Constantly be on the lookout for good speakers. New speakers are always welcome. The learning sessions are a good opportunity for new speakers who have the talent but are yet to get one. The speaker may have a list of choices and interests. Do ensure it aligns with STC India Chapter’s theme. Try to come out with a theme for every learning session. I have learnt that you cannot satisfy everyone, but don’t let that stop you from making a difference to the community.
• Full-Day Events – Bengaluru city learning sessions are full-day events. I used to organize half-a-day events earlier, but due to time constraints and logistics, I took a decision that it makes sense to have full-day events once in every quarter. Speakers are given goodies and participants are given certificates as a token of appreciation.
• Keeping Track – We usually record the learning sessions. It is generally a good idea to maintain a doc repository of all the sessions.
• Sponsors – We conduct successful learning sessions due to the tremendous support received from corporates: Adobe, Novell, NetApp, Oracle, just to name a few. The city based learning sessions are a good way to attract potential job seekers. We offer slots to companies during the learning sessions to speak to participants about their open requirements.
• Promote – Always promote STC India! Try to see if you can have a few potential STC India members during the event. But do not force anyone with emails and phone calls. Now, why should I become an STC member? Personally, I, as a Senior STC Member, have benefited from STC membership immensely since the last 8 years. STC is where professionals connect to establish mentor/mentee relationships that foster personal and professional growth and development. Serving in the chapter can help you direct your future, expand your professional network, gain knowledge and perspective on the workplace, and deliver tremendous personal satisfaction.

The city learning sessions are excellent for knowledge sharing and networking. It is also a wonderful way to enrich the powerful medium of Technical Communication.

Rajdeep Gupta
STC Bengaluru City Representative and Membership Manager-2016

About the Author

Rajdeep Gupta is the Managing Director of Blue Dots Consultancy Services. He is a former STC India President and currently manages the STC Bengaluru city activities. You can write to him at holypriest@gmail.com.