Tech Events
Number of meetups in 2022 vs 2023*
67,3%
of the European tech communities organize up to 10 meetups each year.
There’s a slight increase in communities organizing 0 meetups (6.2% in 2023 vs. 3.6% in 2022), reflecting challenges in maintaining activity.
Fewer communities organized more than 15 meetups (13.6% in 2023 vs. 14.8% in 2022), suggesting a decline in large-scale efforts.
The data indicates a general reduction in meetup frequency, likely tied to resource limitations or declining engagement, emphasizing the need for renewed focus on community organization strategies.
The datas refer to the previous year we have run the survey.
Number of people attending meetups 2022 vs 2023
60,4%
of the European tech communities organize events with up to 50 attendees.
The 30 to 50 attendee range remains the most common, though it dropped from 32% in 2022 to 27.6% in 2023.
Attendance in the 10 to 30 range also declined slightly from 26.4% to 24.2%.
Smaller meetups (less than 10 attendees) nearly doubled from 4.4% to 8.6%, highlighting challenges in attracting participants.
Attendance for larger meetups (more than 300 attendees) remains stable at 6.4%.
The data suggests a shift toward smaller events, with fewer mid-sized gatherings and slight struggles to maintain higher attendance levels compared to 2022. This trend highlights the need for more engagement strategies to sustain or grow participation.
Presence drop in online and in-person events
The graph highlights the drop percentage during online and in-person events, revealing distinct patterns:
In-person events experience higher drop rates in the 10-50% range, with peaks at 30% (13%) and 50% (11%).
Online events, while showing smaller drop percentages overall, peak at 50% (9%) and maintain consistency across lower drop rates like 10% (8%) and 30% (8%).
Drop percentages above 60% are less common but slightly higher for online events in the 60-90% range.
In-person events face greater variability and higher drop-offs in mid-ranges (30-50%), likely due to logistical challenges. Online events maintain steadier drops, suggesting more predictable attendance but still vulnerable to disengagement at higher percentages.
Main topics during meetups
The graph highlights the most popular event topics in tech communities:
Programming Languages / Frameworks, showcasing the strong interest in foundational coding skills and tools.
AI / Machine Learning follows reflecting the growing relevance of artificial intelligence in the tech ecosystem.
Topics like Back-end and Front-end development are also significant, underlining the demand for expertise in core software development areas.
Other important themes include Cloud, Open Source Contributions, and DevOps, each ranging between 6-7%.
Lower-ranked topics, such as Ethics and Game Development (under 2%), indicate niche interest areas with smaller audiences.
The data shows that events focus heavily on development skills, emerging technologies (AI/ML), and collaborative tools (Cloud, Open Source), reflecting the priorities of tech professionals in upskilling and staying relevant in a fast-changing industry.
Types of events organized
The graph highlights the types of events organized by tech communities and their preferred formats (In-person, Online, and Hybrid):
In-person events dominate Meetups (44,9%), Workshops (39.6%), and Conferences (33,2%), reflecting the importance of face-to-face engagement for collaborative and learning-focused activities.
Online events are most prevalent for Webinars (25%), Panel Discussions (14,5%), and AMAs (13,3%), showcasing their accessibility for broader audiences.
Hybrid formats have a more balanced representation, particularly in conferences (10,4%) and Panel Discussions (10,1%), indicating efforts to combine the benefits of both online and in-person participation.
While in-person events remain the most popular for networking-heavy formats like Meetups and Workshops, online events excel at providing scalable, accessible formats like Webinars. Hybrid options continue to emerge as a versatile approach to engagement.