A few weeks ago, we shared how the Ionic community is tackling the COVID-19 crisis by building apps to help inform the public.

The efforts are incredibly inspiring - while COVID has upended normal life and forced us inside, that doesn’t mean that the community’s desire to connect with other members or learn new skills has stopped. Quite the opposite, in fact.

During the early days of Ionic, hosting meetups was a great way to connect with local community members, improve your web development skills, and keep up to date with the latest in Ionic tech. So, to help facilitate our community learning and growing together, we’re putting renewed effort into making Ionic Meetups easy and fun again.

Using a variety of free online tools and resources, hosting a virtual Ionic meetup has never been easier. Here are a few resources and guides that we’ve put together to help you get started, starting with a list of pre-built presentations (including one that’s brand new for Ionic React), along with Meetup Pro support for qualified groups.

New Ionic React Presentation, Powered by DeckDeckGo

Launched late last year, the reception to Ionic React has been wonderful. As part of our rebooted Ionic Meetup effort, we’ve created a brand new presentation on Ionic React. View the online version here and the code here. Take a look and let us know what you think in the comments.

Staying true to our love of web technologies, the presentation is actually a standalone progressive web app (PWA) built using Web Components and Ionic Framework components. Would you expect anything else? 🚀

To pull this off, we didn’t have to look very far - a couple of talented Ionic Community members had already built an awesome solution: DeckDeckGo, an open source presentation creator. Needless to say, we’re big fans of David and Nicolas’ work: from running the Ionic Zurich Meetup group to blogging often about web development (and Stencil!), and even guesting on the Ionic Podcast. A big thank you from the Ionic team for creating such an awesome tool! 💙

Additional Ionic Presentations

But wait, there’s more! We have additional presentations available as publicly viewable Google Slide decks:

• What is Ionic? covers how to build mobile apps using web technology.
• What is Capacitor? covers Ionic’s official native runtime used to package and deploy Ionic apps for various platforms including iOS, Android, Electron, and PWAs.
• What is Stencil? covers Ionic’s Web Component Compiler that makes it easy to create web components that run everywhere, without the need for a framework.

The best part about these presentations is that they’re easy to share informally with friends and co-workers. However, if you’re presenting to a group and you want something more official, we recommend virtual Meetups.

Easy Online Meetups, Powered by Meetup.com

For a more “official” approach, Ionic recommends Meetup.com. While in-person events are (understandably) on hold, you can still host an online Meetup.

We encourage anyone that is interested in Ionic and web development in general to start an Ionic Meetup.

Register a new Meetup group

When registering your new Ionic group, there are just a few details to note:

• Choose relevant topics: Be sure to choose Ionic Framework. Meetup automatically helps new groups find members by referring them to groups that match their chosen interests, so setting the right topics is key. Additional topics to set include: Hybrid Apps, Web Development, JavaScript, Angular, React, and Mobile Development.
• Group name: Keep it simple, such as “Ionic [City Name]”.
• Describe the group: Keep it light and friendly. A sample you can use:

Ionic [location] is centered around Ionic, a free, cross-platform, open source platform for building native, mobile, desktop, and progressive web apps. Come connect with web developers of all skill levels to share resources, learn, and discuss app development topics, including the latest new features of Ionic’s technology, web dev best practices, native enhancements, Progressive Web Apps, performance, and more.

Meetup also has a great guide on starting a new group.

Create your first event

Online hosting is a great, low friction way to get started. As an added bonus, Meetup now makes it easy to host an online event - simply click “Make this an online event” under Location then add the event link.

Creating a presentation is hard work - so don’t bother! Pick a topic that you’re most comfortable with then leverage the relevant Ionic presentation template above.

Start Promoting

Start by inviting your friends and coworkers to your first Meetup, then expand from there.

Additionally, send an email to meetup@ionicframework.com with the link to your new Meetup group. You can also share your link on social media - tag us on Twitter (@IonicFramework) and we’ll help spread the word about your new group!

Become an Official Ionic Meetup

The most active Ionic Meetups are eligible to earn Official status (see the official group list here.

Meetup charges Organizers a small monthly fee. However, when you become an official Ionic Meetup, we’ll not only pay Meetup’s costs, but you’ll also unlock periodic access to Ionic swag. Simply host 3 consistent Meetups then send us an email (meetup@ionicframework.com) for next steps.

For Official groups looking to relaunch their meetup, we’ve created new event templates, featuring each of the Ionic presentations mentioned above. Choose one after clicking “Schedule an Event.”

Host an Ionic Meetup Today

With the entire world hanging out online, it’s never been a better time to connect with the web development community. Consider starting an Ionic Meetup today, and let us know what you think of the presentations in the comments below. What others should we create? 🍻

Join us Tuesday, April 21st

To kick off the Ionic Online Meetup movement, I’ll be presenting on Ionic React in partnership with Ionic Zürich. Come learn about Ionic’s support for this popular web framework, then stay for a live Q&A session afterward.

Of course, it’s online - anyone can join us! RSVP here.