The weekend is here again so that’s my cue to launch myself on the general public and try to make some new friends. After last weekend’s fail in the local pub’s I decided to give Meetup another go and tried another coffee and chat Meetup group who meet weekly at Starbucks. This one, I am happy to say was a success!

The group was great. They meet in an upstairs area of Starbucks every Saturday and pretty much have the place to themselves, which means you know everyone there is there to chat and meet new people. The organiser is an energetic Irishman who introduced himself to everybody and helped introduce new faces to other people in the room. Walking in was initially overwhelming, although an outgoing person I do find it difficult to introduce myself to new people when I don’t know anybody in the room. But I had a crack at it, and have to say I am getting better at it. As the afternoon progressed I felt a little more confident walking up to complete strangers and introducing myself.

By the time the event was over I had a small group of new acquaintances and we decided to head down to a nearby pub for a drink and some dinner going to other Meetup groups. In the end three of us decided to head to the Meetup group I had wanted to attend, Saturday Night Drinks and Dancing at Lillie’s Bordello… in hindsight the name really should have given it away, this wasn’t a meet new friends, have a drink and dance meetup group like I had assumed. The type of “friends” you made here was usually only for the night and the average age of last night’s patrons was probably 35 – 55 years.

After some very awkward encounters – imagine a man who reminded you of an Australian trucker telling you about the effects of cider on your bowel movements while ignoring all of your blatant rejections – and within 10 minutes of walking through the door we were about to leave when some of the other younger people we had meet at the Starbucks showed up with the same misunderstanding of what this group was about.

Lillie’s Bordello is a swank little night club and the drink prices weren’t too bad so we decided to grab a corner lounge and isolate ourselves a bit from everybody else. As the night went on, a few other younger people came in and joined us and we ended up having a great night chatting, learning about other Meetup groups of interest, laughing and some causal drinks. By the end of the night we were all exchanging numbers or sending Facebook friend requests and not entirely regretting our choice of meetup event.

Lesson learned: Meetup groups that have social events on during the day are more likely to be focused on meeting new people / making new friends. Meet up groups that are on after 8pm at night in a nightclub are more about “hooking up”. All in all it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening and I definitely think I will be heading back next week for the coffee and chat at Starbucks.

If you are interested in the Meetup groups I went to this week I have linked their pages so you can find out more about them:

Coffee, Chat and Cake @ Starbucks 

Saturday Drinks and Dancing at Lillie’s Bordello