Recently I attended a Meetup. The gathering I attended had a guest
speaker named who is the Director of Technology mobile development company that builds and supports media sites for big
names like AOL, VICE, and High Times.
Visiting their was kind surreal
considering the last time I was there was before the revival had begun. Back
then the boardwalk was mostly empty except for those looking trouble of doing
some urban exploring. While exploring I remember seeing skeletons of unfinished
high rises, beautiful rusting art deco buildings and amazing beaches. Although
the town was in ruins back then you could see the amazing potential this
special place had.
So you could imagine how stoked I
was to see this town back on top again. When I first I arrived at the Lake
avenue address for the Meetup I was pleasantly surprised how nice the area is.
There is an old factory that is being renovated into a Kindergarten which is
really awesome. I walked into the Co Works building and I was immediately
greeted by a friendly face who showed me to the meeting.
On the floor where the Meetup
convenes there is also a music studio so I could here sounds of music being
played all around me. I peek in the room see what appears to be a meeting so I
open the door and see a familiar face from the Meetup page its the
group organizer and host I shake his hand and take a seat among the group of
techies.
The group is nicely diverse there
are developers, investors, start ups, enthusiasts, programmers, engineers, and
sales guys. The room where we meet is whats called a co working space which
means during the day it is a shared work space but during the meeting the desks
are slid to the side to make room for the group.
The idea of co working is something
that is really going to change the game for many people in tech especially start
ups that need to keep costs low. Another benefit is it can help spread ideas
faster among like minded people who could collaborate and build synergy
together. For me a coworker at my full time mentioned I should check out
meetup, I 've heard of it before but never took a closer look until now.
Once the meeting started host asked
all in attendance some questions. "Who needs a developer?" Who needsan investor?" Its at this point I realize I was let in on something really
special this is not just some group to shoot the breeze about tech. But instead
a working productive group who takes an interest in making its members
successful.
Once those requests are heard he
intros the speaker for the night Technology Director of mobile development company. Began talking about coding languages and how you can streamline
work by leveraging the power of the cloud. In this case Amazon's version of
cloud computing called AWS or Amazon Web Service. His discussion focuses on how
you can manage a large number of images stored in Amazon S3 using one hour of
coding, SQS and EC2. Once he was finished with his presentation he fielded
Q&As from the group. After he wrapped up host invited everyone from the
Meetup to join him at a local pub for a drink.
About half of the group walks
together around the block to the pub. As if the value I 've gained from the
meeting wasn't enough I was able to further network with members such as the
founders of a start up that aggregates video for musicians, a Drupal developer,
a software engineer who is a Yoga instructor and one the founders
of the Co Werks, and Bands on A Budget.
The doors of opportunity that were
opened for me at my first night of Jersey Shore Tech are priceless. I intend to
continue to be member and contributor to the group and possibly join other
groups in addition. Just want to thank all in attendance for the warm welcome I
felt right at home with people who have common interests.
If you want to develop your
knowledge or find your passion I highly recommend that you step out of your
comfort zone and join a group in your area.
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